Book Watch

The Book Doctor

The Future Is Now

DNA fingerprinting. The origin of life and of our own species. Genetic testing and gene therapy. Transgenic tomatoes and designer babies. From the courtroom to the medical research center, from farming to pharming - today's headlines proclaim that the biotechnology revolution impacts on us all. Certainly, everyone who wants to make informed decisions must attempt to understand the essentials of DNA science and genetics. If, like me, you are enthralled by the complexity of modern science but usually feel as if you're an outsider peering through a translucent window, then Thomas Lee's Gene Future: The Promise and Perils of the New Biology (J8-45-2457B) will be a welcome addition to your reading. Warning: Once you begin reading Gene Future, or Lee's earlier success, The Human Genome Project, you're likely to get hooked. If you're a science researcher, teacher, or student, then okay, you're improving your professional status. But if you're just an interested dilettante like me, who's fascinated by the way our 100,000 or so genes control our lives, then watch out! What is Gene Future about? A few of the author's headings provide a flavor: Genes, Genealogy, and Ancient DNA; The Garden of Eden; Animal Enhancement Engineering; and Food - or "Frankenfood"? But don't let the puns and allusions mislead you. This is serious science without being scholarly, educational without being pedantic. While Gene Future does not deliver the technical detail of superior textbooks like James Watson's Recombinant DNA, or Paul Berg and Maxine Singer's Dealing with Genes: The Language of Heredity, Professor Lee does provide an overview of the structure and coding of DNA, how the polymerase chain reaction works, the mechanisms of gene therapy, and many other related processes.

In fact, most of Lee's book concentrates on the practical applications of genetic engineering. As the pace of the Human Genome Project escalates, scientists are finding more reasons to believe they will be able to successfully manipulate fundamental life processes at the molecular level. Instead of treating the symptoms of disease, doctors will modify our genes to remove the cause. This will eventually mean the control and elimination of genetic disorders like cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy. Gene therapy will also be used to prevent many kinds of cancer and heart disease, as well as to direct the body's own immune system to fight off threats of all kinds. But the new biology brings perils as well as pearls. As Lee concludes in Gene Future: "We will have the opportunity to diagnose, treat, and prevent diseases that have brought suffering into the lives of so many. In so doing we will collect the most intimate data about our personal genetic endowments. This information may be used to safeguard our health and that of future generations. This record of our genes also could be misused unless we can ensure that access to it is limited to legitimate purposes. . . . We can only hope that our human intelligence and creativity. . . will be supported by the wisdom to make the choices that will work for the common good of all life."