Ancient DNA
WARNING
You are viewing an older version of the Yalebooks website. Please visit out new website with more updated information and a better user experience: https://www.yalebooks.com
The Making of a Celebrity Science
Elizabeth D. Jones
Price: $40.00
The untold story of the rise of the new scientific field of ancient DNA research, and how Jurassic Park and popular media influenced its development
Ancient DNA research—the recovery of genetic material from long-dead organisms—is a discipline that developed from science fiction into a reality between the 1980s and today. Drawing on scientific, historical, and archival material, as well as original interviews with more than fifty researchers worldwide, Elizabeth Jones explores the field’s formation and explains its relationship with the media by examining its close connection to de-extinction, the science and technology of resurrecting extinct species. She reveals how the search for DNA from fossils flourished under the influence of intense press and public interest, particularly as this new line of research coincided with the book and movie Jurassic Park. Ancient DNA is the first account to trace the historical and sociological interplay between science and celebrity in the rise of this new research field. In the process, Jones argues that ancient DNA research is more than a public-facing science: it is a celebrity science.
Elizabeth Jones is a historian of science and postdoctoral research scholar at North Carolina State University and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh.
Publication Date: March 29, 2022
3 b/w illus.