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Masterminds: Genius, DNA, and the Quest to Rewrite Life – The Scientists Creating Synthetic Biology, Regeneration, and Ethical Questions
James Watson, J. Craig Venter, Francis Collins, Cynthia Kenyon . . . you may not know them, but you should. They are the masterminds of genetics and biotechnology who want you to live to be 150 years old, to regenerate your heart and brain, to create synthetic life. For better or worse, they are about to alter life on earth forever. Award-winning journalist David Ewing Duncan tells the remarkable stories of cutting-edge bioscientists, revealing their quirky, uniquely fascinating, sometimes vaguely unsettling personas as a means to understand their science and the astonishing implications of their work. This book seamlessly combines myth, biography, scholarship, and wit that poses the all-important Can we actually trust these masterminds?
- GenresScienceNonfiction
273 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
5 people are currently reading
35 people want to read
About the author
David Ewing Duncan
28 books15 followersDavid Ewing Duncan is the author of seven books including the worldwide bestseller Calendar. He is Chief Correspondent of public radio's Biotech Nation, a commentator on NPR's Morning Edition, and a contributing editor and a columnist for Conde Nast Portfolio. He has been a contributing editor to Wired, Discover and Technology Review, and has written for Harper s, The Atlantic, Fortune, and many other publications. He is a former special correspondent and producer for ABC Nightline and a correspondent for NOVA s ScienceNOW! He has won numerous awards including the Magazine Story of the Year from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He lives in San Francisco and is the Director of the Center of Life Science Policy at UC Berkeley. "
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 21, 2008
Physicists may have been the scientific superstars of the 20th century, but it's the biologists that dominate as we enter the new millennium. Advances in molecular biology and genetics, including the sequencing of the human genome, allow scientists to understand human disease and aging at a level of detail that would have been unimaginable just a generation ago. This has led to significant medical breakthroughs, but has also raised a variety of questions to be grappled with, both at the individual and societal level.
A short list might include:
*genetic testing for diseases for which no effective therapy may exist
*embryonic selection based on genetic profiling
*confidentiality of patient records and insurability issues
*individualization of therapy according to a patient's genetic profile
*ethical issues arising from advances in infertility and embryonic stem cell research
*the potential to prolong human life beyond 'natural' limits
*greater ability to perform successful organ transplantation
*genetic engineering and the creation of hybrid species, up to and including the possibility of human cloning.
“Masterminds” is journalist David Ewing Duncan’s flawed effort to illuminate the frontiers of modern biology – specifically, current efforts in genetics, molecular biology, and the latest advances in biomedical research which result. He does this by profiling seven of the most prominent scientists in the field: James Watson, Craig Venter, Francis Collins, Sydney Brenner, Cynthia Kenyon, Douglas Melton, and Paul Berg. Given that Duncan appears to have had unlimited access to, and full cooperation from, his subjects, this approach is not without promise.
The extent to which that promise is fulfilled depends, of course, on how well Duncan used the opportunity that his access to these brilliant scientists afforded him. Sadly, the answer appears to be – not particularly well. He does have a reporter’s natural curiosity and a decent ability to explain relevant scientific concepts in layman’s terms, traits which serve him well in his efforts. He does not, however, have a particularly subtle mind, which prevents him from following through beyond the initial, fairly obvious questions, and reaching a more nuanced characterization of the limits of current understanding and of future challenges. Nor does he do a particularly good job of navigating his interviews with the strong, often outsized, personalities profiled in the book. Ultimately, most of these profiles are an unilluminating rehash of the media cliches through which scientists like Watson, Venter, Collins, and Brenner are usually portrayed.
This failure is directly attributable to a disastrous choice that Duncan makes at the outset. Unwilling to let his subjects speak for themselves, he insists on superimposing a stale, reductive gimmick – that of assigning to each scientist the persona of a mythological or literary archetype. Thus, the following correspondences are forced on his unfortunate subjects:
James Watson is Zeus
Cynthia Kenyon is Eve
Craig Venter is Faust
Sydney Brenner is Puck
Douglas Melton is Prometheus
Francis Collins is Saint Paul
Paul Berg is Moses
This works about as well as you might imagine. It is lazy, reductive, and virtually guarantees that nothing that any of his subjects might say is allowed to interfere with the box into which Duncan, a modern Procrustes, has forced each of them.
One can understand the reporter being seduced by his own gimmick. But what was his editor thinking?
A superficial, gimmicky disappointment of a book.
A short list might include:
*genetic testing for diseases for which no effective therapy may exist
*embryonic selection based on genetic profiling
*confidentiality of patient records and insurability issues
*individualization of therapy according to a patient's genetic profile
*ethical issues arising from advances in infertility and embryonic stem cell research
*the potential to prolong human life beyond 'natural' limits
*greater ability to perform successful organ transplantation
*genetic engineering and the creation of hybrid species, up to and including the possibility of human cloning.
“Masterminds” is journalist David Ewing Duncan’s flawed effort to illuminate the frontiers of modern biology – specifically, current efforts in genetics, molecular biology, and the latest advances in biomedical research which result. He does this by profiling seven of the most prominent scientists in the field: James Watson, Craig Venter, Francis Collins, Sydney Brenner, Cynthia Kenyon, Douglas Melton, and Paul Berg. Given that Duncan appears to have had unlimited access to, and full cooperation from, his subjects, this approach is not without promise.
The extent to which that promise is fulfilled depends, of course, on how well Duncan used the opportunity that his access to these brilliant scientists afforded him. Sadly, the answer appears to be – not particularly well. He does have a reporter’s natural curiosity and a decent ability to explain relevant scientific concepts in layman’s terms, traits which serve him well in his efforts. He does not, however, have a particularly subtle mind, which prevents him from following through beyond the initial, fairly obvious questions, and reaching a more nuanced characterization of the limits of current understanding and of future challenges. Nor does he do a particularly good job of navigating his interviews with the strong, often outsized, personalities profiled in the book. Ultimately, most of these profiles are an unilluminating rehash of the media cliches through which scientists like Watson, Venter, Collins, and Brenner are usually portrayed.
This failure is directly attributable to a disastrous choice that Duncan makes at the outset. Unwilling to let his subjects speak for themselves, he insists on superimposing a stale, reductive gimmick – that of assigning to each scientist the persona of a mythological or literary archetype. Thus, the following correspondences are forced on his unfortunate subjects:
James Watson is Zeus
Cynthia Kenyon is Eve
Craig Venter is Faust
Sydney Brenner is Puck
Douglas Melton is Prometheus
Francis Collins is Saint Paul
Paul Berg is Moses
This works about as well as you might imagine. It is lazy, reductive, and virtually guarantees that nothing that any of his subjects might say is allowed to interfere with the box into which Duncan, a modern Procrustes, has forced each of them.
One can understand the reporter being seduced by his own gimmick. But what was his editor thinking?
A superficial, gimmicky disappointment of a book.
October 19, 2008
Duncan believes that the spate of technological activity our age is experiencing can be traced to a few master minds, individuals who possess a combination of intellectual greatness and personal energy, and drive their notions into our consciousness, polity and economy. He looks in detail at a sample of these, relating them to fabled characters from mythology and literature.
Prometheus is Douglas Melton – a leader in research using embryonic stem cells
Eve is Cynthia Kenyon who is working on lengthening life spans. What worked for worms may have implications for humans.
Francis Collins, co-solver of the human genome is head of genomics at NIH, a conservative personality who came to religion late. He is “Paul”
Faustus is Craig Venter. He had gone private in funding his genome work, and is regarded as the “bad boy of science.” He is arrogant, very sure of himself and he thinks big thoughts. There is some concern that he would like to monopolize the financial benefits of the things he explores. He is not at all risk averse, even when the risk might endanger more than himself. He wants to develop synthetic microbes., One project he is involved in is an attempt to map the DNA of the planet.
Zeus is James Watson, the charmless biologist who figured out the structure of DNA in his work with Crick and others. He comes across as arrogant and unpleasant.
Moses – Paul Berg is a guy who actually stopped an experiment in consideration of safety in the face of the unknown. He helped get the heavy hitters together to formulate rules for experimentation in recombinant DNA.
P 192
Quoting Brenner – “I’m a strong believer that ignorance is important in science. If you know too much, you start seeing reasons why things won’t work. That’s why it is important to change your field to collect more ignorance.”
P 236
Recalling something Doug Melton told him – Normality is relative to the time one lives in. A century ago…surgeons were loath to operate on human hearts because the heart was then considered the repository of the soul.
Prometheus is Douglas Melton – a leader in research using embryonic stem cells
Eve is Cynthia Kenyon who is working on lengthening life spans. What worked for worms may have implications for humans.
Francis Collins, co-solver of the human genome is head of genomics at NIH, a conservative personality who came to religion late. He is “Paul”
Faustus is Craig Venter. He had gone private in funding his genome work, and is regarded as the “bad boy of science.” He is arrogant, very sure of himself and he thinks big thoughts. There is some concern that he would like to monopolize the financial benefits of the things he explores. He is not at all risk averse, even when the risk might endanger more than himself. He wants to develop synthetic microbes., One project he is involved in is an attempt to map the DNA of the planet.
Zeus is James Watson, the charmless biologist who figured out the structure of DNA in his work with Crick and others. He comes across as arrogant and unpleasant.
Moses – Paul Berg is a guy who actually stopped an experiment in consideration of safety in the face of the unknown. He helped get the heavy hitters together to formulate rules for experimentation in recombinant DNA.
P 192
Quoting Brenner – “I’m a strong believer that ignorance is important in science. If you know too much, you start seeing reasons why things won’t work. That’s why it is important to change your field to collect more ignorance.”
P 236
Recalling something Doug Melton told him – Normality is relative to the time one lives in. A century ago…surgeons were loath to operate on human hearts because the heart was then considered the repository of the soul.
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