Radio Programs | General Resources

You know that artist's rendering of the DNA double helix that looks so pretty, spiraling into infinity? That's exactly what it is - an artist's vision, inspired by science. Here's a sampling of other works, from literature and film that use genetics as a starting point for some provocative thinking.

Last updated: February 18, 2005

Radio Programs

• Genetics of Aging & Longevity - Search for the Fountain of Youth (first distributed in November 2001)

General Resources

• What's Wrong With This Picture? Educating via analyses of science in movies and TV
  
  Some scientists propose that more accurate depictions of research, and more favorable portrayals of scientists in film and on TV may lead young people to study science.

Books

• The Genesis Code by John Case. Ballantine Books, 1997
  
  This best-selling thriller examines religous faith and fanaticism, reproductive medicine and genetic engineering. The compelling treatment of juicy topics will carry you through, even though you'll have solved the key "mystery" early on.
  
  
• The Messiah Code: A Genetic Thriller by Michael Cordy. Avon Books, 2004
  
  A geneticist invents the "Genescope," a device that can reproduce and modify the genome from a single cell. Medical mysteries, a diabolical religious cult, and the DNA of Jesus Christ all figure in this sci fi/ mystery/ thriller. Originally published in 1997 as The Miracle Strain.
  
  
• Ender's Game by Orsen Scott Card. Starscape Books, 2002
  
  Six-year-old Andrew Ender Wiggins enters a school for government-bred super soldiers. His destiny: to fight the evil alien invaders, the Buggers.
  This Hugo and Nebula award-winner was first published in 1977.
  
  
• Darwin's Radio: In the Next Stage of Evolution, Humans are History by Greg Bear. Ballantine Books, 1999
  
  Lots of genetic science, real and fiction, in this engrossing thriller which stars the past and future of human evolution, along with the politics and economics of biological research. The book includes a "short biological primer" and a much-needed "glossary".
  
  
• Holy Fire: A Novel by Bruce Sterling. Bantam Books, 1997
  
  Bruce Sterling imagines a futuristic San Francisco dominated by well-meaning, cautious, mostly female "gerontocrats," the centurian-heavy demographic result of high-tech life-extension technology. Life is tough for young people who create a sub-culture based on pursuit of the "holy fire."
  
  
• Distraction by Bruce Sterling. Bantam Books, 1999
  
  Wierd science, convoluted politics, and the American dream woven together by cyberpunk pioneer Bruce Sterling into an extraordinary futuristic yarn, peopled by a genetically engineered political spin-meister and a U.S. Senator who experiments with mind-altering drugs.
  
  
• Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy. Crest, 1990
  
  Genetic modification of food and animals is one of the issues raised in Marge Piercy's novel about an inmate in a mental institution who travels forward in time to a Utopian society where everyone works, everyone eats, and men and women are so equal that men even get to nurse babies.
  
  
• The Secret by Eva Hoffman. PublicAffairs, 2002
  
  Iris Surrey discovers she is a clone of her mother. Set in Chicago in the 2020s, this new spin on the coming-of-age novel gropes with such issues as "does a clone have a unique soul?"
  
  
• Glory Season by David Brin. Bantam, 1996
  
  A young-girl-comes-of-age story set on a planet where big families of clones run things, and "vars," women who are products of old-fashioned sex between men and women, struggle to establish their own clone clans.
  
  
• Mendel's Dwarf by Simon Mawer. Harmony Books, New York, 1998
  
  A great read that brings out a number of intriguing issues about identity, normalcy and genetic testing.
  
  
• Xenogenesis series by Octavia Butler. Time Warner Books, 1989
  
  This science fiction series is a good read and raises fundamental questions about the superiority of and dignity of the human genome and respect for diversity. Titles include Adulthood Rites, Dawn, and Xenogenesis. Ms. Butler is the winner of the Hugo and the Nebula awards, and a MacArthur Foundation award recipient.
  
  
• Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. Knopf, 1990
  
  Genetic science spawns dinosaurs in a modern day amusement park. Although its science isn't solid, this book spawned blockbuster movies (not to mention the associated product line) and is an entertaining read.

Films

• Boys from Brazil, 20th Century Fox, 1978
  
  What would happen if someone cloned Hitler and brought up the young "Adolfs" the same way as the original? Starring Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier, James Mason. (Based on the novel by Ira Levin, re-published by Bantam Books, 1991.)
  
  
• Multiplicity, Columbia, 1996
  
  Michael Keaton is a working man who clones himself again and again in order to have time to fulfill all his work and personal responsibilities.
  
  
• GATTACA, Sony Pictures, 1997
  
  Explores a design-conscious world in which "designer" babies are the norm and only the genetically well-endowed get to the top. With Uma Thurman, Alan Arkin and Gore Vidal.
  
  
• The Island of Dr. Moreau, New Line, 1996
  
  This film was adapted from the 1896 H.G. Wells story of an isolated scientist and his genetically altered beast-people. Panned by critics, the film is still quite an experience. Marlon Brando stars as Dr. Moreau. Fans of television's "South Park" will be enlightened re: many references. An earlier film version, "Island of Lost Souls" (1933), gets higher marks from critics, but it's hard to find.
  
  
• The Leech Woman, 1960
  
  Endocrinologist Dr. Paul Talbot goes to Africa to collect a youth-giving hormone produced by plants. He tests the dangerous fluid on his wife, with fearsome results.
  
  
• Godsend
  
  After their young son is killed in a freak accident, a couple approach a scientist (Robert De Niro) about bringing him back to life through an experimental (and illegal) cloning process. When Adam comes back to them, however, he's... different.
  
  
• Tarantula, 1955
  
  Dr. Deemer is working on an artificial nutrient to feed the world. Unfortunately, he experiences its unfortunate side effects firsthand.
  
  
• Jurassic Park, 1993; Jurassic Park: The Lost World, 1997
  
  These Steven Spielberg spectaculars are based on Michael Crichton's story about an amusement park featuring full-sized, living dinosaurs reconstructed from petrified DNA.
  
  
• She Devil, 1957
  
  A scientist tries to mix the genes of humans and insects to cure disease. He concocts a serum from fruit flies, "nature's most adaptive insect," but doesn't anticipate its murderous side effects.
  
  
• Swamp Thing, 1982
  
  A well-meaning researcher wants to combine plant and animal genes in order to give plants "aggressive" qualities that will help him feed the world. But an evil colleague steals his work. Based on a long-running comic book.

Art

• Alba, The Green Fluorescent Rabbit
  
  Brazilian-born Chicago artist Eduardo Kac makes "transgenic art" melding science, art, philosophy and showmanship. Perhaps best known for creating Alba, the green fluorescent bunny rabbit, Kac presents his works, and the passionate debates they provoke, on his "transgenic art" website.
  
  
• Leonardo: The Journal of Arts, Science and Technology
  
  This bimonthly journal published by M.I.T. Press brings together arts, science and technology in reviews and reports of art works, interpretative articles and artists' statements. See the website for subscription information and resources. Or contact Leonardo/ISAST, 211 Sutter Street, Suite 800, San Francisco, CA 94108.
  
  
• Critical Art Ensemble (CAE)
  

  Critical Art Ensemble is a collective of five artists dedicated to "exploring the intersections between art, technology, radical politics and critical theory."
  
  Their website provides information on book projects (you can download the texts), BioTech projects (online art & education experiences), and "Tactical" projects.