The Anthropocene defines the here-and-now time period on Earth of indelible (and possibly irreversible) human disturbance to the natural world, from habitat destruction and mass extinction to global climate change. To ameliorate and repair the damage that threatens the world's dwindling resources and our very existence, humanity is enacting massive interventions to fuse modern technologies with long established natural processes. Advances in genetic engineering have put us on the cusp of directly shaping the DNA of every living organism (including ourselves), as well as determining the evolution of completely novel species. The author invites the reader to explore how humans have manipulated the ancient forces of evolution and the future possibilities of genetic engineering for conservation and rewilding, de-extinction, and even the creation of viable populations of entirely new species. To entertain such possibilities of synthetic biology, he forces us to wrestle with the threats and ethical conundrums that surround the unintended consequences, as well as the values that humanity places on authenticity in nature. In so doing, this accessible and thought-provoking book explores the potential future of life on planet Earth.
Author(s): Prof Asher D. Cutter
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 313
City: Oxford
cover
praisepage
titlepage
copyright
dedication
Contents
Preface
Preface
Abbreviations
Abbreviations
About the Author
About the Author
Part 1 The hearts of nature
1 Nature in the raw, and cooked
1.1 The nature of change
1.2 Evolving tomorrow
2 Selection, naturally and otherwise
2.1 Evolution by natural selection
2.2 The breeder's equation
2.3 Selection in relation to sex
3 Ancient forces
3.1 Getting from A to T
3.2 A history of mutational events
4 Evolution's racetracks
4.1 Everyday evolution
4.2 Experimental evolution
5 Evolutionary accelerants and speed bumps
5.1 Putting on the brakes
5.2 Skirting the limits
6 Hijacking genetics
6.1 What becomes of an unwelcome guest
6.2 What to do
7 Genetic welding
7.1 A new force of evolution
7.2 Genetic time bombs
8 On the origin of species
8.1 What makes a species
8.2 Radiations
9 Do-it-yourself speciation
10 Ongoing evolutionary outcomes
10.1 Show me your teeth
10.2 Inputs and outputs
10.3 Big and small
10.4 Air and ground
Part 2 Evolutionary futures
11 How to evolve a dragon
11.1 No myth
11.2 Decisions
12 Evolutionary engineering in the flesh
12.1 Fleshing out a founding stock
12.2 Mary Poppins's umbrella
12.3 A recipe
13 Nature, rewilded
13.1 Recall of the wild
13.2 Total recall of the wild: de-extinction
13.3 Back to the future of the wild: novafauna
14 When nature comes to call
14.1 Manufacturing destiny
14.2 What is nature?
15 Inspection by the department of health, safety, and ethics
15.1 Restoration and reunion
15.2 GMO to GDO
15.3 How to think
16 When we become dragons
16.1 Heritable human genome editing
16.2 The echoes of eugenics
16.3 How much meddling is too much meddling?
17 A midnight coterie of transcendent fauna
17.1 Lost world
17.2 Defenses of fauna
17.3 The change to come
Index
