Publisher's Synopsis
During the 21st century, humans will make choices that will profoundly impact the future of life. Will we restore ecosystems or continue to degrade them? Could regenerative medicine allow us to live for hundreds of years? How might we enhance ourselves through genetics or robotics? Should we resurrect extinct species? Will we spread life to other worlds? What should be our role in nature? Reinventing Life - A Guide to Our Evolutionary Future is a captivating tour of how humans are rapidly and radically changing the biology of life, our options for the future, and our responsibilities as stewards of evolution. "Jeffrey Coker has been able to finally accomplish what so many others have tried to describe-he shows us how our lives, biology and the environment are all interconnected, and how we can influence our future in so many ways. Reinventing Life is a must read, from students to CEOs-basically, everyone who is interested in how they can impact and benefit from our world's inevitable changes." - Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine "Coker analyzes the intersection between evolution, biotechnology, and ecosystems to see how people live in harmony-or disharmony-with the planet. From a child's stuffed teddybear to resurrection of extinct woolly mammoths, Coker brings home the theme of personal responsibility of humans past, present, and future, for the lives we construct." - Pamela Hines, senior editor of Science Magazine "Reinventing Life is absolutely essential reading for anyone aspiring to informed and effective twenty-first century citizenship. For it convincingly shows that the continuing revolution in the life sciences has given humans the opportunity to be masters of their own destiny as well as those of all other species, and it succinctly outlines in nontechnical language the wide range of choices they face in exercising that role." - Kenneth Harris, secretary of the World Future Society "By putting our lives into an evolutionary context, this book is an essential reminder that our daily actions and inactions have profound, far-reaching effects. Within us we determine the fate of those who lie before us; read this book for them." - Mary Williams, senior research fellow at the University of Glasgow and features editor of The Plant Cell
