The Secret of Life: Redesigning the Living World

The companion volume to an eight-part public television series explains the importance of DNA, its role in evolution, human biology, cancer and AIDS, and explores the problems and possibilities of genetic manipulation. TV tie-in. 30,000 first printing.

The impact of advances in molecular biology on our daily lives is the theme of this stunningly illustrated companion to a PBS series. Biologist Levine and geneticist Suzuki (the series' host) scan the frustrating search for vaccines to combat AIDS and take readers inside the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta where researchers are devising strategies to "teach" the immune system to ward off viruses. The authors also scrutinize attempts to isolate genes implicated in cancer and examine medical and commercial applications spawned by biotechnology, with its attendant ethical dilemmas and potential environmental hazards. Looking to the future, they detail the potential of gene therapy as a tool to correct genetic defects, to "enhance" normal characteristics or to cure hereditary diseases. This volume, which stands on its own as a scholarly survey, concludes with an impartial review of the controversy over whether specific genes can make people smart, shy, criminal, alcoholic, manic-depressive or homosexual.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In a companion volume to an upcoming PBS television series produced by WGBH in Boston, this book approaches the so-called "molecular revolution" as a phenomenon to be reckoned with. Unscientific-minded readers should find the eight-chapter format (paralleling the eight-part documentary's itinerary) to be informative and illuminating with regard to molecular biology as a basic concept. This highly readable text often adopts engaging analogies to convert scientific lingo to more understandable ideas, and the transformative possibilities of today's research--into genetic engineering, viral infections, cancer, and other deadly diseases--become an exciting reality because of the accessible writing. Alice Joyce