The uses of life

"Good or bad? New or old? The rich connotations of the word 'biotechnology' reflect a history that surprisingly stretches back more than seventy years. To some, the concept describes the evolving crafts of industrial production using microorganisms. To others, biotechnology is a product of recombinant DNA techniques only recently developed by molecular biologists. It has been seen simply as a means of wealth production and as a new kind of technology - sometimes as distinctively benevolent and, at other times, as particularly dangerous." "Robert Bud shows how the hopes and fears for the combination of biology with engineering have been an integral part of the history of the twentieth century, including the Great Depression of the 1930s, the two world wars, and the more recent anxieties over genetics and entrepreneurial industry. The problems and opportunities of agricultural surpluses provide an enduring theme. Skillfully, the author relates biotechnology's origins in the chemistry and microbiology of the nineteenth century. Personalities with influential roles in its subsequent development - the future first president of Israel, Chaim Weizmann; a pioneer of industrialized agricult