@article{1478215,
      recid = {1478215},
      author = {Beckwith, Jonathan R., },
      title = {Making Genes, Making Waves : A Social Activist in Science  /},
      pages = {1 online resource (252 p.)},
      abstract = {In 1969, Jon Beckwith and his colleagues succeeded in  isolating a gene from the chromosome of a living organism.  Announcing this startling achievement at a press  conference, Beckwith took the opportunity to issue a public  warning about the dangers of genetic engineering. Jon  Beckwith's book, the story of a scientific life on the  front line, traces one remarkable man's dual commitment to  scientific research and social responsibility over the  course of a career spanning most of the postwar history of  genetics and molecular biology. A thoroughly engrossing  memoir that recounts Beckwith's halting steps toward  scientific triumphs--among them, the discovery of the  genetic element that turns genes on--as well as his  emergence as a world-class political activist, Making  Genes, Making Waves is also a compelling history of the  major controversies in genetics over the last thirty years.  Presenting the science in easily understandable terms,  Beckwith describes the dramatic changes that transformed  biology between the late 1950s and our day, the growth of  the radical science movement in the 1970s, and the  personalities involved throughout. He brings to light the  differing styles of scientists as well as the different  ways in which science is presented within the scientific  community and to the public at large. Ranging from the  travails of Robert Oppenheimer and the atomic bomb to the  Human Genome Project and recent "Science Wars," Beckwith's  book provides a sweeping view of science and its social  context in the latter half of the twentieth century.Table  of Contents: 1. The Quail Farmer and the Scientist 2.  Becoming a Scientist 3. Becoming an Activist 4. On Which  Side Are the Angels? 5. The Tarantella of the Living 6.  Does Science Take a Back Seat to Politics? 7. Their Own  Atomic History 8. The Myth of the Criminal Chromosome 9.  It's the Devil in Your DNA 10. I'm Not Very Scary Anymore  11. Story-Telling in Science 12. Geneticists and the Two  Cultures 13. The Scientist and the Quail Farmer  Bibliography Acknowledgments Index Reviews of this book: In  1969, a Harvard Medical School group headed by Jon Beckwith  accomplished a first in molecular biology--the isolation of  a gene.When their paper appeared in Nature, they held an  extraordinary press conference in which they described  their work and warned of the danger that it might lead  to.The press conference received international media  coverage, and Beckwith found himself embarked on a double  career--a continuing one in research and a new one of  social activism in science. His Making Genes, Making Waves  is an absorbing account of how these two strands in his  life were woven into a durable braid. The prose is  straightforward, and Beckwith is refreshingly frank,  revealing the divagations and doubts that marked his course  in research.--Daniel J. Kevles, American ScientistReviews  of this book: In this beautifully written autobiography,  Beckwith.vividly describes aspects of the 'cultural  revolution in science that molecular biology brought with  it,' epitomized by.major public controversies about  genetics in the United States from the 1960s.Beckwith has  portrayed a fascinating period in the history of modern  biology and of the interaction of science and society in  the Western world. Thanks to him and other activists,  social injustices resulting from the application of  genetics are now widely discussed and, in democracies, meet  with legal measures and regulation. In this book Beckwith,  a committed scientist.calls for greater humility about what  science can and cannot accomplish. This is a call that  scientists would do well to take seriously.--Ute Deichmann,  NatureReviews of this book: Jon Beckwith in Making Genes,  Making Waves reminds us that he first warned about the  social impact of genetic engineering bac},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/1478215},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674020672},
}