No abstract

No abstract

is a lamb that was cloned by Dr. Ian Wilmut, a Scottish embryologist. But she is also a Rorschach test. The public response to the production of a lamb by cloning a cultured cell line reflects the futuristic fantasies and Frankenstein fears that have more broadly surrounded research in genetics and especially genetic engineering. Cloning was a term originally applied to a botanical technique of asexual reproduction. But following early experiments in the manipulation of the hereditary and reproductive process during the mid-1960s, the term became associated with human biological engineering. It also became a pervasive theme in horror films and science fiction fantasies. Appearing to promise both amazing new control over nature and terrifying dehumanization, cloning has gripped the popular imagination. Underlying the fascination with cloning is the idea that human beings in all their complexity are simply readouts of a powerful molecular text. In The DNA Mystique: The Gene as a Cultural Icon, we called this idea "genetic essentialism," a deterministic tendency to reduce the personality and behavior-the very identity of individuals-to their genes. 1 Exploring the popular appeal of genetic essentialism, we tracked its manifestations in the mass media-in television programs, advertising and marketing, newspaper articles, films, and magazines. And we documented the public fears-or hopes-that geneticists will soon acquire the awesome power to determine the human future. The responses to the Dolly phenomenon mirrored those we found in the popular culture reactions to the Human Genome Project and its mapping of the genes. The very first responses to the news about Dolly's creation were facetious. Dolly and cloning were immediately the subject of jokes on late-night talk shows and Internet web sites. Their humor depended largely on the pervasive assumption that human identity is contained entirely in the sequences of DNA in the human genome: Why not clone great athletes like Michael Jordan, or great scientists like Albert Einstein, or popular politicians like Tony Blair, or less popular politicians like Newt Gingrich, or wealthy entrepreneurs like Bill Gates? There were also anxious scenarios in the popular press, including futuristic stories about making new Frankenstein monsters, or creating Adolph Hitler clones, or producing "organ donors" only to harvest their (fully compatible) viscera. 2 The dire consequences of cloning have long captured the popular imagination, expressed in numerous novels and science fiction films. Real research projects associated with cloning invariably evoke horror. In 1993, scientists from George Washington University "twinned" a nonviable human embryo in an experiment intended to create embryos for in vitro fertilization. Newspapers, magazines, and

Jane Haldimand Marcet's Conversations on Chemistry has traditionally claimed historical attention for its effects on the young bookbinder Michael Faraday, who was converted to a life of science while binding and reading it. Marcet "inspired Faraday with a love of science and blazed for him that road in chemical and physical experimentation which led to such marvelous results," in H.J. Mozans's romantic account. Or, as Eva Armstrong put it, Marcet led Faraday to "dedicate himself to a science in which his name became immortal." 1 Disciplines