The Double-Edged Helix

Fülszöveg

THE DOUBLE-EDGED HELIX LIEBE F. CAVALIERI
The Double-Edged Helix is a critical discussion of science and technology in the last half of the twentieth century, a period during which scientific and technological advances have far outstripped public awareness and political wisdom.
Liebe F. Cavalieri describes how the subtle relationships between the scientific establishment and powerful political and industrial forces are undermining scientific endeavor, and how the advent of recombinant DNA technology, with its far-reaching implications, has transformed biological science (much as atomic fission transformed physics) into a powerful technological and industrial force that cannot be relied on to remain benign.
"As it becomes more evident that we have evolved a way of life that is ultimately inconsistent with the laws of nature," writes Cavalieri, "it, becomes more and more irresponsible for scientists to spend their time building intellectual cathedrals and contributing to... Tovább

Fülszöveg

THE DOUBLE-EDGED HELIX LIEBE F. CAVALIERI
The Double-Edged Helix is a critical discussion of science and technology in the last half of the twentieth century, a period during which scientific and technological advances have far outstripped public awareness and political wisdom.
Liebe F. Cavalieri describes how the subtle relationships between the scientific establishment and powerful political and industrial forces are undermining scientific endeavor, and how the advent of recombinant DNA technology, with its far-reaching implications, has transformed biological science (much as atomic fission transformed physics) into a powerful technological and industrial force that cannot be relied on to remain benign.
"As it becomes more evident that we have evolved a way of life that is ultimately inconsistent with the laws of nature," writes Cavalieri, "it, becomes more and more irresponsible for scientists to spend their time building intellectual cathedrals and contributing to technological empires, while the technocrats lay the foundation of future disaster. Science has more to offer than that. It could help to form another way of life that is both humanly satisfying and in equilibrium with nature. But first the scientist has to recognize the nature of the problem he must make a mature social conscience part of his modus operandi. Conscience literally means 'with knowledge/ and surely that is how every scientist would wish to proceed."
"Here is a book that should be read by every student of science and indeed by everyone who is subject to the powerful influence that science exerts in shaping contemporary society. Cavalieri is dead right about the urgent need for new standards in the conduct of science and its technological offspring."
—George Wald Nobel Laureate
"At a time when American science is more concerned with the narrow interests of the scientist than with the impending ecological crises threatening humanity,
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Dr. Cavalieri has done both the country and his scientific colleagues a great service in underlining the dangers inherent in this course."
—Barry Commoner Scientist, Author, Environmentalist
"The Double-Edged Helix is an illuminating book about the issues and controversies within science over the uses of recombinant DNA discoveries, and about the joys and woes of science—which are nicely and equally described. But more than that it is an examination of the general dilemmas of a socially responsible science. The science establishment needs to pay attention to insider critics like Dr. Cavalieri if it hopes to maintain the support and trust of the general public."
—Bernard Barber
Professor of Sociology Columbia University
THE AUTHOR
After studies at the University of Pennsylvania and sojourns at Ohio State and Columbia Universities, Liebe F. Cavalieri has spent most of his professional career at Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research and the Cornell University College of Medical Sciences where he serves as Professor of Biochemistry. He is known for the originality of his research on the molecular biology of DNA, a field which he helped create. In addition to a long list of publications in scientific and other learned journals, he writes from time to time for the public press and has often been heard as an outspoken critic of the commercialization of science.
THE FOUNDER OF THIS SERIES
Ruth Nanda Anshen, Ph.D., philosopher, author, and editor, founded, plans, and edits several distinguished series, including World Perspectives, Religious Perspectives, Credo Perspectives, Perspectives in Humanism, The Science of Culture Series, and The Tree of Life Series. She also writes and lectures on the relationship of knowledge to the nature and meaning of man and to his understanding of and place in the universe. Dr. Anshen's book, The Reality of the Devil: Evii in Man, is a study in the phenomenology of evil. She is a member of the American Philosophical Association, the History of Science Society, the International Philosophical Society, and the Metaphysical Society of America. Vissza