Before We Begin .
An introduction . i
Chapter One: It's Who You Are 1
You need to understand some basic terms and ideas to make sense of the DNA sciences.
Don't know a gene from a chromosome? This is the place to start.
Chapter Two: How We Got Here 0
Fifty years after Watson and Crick discovered the DNA double helix, the Human
Genome Project announced the final version of the human genome. How did we get here
from there? Here's an inside look at how one of the biggest discoveries in the history of
mankind came about.
Chapter Three: Your Genome--An Owner's Manual 00
You are of the first generation in the history of the human race to understand what makes
you . well, you. The fascinating discoveries scientists have made about DNA could
change your life, your health, and society.
Chapter Four: The DNA Files 000
The most important advance to come out of his work, says DNA double helix discoverer
James Watson, is the exoneration of death row inmates. DNA fingerprinting has
revolutionized crime solving, and is helping historians solve centuries-old mysteries.
Chapter Five: Facing Destiny 000
It would've seemed like science fiction just a few decades ago, but today genetic testing
can predict susceptibility for hundreds of disorders. Who are the players? What tests are
out there? Will government permit insurance companies and employers to discriminate
using the new knowledge? Genetic testing, in plain English .
Chapter Six: The Fountain of Aging Well 000
It is one of DNA science's most exciting fields. Biogerontology. A San Francisco
scientist has increased a worm's lifespan sixfold! Two gerontologists are betting a half-
billion dollars that in 2150, at least one person alive today will still be alive! Meanwhile,
companies vie to create a pill that will help tomorrow's baby-boomer senior citizens
seem decades younger than their years.
Chapter Seven: Closing in on Cancer 000
In the 1970s, Nixon declared war on cancer. This was back when doctors thought it was a
single disease. By the mid-1990s, most scientists had lost hope, and cancer deaths were at
an all-time high. Now, for the first time, the majority of cancer specialists have renewed
faith that, thanks to the DNA sciences, most cancers will be cured--in the next twenty
years. Here are the players and the technologies.
Chapter Eight: Cloning and Stem Cells 000
It doesn't get more controversial than this. Despite calls for a global ban on cloning--both
the kind that produces "mini me" humans and the kind that yields potentially life-saving
stem cells------the world's scientific community is pushing hard to keep stem cell work
alive, saying it's our best hope of curing most of the degenerative diseases that kill people
today. Here is an inside look at the players, and the arguments from both sides.
Chapter Nine: Gene Therapy 000
Gene therapy--or actually modifying defective genes in patients to cure them--was once
the holy grail of DNA medicine. Then came setbacks--a teenager dies in a gene therapy
trial and several French children get leukemia--and everything changed. Now gene
therapy experts are trying to fight their way back to the forefront with a long list of
therapies and cutting-edge trials in labs around the country.
Chapter Ten: DNA and Society 000
When most people hear the word eugenics, they think of the Nazis' attempt in the 1930s
and 1940s to murder their way to an Aryan Germany. But few people know that
eugenics--the pseudoscience of genetically improving humans--was first popularized
decades earlier in America. Eugenics was the first societal effort to manipulate genetics.
Should we fear that a new eugenics is in the offing? What are the ethical issues as the
DNA sciences barrel into the future?
Glossary 000
Every word you'll ever need to know to keep up with DNA researchers and companies in
the news, for investing and making societal and personal choices .
Index 000