Evolution Made to Order : Plant Breeding and Technological Innovation in Twentieth-Century America / Helen Anne Curry.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Curry, Helen Anne, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Plant mutation breeding--United States--History--20th century.

Plant mutation breeding.

Plant mutation breeding--Social aspects--United States.

Plant genetic engineering--Genetic engineering--United States--History--20th century.

Plant genetic engineering.

Plant genetic engineering--Social aspects--United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (296 pages)

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, [2016]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

In the mid-twentieth century, American plant breeders, frustrated by their dependence on natural variation in creating new crops and flowers, eagerly sought technologies that could extend human control over nature. Their search led them to celebrate a series of strange tools: an x-ray beam directed at dormant seeds, a drop of chromosome-altering colchicine on a flower bud, and a piece of radioactive cobalt in a field of growing crops. According to scientific and popular reports of the time, these mutation-inducing methods would generate variation on demand, in turn allowing breeders to genetically engineer crops and flowers to order. Creating a new crop or flower would soon be as straightforward as innovating any other modern industrial product. In Evolution Made to Order, Helen Anne Curry traces the history of America's pursuit of tools that could speed up evolution. It is an immersive journey through the scientific and social worlds of midcentury genetics and plant breeding and a compelling exploration of American cultures of innovation. As Curry reveals, the creation of genetic technologies was deeply entangled with other areas of technological innovation-from electromechanical to chemical to nuclear. An important study of biological research and innovation in America, Evolution Made to Order provides vital historical context for current worldwide ethical and policy debates over genetic engineering.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

1. Mutation Theories

2. An Unsolved Problem

3. Speeding Up Evolution

4. X- rays in the Lab and Field

5. Industrial Evolution

6. Artificial Tetraploidy

7. Evolution to Order

8. Better Evolution through Chemistry

9. Tinkering Technologists

10. The Flower Manufacturers

11. Radiation Revisited

12. Mutation Politics

13. An Atomic- Age Experiment Station

14. Atomic Gardens

15. The Peaceful Atom in Global Agriculture

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2016.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9780226390116

022639011X

OCLC:

959554515