Today's biology has an enormous impact on medicine, particularly in diagnosing disease and understanding how drugs work. Many of the possibilities for therapies or technologies foreseen by today's scientists already exist in some form. The question is whether they can be extended to humans safely and in a controlled way. Change may come more rapidly than anyone anticipates, and there may be intense pressure to sell technologies before they have been adequately tested.The Future of Genetics considers where research in genetics, molecular biology, and medicine is headed while trying to cleanly separate facts from fiction and ideologies. This volume explores the last 150 years and how different strands of biological research have become interwoven to create a new kind of interdisciplinary science. Exploring such famous literary works as Frankenstein, Brave New World, and Jurassic Park, as well as science-related events, this insightful resource presents a range of very new technologies that give scientists a broader view of life and provide new ways of manipulating organisms and the environment. It also focuses on some of the most fascinating questions that scientists pose about the future, including the causes of aging and death, the nature of the brain and mind, and the future of life on Earth. Genetics plays a key role in research for all of these areas; it may also be the gateway to improving people's lives and ensuring that the Earth remains a hospitable place to live.Chapters include: The Origins of 21st-Century BiologyLiterature, Culture, and Social Perceptions of ScienceStudying Life in the Post-Genome EraThe Future of Humanity and the World. Read Less