Masterminds: Genius, DNA, and the Quest to Rewrite Life

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Masterminds: Genius, DNA, and the Quest to Rewrite Life

3.38 of 5 stars 3.38 · rating details · 16 ratings · 2 reviews

James Watson, J. Craig Venter, Francis Collins, Cynthia Kenyon . . . you may not know them, but you should. They are the masterminds of genetics and biotechnology who want you to live to be 150 years old, to regenerate your heart and brain, to create synthetic life. For better or worse, they are about to alter life on earth forever.

Award-winning journalist David Ewing Dunc...more

Paperback, 288 pages

Published May 2nd 2006 by Harper Perennial (first published January 1st 2005)

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Dec 21, 2008 David rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2008, disappointing

Physicists may have been the scientific superstars of the 20th century, but it's the biologists that dominate as we enter the new millennium. Advances in molecular biology and genetics, including the sequencing of the human genome, allow scientists to understand human disease and aging at a level of detail that would have been unimaginable just a generation ago. This has led to significant medical breakthroughs, but has also raised a variety of questions to be grappled with, both at the individu...more

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Oct 19, 2008 Will Byrnes rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Duncan believes that the spate of technological activity our age is experiencing can be traced to a few master minds, individuals who possess a combination of intellectual greatness and personal energy, and drive their notions into our consciousness, polity and economy. He looks in detail at a sample of these, relating them to fabled characters from mythology and literature.

Prometheus is Douglas Melton – a leader in research using embryonic stem cells
Eve is Cynthia Kenyon who is working on lengt...more Duncan believes that the spate of technological activity our age is experiencing can be traced to a few master minds, individuals who possess a combination of intellectual greatness and personal energy, and drive their notions into our consciousness, polity and economy. He looks in detail at a sample of these, relating them to fabled characters from mythology and literature.

Prometheus is Douglas Melton – a leader in research using embryonic stem cells
Eve is Cynthia Kenyon who is working on lengthening life spans. What worked for worms may have implications for humans.

Francis Collins, co-solver of the human genome is head of genomics at NIH, a conservative personality who came to religion late. He is “Paul”

Faustus is Craig Venter. He had gone private in funding his genome work, and is regarded as the “bad boy of science.” He is arrogant, very sure of himself and he thinks big thoughts. There is some concern that he would like to monopolize the financial benefits of the things he explores. He is not at all risk averse, even when the risk might endanger more than himself. He wants to develop synthetic microbes., One project he is involved in is an attempt to map the DNA of the planet.

Zeus is James Watson, the charmless biologist who figured out the structure of DNA in his work with Crick and others. He comes across as arrogant and unpleasant.

Moses – Paul Berg is a guy who actually stopped an experiment in consideration of safety in the face of the unknown. He helped get the heavy hitters together to formulate rules for experimentation in recombinant DNA.

P 192
Quoting Brenner – “I’m a strong believer that ignorance is important in science. If you know too much, you start seeing reasons why things won’t work. That’s why it is important to change your field to collect more ignorance.”

P 236
Recalling something Doug Melton told him – Normality is relative to the time one lives in. A century ago…surgeons were loath to operate on human hearts because the heart was then considered the repository of the soul.
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About David Ewing Duncan

David Ewing Duncan is the author of seven books including the worldwide bestseller Calendar. He is Chief Correspondent of public radio's Biotech Nation, a commentator on NPR's Morning Edition, and a contributing editor and a columnist for Conde Nast Portfolio. He has been a contributing editor to Wired, Discover and Technology Review, and has written for Harper s, The Atlantic, Fortune, and many o...more

More about David Ewing Duncan...

Books by David Ewing Duncan

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The Geneticist Who Played Hoops with My DNA: . . . And Other Masterminds from the Frontiers of Biotech

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