Making PCR: A Story of Biotechnology - Hardcover

Rabinow, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226701468 ISBN 13: 9780226701462

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1996

Synopsis

Making PCR is the fascinating, behind-the-scenes account of the invention of one of the most significant biotech discoveries in our time—the polymerase chain reaction. Transforming the practice and potential of molecular biology, PCR extends scientists' ability to identify and manipulate genetic materials and accurately reproduces millions of copies of a given segment in a short period of time. It makes abundant what was once scarce—the genetic material required for experimentation.

Making PCR explores the culture of biotechnology as it emerged at Certus Corporation during the 1980s and focuses on its distinctive configuration of scientific, technical, social, economic, political, and legal elements, each of which had its own separate trajectory over the preceding decade. The book contains interviews with the remarkable cast of characters who made PCR, including Kary Mullin, the maverick who received the Nobel prize for "discovering" it, as well as the team of young scientists and the company's business leaders.

This book shows how a contingently assembled practice emerged, composed of distinctive subjects, the site where they worked, and the object they invented.

"Paul Rabinow paints a . . . picture of the process of discovery in Making PCR: A Story of Biotechnology [and] teases out every possible detail. . . . Makes for an intriguing read that raises many questions about our understanding of the twisting process of discovery itself."—David Bradley, New Scientist

"Rabinow's book belongs to a burgeoning genre: ethnographic studies of what scientists actually do in the lab. . . . A bold move."—Daniel Zalewski, Lingua Franca

"[Making PCR is] exotic territory, biomedical research, explored. . . . Rabinow describes a dance: the immigration and repatriation of scientists to and from the academic and business worlds."—Nancy Maull, New York Times Book Review

About this title

About the Author

Paul Rabinow (1944-2021) was a professor of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley.  

Reviews

Rabinow, a writer and anthropologist at UC-Berkeley, has written an "ethnographic account" of the Cetus Corporation during the invention of PCR, the polymerase chain reaction, a method for increasing the DNA in samples to usable levels and one of the most important techniques in biotechnology. This "ethnography," however, is both opinionated and, at times, obtuse. After his descriptive and analytical introduction, Rabinow collects a series of interviews with staff (current and former) of Cetus and intersperses them with further exposition, observations and analysis. The book's best feature is the interviews, which allow the principals to tell their story-an intriguing story of how, at first fortuitously, then seemingly through sheer perseverance, an extremely powerful tool was invented. And this despite aggression, egotism, eccentricity, a lack of competent leadership and some bizarrely flawed personalities, such as Kary Mullis, who received a Nobel prize in 1993 for inventing PCR and who, in this account, outdoes Donald Trump in arrogance and immaturity. Rabinow's prose ranges from clear, fairly technical descriptions to self-conscious pedantry. His disclaimer that his account and his "diagnosis" are dependent on a particular perspective appears to be his justification for specious reasoning (he links Ronald Reagan's presidency with the penetration of "capital into nature," even though the landmark Supreme Court decision allowing patent protections for genetic engineering was decided five months before Reagan's election). Unfortunately, Rabinow's long-winded introduction and conclusion detract from the story rather than further our understanding of it.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226701468
• ISBN 13: 9780226701462
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 198