
Evolution Made to Order
Plant Breeding and Technological Innovation in Twentieth-Century America
Helen Anne Curry(Author)
University of Chicago Press
Published on 11. November 2016
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-0-226-39008-6 (ISBN)
Description
In the mid-twentieth century, American plant breeders, frustrated by their dependence on natural variation in creating new crops and flowers, eagerly sought technologies that could extend human control over nature. Their search led them to celebrate a series of strange tools: an x-ray beam directed at dormant seeds; a drop of chromosome-altering colchicine on a flower bud; a piece of radioactive cobalt in a field of growing crops. According to scientific and popular reports of the time, these mutation-inducing methods would generate variation on demand, in turn allowing breeders to genetically engineer crops and flowers to order. Creating a new crop or flower would soon be as straightforward as innovating any other modern industrial product. In Evolution Made to Order, Helen Anne Curry traces the history of America's pursuit of tools that could speed up evolution. Focusing on three key technologies x-rays, colchicine, and radioisotopes it is an immersive journey through the scientific and social worlds of mid-century genetics and plant breeding and a compelling exploration of American cultures of innovation.
As Curry reveals, the creation of genetic technologies was deeply entangled with other areas of technological innovation from electromechanical to chemical to nuclear. Providing vital historical context for current worldwide ethical and policy debates over genetic engineering, Evolution Made to Order is an important study of biological research and innovation in America that will interest modern biotechnologists, biologists, and breeders, as well as historians of science and technology.
As Curry reveals, the creation of genetic technologies was deeply entangled with other areas of technological innovation from electromechanical to chemical to nuclear. Providing vital historical context for current worldwide ethical and policy debates over genetic engineering, Evolution Made to Order is an important study of biological research and innovation in America that will interest modern biotechnologists, biologists, and breeders, as well as historians of science and technology.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Chicago
United States
Publishing group
The University of Chicago Press
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 23 mm
Width: 16 mm
Thickness: 2 mm
Weight
567 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-226-39008-6 (9780226390086)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Helen Anne
Evolution Made to Order
Plant Breeding and Technological Innovation in Twentieth-Century America
E-Book
05/2024
1st Edition
University of Chicago Press
from
€45.36
Available for download
Person
Helen Anne Curry is lecturer of history and philosophy of science at the University of Cambridge.