Making Genes, Making Waves: A Social Activist in Science

by Jon Beckwith

Overview

In 1969, Jon Beckwith and his colleagues succeeded in isolating a gene from the chromosome of a living organism. Announcing this startling achievement at a press conference, Beckwith took the opportunity to issue a public warning about the dangers of genetic engineering. Jon Beckwith's book, the story of a scientific life on the front line, traces one remarkable man's dual commitment to scientific research and social responsibility over the course of a career spanning most of the postwar history of genetics and molecular biology.

A thoroughly engrossing memoir that recounts Beckwith's halting steps toward scientific triumphs—among them, the discovery of the genetic element that turns genes on—as well as his emergence as a world-class political activist, Making Genes, Making Waves is also a compelling history of the major controversies in genetics over the last thirty years. Presenting the science in easily understandable terms, Beckwith describes the dramatic changes that transformed biology between the late 1950s and our day, the growth of the radical science movement in the 1970s, and the personalities involved throughout. He brings to light the differing styles of scientists as well as the different ways in which science is presented within the scientific community and to the public at large. Ranging from the travails of Robert Oppenheimer and the atomic bomb to the Human Genome Project and recent "Science Wars," Beckwith's book provides a sweeping view of science and its social context in the latter half of the twentieth century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674009288
Publisher:	Harvard
Publication date:	10/15/2002
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	254
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Jon Beckwith is American Cancer Society Research Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School.

Table of Contents

1. The Quail Farmer and the Scientist

2. Becoming a Scientist

3. Becoming an Activist

4. On Which Side Are the Angels?

5. The Tarantella of the Living

6. Does Science Take a Back Seat to Politics?

7. Their Own Atomic History

8. The Myth of the Criminal Chromosome

9. It's the Devil in Your DNA

10. I'm Not Very Scary Anymore

11. Story-Telling in Science

12. Geneticists and the Two Cultures

13. The Scientist and the Quail Farmer

Bibliography

Acknowledgments

Index

What People are Saying About This

Sheldon Krimsky

[A] small but very stimulating book.
— Sheldon Krimsky, Profess of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, Tufts University

Anne Fausto-Sterling

By literary standards The Structure of Evolutionary Theory is unique...
— Anne Fausto-Sterling, Professor of Biology and Women's Studies, Brown University, and author of Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality

Neil A. Holtzman

Hadot brings all his concerns together in a small volume of extraordinary erudition ...[t]he summa of a distinguished career.
— Neil A. Holtzman, M.D.,M.P.H., Professor Emeritus, Pediatrics, Health Policy, Epidemiology, The Johns Hopkins University

Philip Kitcher

[A] compelling distillation in which we learn three primary things about William James.
— Philip Kitcher, Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University

François Jacob

[Cuban] shows that most investments in computers in the schools provide very poor returns...

Prof. Benno Müller-Hill

[A] thoughtfully constructed book that brings light to several aspects of tenure and related issues...
— Prof. Benno Müller-Hill, Institut für Genetik, Universität zu Köln

David Baltimore

[This is] a summation of Stephen Jay Gould's life work...
— David Baltimore, President, California Institute of Technology, and Alice S. Huang, Senior Councilor for External Relations, California Institute of Technology

Troy Duster

T]here is no doubt that this is a profound and major contribution to evolutionary theory...
— Troy Duster, Professor of Sociology, New York University

Dorothy Nelkin

Cuban's book is a must-read for politicians, parents, school administrators, teachers, technophiles and technophobes.
— Dorothy Nelkin, Professor of Law and Sociology, New York University

Jonathan Marks

[O]ne of the world's most respected living philosophers, Canada's Charles Taylor, is taking a fresh look at James's classic.
— Jonathan Marks, Deptartment of Sociology and Anthropology, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

Editorial Reviews

Beckwith’s Making Genes, Making Waves shows that the commitment to social responsibility is entirely compatible with commitment to science; that love of science can coexist with serious qualms about its social consequences.

Dorothy Nelkin

Jon Beckwith presents a compelling story of his career-long attempt to integrate two roles, that of the research scientist and that of the social activist. With luck, his lucid narrative will inspire others to follow his example.

Philip Kitcher

The renowned scientist Jon Beckwith wrote Making Genes, Making Waves so that students could learn an oft-hidden truth: it is possible to become a successful scientist and still be a social activist within science.

Anne Fausto-Sterling

Making Genes, Making Waves has special credibility coming from one of America’s most distinguished microbiologists. It is a must read for any young scientist who is concerned by the tension between the beautiful rationality of science and the sometimes disconcerting outcomes of its application.

David Baltimore

Making Genes, Making Waves is a compelling history of the controversies in genetics over the last half century.

International Microbiology - Carmen Chica

This autobiography charts [Beckwith’s] journey through both aspects of his life in the second half of the 20th century: the research of his professional career, and his personal crusade to inform society of biological developments and involve us all in deciding how the new knowledge should be applied. Since he has made a significant contribution in both areas, the book is a fascinating read. He provides a frank but kindly description of his collaborators and other researchers, and an insightful account of science as practiced in several very different laboratories… Society is very much the better for the efforts of those such as Beckwith who clearly enjoy the challenge of describing complex issues to non-specialists and participating in debates as to how new knowledge should be used.

Times Higher Education Supplement - Ian Wilmut

Jon Beckwith in Making Genes, Making Waves reminds us that he first warned about the social impact of genetic engineering back in 1969. His autobiography shows what hard work it is to combine science and politics, to keep different networks of interests alive.

New Scientist

In this beautifully written autobiography, Beckwith…vividly describes aspects of the ‘cultural revolution in science that molecular biology brought with it,’ epitomized by…major public controversies about genetics in the United States from the 1960s… Beckwith has portrayed a fascinating period in the history of modern biology and of the interaction of science and society in the Western world. Thanks to him and other activists, social injustices resulting from the application of genetics are now widely discussed and, in democracies, meet with legal measures and regulation. In this book Beckwith, a committed scientist…calls for greater humility about what science can and cannot accomplish. This is a call that scientists would do well to take seriously.

Nature - Ute Deichmann

In 1969, a Harvard Medical School group headed by Jon Beckwith accomplished a first in molecular biology—the isolation of a gene… When their paper appeared in Nature, they held an extraordinary press conference in which they described their work and warned of the danger that it might lead to… The press conference received international media coverage, and Beckwith found himself embarked on a double career—a continuing one in research and a new one of social activism in science. His Making Genes, Making Waves is an absorbing account of how these two strands in his life were woven into a durable braid. The prose is straightforward, and Beckwith is refreshingly frank, revealing the divagations and doubts that marked his course in research.

American Scientist - Daniel J. Kevles

Making Genes, Making Waves consists of a generally chronological series of vignettes detailing Beckwith’s role in raising the consciousness of the genetics community and the public (‘making waves’) interspersed with brief descriptions of his laboratory research problems at various times (‘making genes’). The prose is crisp, the episodes engaging and, as a heuristic of a successful modern American scientist with a social conscience, the book is probably without peer.

The Nation - Jonathan Marks

[A] small but very stimulating book.

Sheldon Krimsky

Hadot brings all his concerns together in a small volume of extraordinary erudition ...[t]he summa of a distinguished career.

Neil A. Holtzman

T]here is no doubt that this is a profound and major contribution to evolutionary theory...

Troy Duster

Making Genes, Making Waves is a compelling history of the controversies in genetics over the last half century.
— Carmen Chica

International Microbiology

This autobiography charts [Beckwith's] journey through both aspects of his life in the second half of the 20th century: the research of his professional career, and his personal crusade to inform society of biological developments and involve us all in deciding how the new knowledge should be applied. Since he has made a significant contribution in both areas, the book is a fascinating read. He provides a frank but kindly description of his collaborators and other researchers, and an insightful account of science as practiced in several very different laboratories...Society is very much the better for the efforts of those such as Beckwith who clearly enjoy the challenge of describing complex issues to non-specialists and participating in debates as to how new knowledge should be used.
— Ian Wilmut

Times Higher Education Supplement

Making Genes, Making Waves consists of a generally chronological series of vignettes detailing Beckwith's role in raising the consciousness of the genetics community and the public ("making waves") interspersed with brief descriptions of his laboratory research problems at various times ("making genes"). The prose is crisp, the episodes engaging and, as a heuristic of a successful modern American scientist with a social conscience, the book is probably without peer.
— Jonathan Marks

The Nation

In this beautifully written autobiography, Beckwith...vividly describes aspects of the 'cultural revolution in science that molecular biology brought with it,' epitomized by...major public controversies about genetics in the United States from the 1960s...Beckwith has portrayed a fascinating period in the history of modern biology and of the interaction of science and society in the Western world. Thanks to him and other activists, social injustices resulting from the application of genetics are now widely discussed and, in democracies, meet with legal measures and regulation. In this book Beckwith, a committed scientist...calls for greater humility about what science can and cannot accomplish. This is a call that scientists would do well to take seriously.
— Ute Deichmann

Nature

In 1969, a Harvard Medical School group headed by Jon Beckwith accomplished a first in molecular biology—the isolation of a gene...When their paper appeared in Nature, they held an extraordinary press conference in which they described their work and warned of the danger that it might lead to...The press conference received international media coverage, and Beckwith found himself embarked on a double career—a continuing one in research and a new one of social activism in science. His Making Genes, Making Waves is an absorbing account of how these two strands in his life were woven into a durable braid. The prose is straightforward, and Beckwith is refreshingly frank, revealing the divagations and doubts that marked his course in research.
— Daniel J. Kevles

American Scientist

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