Ruth Hubbard | Elijah Wald
1 Earth-Shaking Paradigm Shift from a Very Prominent Biologist
Ruth Hubbard is a professor emerita of biology at Harvard and a member of the Council for Responsible Genetics, a prominent national bioethics board. In this book (co-written with her son-in-law, Elijah Wald), she takes everything you think you know about genes, genetic health care screening, DNA fingerprinting, the Human Genome Project, and the search for a gay gene and other behavior-related genes, and blows your mind by explaining, point by point, exactly how unreliable, meaningless, and discriminatory each of these much-lauded technologies is. After reading this book, you'll never read a newspaper article about the latest genetic study the same way again. Don't miss it.
2 Rhetoric Against a Needed Science
Ruth Hubbard uses the rhetoric of exaggeration to try to convince us to abandon genetic research. But if genes didn't matter then monkeys could talk and if environment didn't matter then we wouldn't have schools. Obviously they BOTH matter.
Let us use the objective methods of science to document the specifics of what is genetically determined and what is environmentally determined.
Any serious AIDS researcher knows that without genetic research we have no chance of defeating AIDS. Obviously we need to study genetics to maintain progress against disease.
3 A brilliantly written book
Dr. Hubbard gives her readers much to think about, and she backs up everything she's written. She explains how the popularly-held reductionist view of genetics does not tell the whole story. Her book explains how the public often only hears one side of the story when it comes to the potential of the latest genetic technologies.
4 The work of a good scientist, an abysmal social commentator
Hubbard does deserve credit for throwing some skepticism on "the next big thing" in science, genetic technology. Unfortunately, she combines her skeptical analysis with her hopelessly egalitarian political views, obscuring any positive contributions this book could have. Hubbard goes through every expected cliche - Nazi imagery (social pundits never tire of this), playing the "race card, and discouraging scientific progress as "unneccessary". Read this book only if you wish to glimpse the future of awful politically-correct rhetoric.
5 The author breaks ranks to reveal the truth about genetics.
A 5-star book. If there weren't so much hype about gene therapy there would be no need for this book. But bad science and misinformation coming from those with commercial or political interests has given the American public the idea that gene therapy has possibilities. To date, gene therapy has not cured one disease. Ruth Hubbard finally breaks ranks to reveal the truth about genetics.
