Like a Virgin: How Science Is Redesigning the Rules of Sex

Prasad, Aarathi

ISBN 10: 1851689117 / ISBN 13: 9781851689118

Published by Oneworld Publications, 2012

About this Item

Seller Inventory # U9781851689118

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Like a Virgin: How Science Is Redesigning the Rules of Sex
• Publisher: Oneworld Publications
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1851689117
• ISBN 13: 9781851689118
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1786728235.
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: 18635880
• Signed: 8/14/2026 5:23:55 PM
• Seller catalogs:
  • 1
  • 9781851689118
  • U

About this title

Synopsis

Most cultures tell the tale of a maiden who gives birth untouched by a man. Is this just a myth, or could virgin birth become the way we make babies in the future? In Like a Virgin, biologist Aarathi Prasad explores inconceivable ideas about conception, from the “Jesus Christ” lizard’s ability to self-reproduce (it walks on water, too) to the hunt for a real-life virgin mother among geneticists in the 1950s. Prasad then transports us to the maverick laboratories that today are inventing the equivalent of “non-sexual selection”, from egg-fertilizing computer chips to artificial wombs for men. This adventurous romp to the frontiers of reproductive science will forever change the way you think about sex and parenthood. Aarathi Prasad is a biologist and science writer. She has appeared on television and radio, including as host of the BBC documentary “The Quest for a Virgin Birth,” and written for publications such as Wired, New Scientist, and The Guardian. A single mother, she previously worked in research genetics at Imperial College, London. This is her first book.

From the Back Cover

Aarathi Prasad is a biologist and science writer. She has appeared on TV and radio programmes, including as presenter of Channel 4s controversial Is It Better to Be Mixed Race? and Brave New World with Stephen Hawking, as well as BBC Radio 4s The Quest for Virgin Birth, and written for Wired, the Guardian, and many other publications. Previously a cancer genetics researcher at Imperial College London, she subsequently moved into the worlds of science communication and policy, in areas including passage of the human-animal chimaera stem-cell bill in the UK Parliament.

A single mother, Dr. Prasad lives in London.