Genetics and the Manipulation of Life: The Forgotten Factor of Context (Renewal in Science)

A provocative work that challenges our common assumptions about nature and science, this book is for all who want to understand the biological revolution of the late 20th century. Clearly written, well-illustrated, and without unnecessary technical jargon, Holdrege describes through fascinating examples how living organisms develop and exist within the context of their environment, and asserts that genes alone cannot determine organisms because their effects are always qualified by the contexts within which the organisms live. With a unique and probing perspective on contemporary science, Holdrege shows how scientific theory and practice inevitably fuse to produce the systems that will ultimately create our future, and he questions our understanding of the organisms we manipulate through genetic engineering and the consequences of such manipulation. In an age when we are able to reshape life on earth, this book offers a deeper, more complex vision of nature, and gives us the means for establishing a more conscious and responsible connection to the world around us.

From the Renewal in Science series.

Craig Holdrege was born in Boise, Idaho, and grew up in Boulder, Colorado. He majored in philosophy at Beloit college, where his interest in biology also began. He then went on to study biology and do research at the scientific research laboratory at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland. He began his career as a high school life science teacher at the Waldorf school in Wuppertal, Germany, where he taught for twelve years. For the past several years he has been teaching life sciences at the Hawthorn Valley School in Ghent, New York.