Review by Choice Review
Synthetic biology integrates biological and engineering principles to construct new biological devices/systems used in commercial, energy, and medical applications. The discipline is rooted in the science of synthetic chemistry, which started with Friedrich Wohler's discovery of synthetic urea in 1828. Geneticist Church (Harvard Medical School) and science writer Regis (e.g., What Is Life?, CH, Sep'08, 46-0270) take a novel evolutionary approach to explaining the science of synthetic biology. They correlate natural events in the organic evolution of molecules and organisms to innovations in the field. This highly readable book begins with a prologue that encapsulates philosophical aspects. Chapter 1 cleverly describes the Hadean eon and then explains how certain aspects of modern synthetic biology model the chemical and physical events that produced the first organic molecules. The remaining eight chapters investigate other geological eras and the synthetic biology creations relating to happenings in the respective era. Biofuels, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and stem cell research are some of the innovations discussed. The book ends with unbiased comments about the societal aspects and implications of synthetic biology. References are provided for each chapter at the end of the book. Summing Up: Recommended. Academic and general readers, all levels. B. R. Shmaefsky Lone Star College - Kingwood
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Exhilarating and scary facts suffuse this book about bioengineering by leading Harvard genetics professor and entrepreneur Church. The book, written with veteran science writer Regis (What Is Life?), may start slowly for general readers, with its talk on chirality (futuresque virus-resistant mirror-image cells that make new proteins). But when Church describes current work building microbes with minimal genes, the book takes off-and eventually soars. Microbes are natural factories. With genetic tweaking, they pump out drugs, biofuels, and green chemicals more efficiently than bricks-and-mortar factories. Church's award-winning firm LS9 makes fuel by inserting genes from four other organisms into E. coli ("the world's fastest machines") that double every 20 minutes. Other researchers have rapidly "evolved" microbes that make electricity-while cleaning waste. Geneticists can boost drug production a billion-fold, and more than 2,000 genes can predict illness. Genetically tweaked "bugs"" can be more dangerous than bombs. And since technology bans don't work, regulation is key, But "redesigning nature" should not frighten us: it is "an inherent part of life," Church argues in this stimulating book. Illus. Agent: John Brockman, Brockman Inc. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A heady overview of the emerging discipline of synthetic biology and the wonders it can produce, from new drugs and vaccines to biofuels and resurrected wooly mammoths. In this authoritative, sometimes awe-inspiring book, geneticist Church (Genetics/Harvard Medical School) and veteran science writer Regis (What Is Life?: Investigating the Nature of Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology, 2008, etc.) team up to explore how scientists are now altering the nature of living organisms by modifying their genomes, or genetic makeup. Organisms whose genes have been selectively altered can be made to do things they wouldn't do in their original state. Already, this has resulted in making plastic out of corn and carpet fibers from naturally occurring sugars. But carried out on a larger scale, such altering of genetic programming can be made to produce "practically any imaginable artifact." Genomic technologies can improve human and animal health, extend our life span, increase our intelligence, enhance our memory and allow us to raise the dead. Recounting the evolution of life forms from the Hadean geologic era (3.8 billion years ago) through the present, the authors describe the raw material with which geneticists are working to create new organisms. While sometimes technical, their descriptions of the science are sufficiently lucid for general readers. In the future, they write, we will have novel methods of treating and preventing diseases. We will also be able to bring back extinct species and their habitats to increase genetic diversity and may even explore cloning as a possible route to immortality. Much of the book might be dismissed as science fiction were it not for the fact that Church helped develop direct genomic sequencing and heads the Personal Genome Project, which is sequencing the genomes of many volunteers. With biotech hobbyists now at work in garages, the authors urge the establishment of safety measures to keep people safe and engineered organisms under control. A valuable glimpse of science at the edge.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
