Life as we made it How 50,000 years of human innovation refined--and redefined--nature

Beth Alison Shapiro

Book - 2021

"Humans seem to be destroying nature with incessant fiddling. We can use viruses to insert genes for pesticide resistance into plants, or to make the flesh of goldfish glow. We can turn bacteria into factories for millions of molecules, from vitamin A and insulin to diesel fuel. And this year's Nobel Prize went to the inventors of tool called CRISPR, which lets us edit genomes almost as easily as we can edit the text in a computer document. The potential for harm can seem both enormous and inevitable. In Life as We Made It, evolutionary biologist Beth Shapiro argues that our fears of new technologies aren't just mistaken, but they miss the big picture about human history: we've been remaking nature for as long as we'...;ve been around. As Shapiro shows, the molecular tools of biotechnology are just the latest in a long line of innovations stretching back to the extra food and warm fires that first brought wolves into the human fold, turning them into devoted dogs. Perhaps more importantly, Shapiro offers a new understanding of the evolution of our species and those that surround us. We might think of evolution as a process bigger than humans (and everything else). To the contrary, Shapiro argues that we have always been active participants in it, driving it both inadvertently and intentionally with our remarkable capacity for technological innovation. Shapiro shows that with each innovation and every plant and animal we touched, we not only shaped our own diets, genes, and social structures but we reset the course of evolution, both theirs and ours. Indeed, although we think of only modern technology as capable of gene editing, she shows that even the first stone tools could edit DNA, simply by changing the world in which all life lives. Recasting the history of biology and technology alike, Life as We Made It shows that the history of our species is essentially and inevitably a story of us meddling with nature. And that ultimately, our species' fate depends on how we do it in the future"--

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Subjects
Published
New York : Basic Books 2021.
Language
English
Main Author
Beth Alison Shapiro (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
vii, 340 pages ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9781541644182
  • Prologue - Providence
  • Part I. The Way It Is
  • Chapter 1. Bone Mining
  • Chapter 2. Origin Story
  • Chapter 3. Blitzkrieg
  • Chapter 4. Lactase Persistence
  • Chapter 5. Lake Cow Bacon
  • Part II. The Way It Could Be
  • Chapter 6. Polled
  • Chapter 7. Intended Consequences
  • Chapter 8. Turkish Delight
  • Acknowledgments
  • Bibliography and References
  • Index
Review by Booklist Review

"We outcompete all other species by killing them or taming them," evolutionary biologist Shapiro (How to Clone a Mammoth, 2015) starkly writes. She describes the many ways humans have shaped the evolutionary paths of other species, both fauna and flora, and speculates on how biotechnology (synthetic biology, gene editing, cloning) might transform life on earth in the future. Humans have shifted from predator to domesticator and potentially to protector (as conservationists). Shapiro discusses the domestication of animals, agriculture, and the fragile stability of ecological communities. Featured creatures include North American bison, black-footed ferrets, moas (giant birds), hornless cattle, and glowing, bioengineered fish. The scientific study of ancient DNA preserved in extinct species and the possibility of de-extinction (employing biotech to bring back extinct species in the manner of Jurassic Park) make for truly fascinating reading. Employing just the right amount of paleontology, history, genomics, and archaeology, Shapiro warns that we stand on the precipice of fashioning a new, unnatural nature. The risk of messing up the future of other species and even the planet itself looms large.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

"People have been shaping the evolution of the living things around us throughout our history," writes biologist Shapiro (How to Clone a Mammoth) in this fun-filled survey. Humans are living in an age filled with biotechnology, she writes, and people are worried--but human interference with nature isn't as new as it may seem. Shapiro draws on a slew of lively examples to prove her point: bison had to adapt to life with humans, for example, and evolved to be smaller and nimbler to run away quicker, while the transition from wolves to dogs was a relationship formed by proximity that turned into mutualism. Shapiro addresses intervention in the form of genetic engineering and GMOs (breaking down the "knee-jerk yuck factor" GMOs can provoke) and highlights farmers attempting to "improve animal welfare... while at the same time improving the economics of cattle farming" with gene-editing. Shapiro's anecdotes are full of energy, as when Shapiro is with a museum collections manager who drops a pigeon specimen; when the head pops off, Shapiro reacts: "I, of course, did what every self-respecting early career ancient DNA scientist would do. I took a piece of its toepad and extracted its DNA," she writes. Perfect for fans of Mary Roach, this is science writing with much to savor. (Oct.)

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