Controversies In Science And Technology: From Maize To Menopause

Written for general readers, teachers, journalists, and policymakers, this volume explores four controversial topics in science and technology, with commentaries from experts in such fields as sociology, religion, law, ethics, and politics:

* Antibiotics and Resistance: the science, the policy debates, and perspectives from a microbiologist, a veterinarian, and an M.D.

* Genetically Modified Maize and Gene Flow: the science of genetic modification, protecting genetic diversity, agricultural biotech vesus the environment, corporate patents versus farmers' rights

* Hormone Replacement Theory and Menopause: overview of the Women's Health Initiative, history of hormone replacement therapy, the medicalization of menopause, hormone replacement therapy and clinical trials

* Smallpox: historical and medical overview of smallpox, government policies for public health, the Emergency Health Powers Act, public resistance vs. cooperation.

Daniel Lee Kleinman is associate professor of rural sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and author of Impure Cultures: University Biology and the World of Commerce.

Abby J. Kinchy is research assistant in rural sociology at UW–Madison.

Jo Handelsman is the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology and codirector of the Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Along with Christine Pfund, Sarah Miller Lauffer, and Christine Pribbenow, he is a founder of the Wisconsin Program for Scientific Teaching, an initiative that is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professors Program and designed to bring the spirit of research to science education. Together, they have developed, taught, and evaluated programs to teach graduate students, post-docs, and faculty to be outstanding, innovative teachers and mentors.