Reinventing Biology. Respect for Life and the Creation of Knowledge

"Much more than a book about animal welfare, it explores how the scientific questions and answers would be different if biology operated from a paradigm of respect for the objects of study. Thirteen contributions are arranged in four distinct sections; individual topics vary extensively but each is first-rate." ―Choice

"Ruth Hubbard and Lynda Birke have asked an important question: how would the practices of biology change if organisms were considered subjects with agency? They have gathered an array of excellent scholars and a broad spectrum of perspectives.... this is a fresh and important question." ―Londa Schiebinger

Essays explore how the practice of biology could change if scientists treated the organisms they use in their experiments respectfully: what it means to raise animals or plants as experimental resources; what guides decisions about which animals to breed for experimental purposes.

LYNDA BIRKE a biologist at the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender at the University of Warwick, is the author of Women, Feminism and Biology: The Feminist Challenge and Feminism, Animals and Science: The Naming of the Shrew. RUTH HUBBARD is Professor Emerita of Biology at Harvard University. Her most recent books are The Politics of Women’s Biology, Exploding the Gene Myth (co-authored with Elijah Wald) and Profitable Promises: Essays on Women, Science and Health.