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In a book that promises to change the way
we think and talk about genes and genetic determinism, Evelyn
Fox Keller, one of our most gifted historians and philosophers
of science, provides a powerful, profound analysis of the
achievements of genetics and molecular biology in the twentieth
century, the century of the gene. Not just a chronicle of
biology's progress from gene to genome in one hundred years,
The Century of the Gene also calls our attention
to the surprising ways these advances challenge the familiar
picture of the gene most of us still entertain.
Keller shows us that the very successes
that have stirred our imagination have also radically undermined
the primacy of the gene -- word and object -- as the core
explanatory concept of heredity and development. She argues
that we need a new vocabulary which includes concepts such
as robustness, fidelity, and evolvability. But more than
a new vocabulary, a new awareness is absolutely crucial:
understanding the components of a system (be they individual
genes, proteins, or even molecules) may tell us little about
the interactions among these components. With the Human
Genome Project having achieved its first and most publicized
goal, biologists are coming to realize that they have reached
not the end of biology but the beginning of a new era. Indeed,
Keller predicts that in the new century we will witness
another Cambrian period, this time in new forms of biological
thought rather than in new forms of biological life.
Evelyn Fox Keller is Professor of History
and Philosophy of Science at MIT. She is the recipient of
a MacArthur Fellowship and numerous honorary degrees. She
also is the author or co-editor of ten previous books, including
Keywords in Evolutionary Biology (Harvard).
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