From Alchemy to IPO

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Paul Rabinow

Making PCR is the fascinating, behind-the-scenes account of the invention of one of the most significant biotech discoveries of our time - the polymerase chain reaction. Skillfully blending narrative description and interviews with all the major players, Paul Rabinow explores what it means to be a "scientist" today, the effects of doing science in the high-risk, high-reward environment of biotech, and what a scientific discovery or invention is at a time when it is possible to patent life itself. PCR has profoundly transformed the practices and potential of molecular biology by extending scientists' ability to identify and manipulate genetic material. It facilitates the identification of precise segments of DNA and accurately reproduces millions of copies of the given segment in a short period of time. In sum, Making PCR shows how a contingently assembled practice emerged, composed of distinctive subjects, the site in which they worked, and the object they invented.

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edited and with introductions by Susan Wood

A collection of twenty-four essays concerned with writing in general, the field of fantasy and science fiction, and with the author's own writing.

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collected and edited by Gary Noy

From Thomas Hart Benton's famous speech in the Senate when he argued that nonwhite civilizations must fall before the western expansion of white Americans to Black Elk's story of a way of life lost on the frozen ground at Wounded Knee, Gary Noy offers a representative sampling of the many Wests that historians have struggled to define for over a century. Distant Horizon chronicles the dusty world of the cowboy, the hardscrabble existence of the farmer and the settler, and the miner's vision of golden glory. It examines the independent nature of the explorer and mountain man and the sometimes heroic, sometimes cruel existence of the soldier. We hear the voices of those outside the mainstream of power - women and westerners of color - and explore the most tragic element of western history: the confinement, subjugation, and extermination of Native Americans. No other single volume provides as many readings on as many topics in the history of the American West.

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[by] Charlotte and Denis Plimmer

This book covers the slave trade from 1562-1865 involving ten white nations and hundreds of black tribal rulers; it concentrates on the roles played by the English and the Americans.