杏吧原创

Shrinking the Cat by Sue Hubbell, Houghton Mifflin, $25, ISBN
0618040277

IS GENETIC engineering humankind鈥檚 greatest hope鈥攐r the stuff of
nightmares? The debate is still sizzling away: 鈥淢ixing genetic material from
species that cannot breed naturally takes us into areas that should be left to
God,鈥� Prince Charles famously said. In Shrinking the Cat Sue Hubbell challenges
the notion that genetic engineering is new and dangerous.

She reminds us that people have been tinkering with nature for a long, long
time. The shrinking cat of her title refers to the transformation of the
domestic moggy over the past 4000 years. From the time of the ancient Egyptians,
our ancestors took wild cats and selected for user-friendly features such as
smaller bodies and simpler brains. Maize, created from a wild grass, now cannot
survive without us. A genetic monster, its oversized seeds are great eating but
it needs human help to make baby corn plants.

Hubbell鈥檚 quirky style and asides about her past as farmer, beekeeper and
amateur insect enthusiast make this an enjoyable and illuminating read. But it鈥檚
questionable whether she really answers concerns about the introduction of
genetically modified organisms into our food and the environment. Genetic
engineering differs in important ways from traditional breeding methods. Some
argue this adds an extra dimension of risk. While Hubbell doesn鈥檛 really address
this, her book is a lively addition to the debate.