Science

The DNA Mystique by Dorothy Nelkin and M. Susan Lindee

The DNA Mystique: The Gene as a Cultural Icon

Dorothy Nelkin and M. Susan Lindee

Rights: World
For more info, contact Michael Kehoe at mkehoe@umich.edu

The DNA Mystique suggests that the gene in popular culture draws on scientific ideas but is not constrained by the technical definition of the gene as a section of DNA that codes for a protein. In highlighting DNA as it appears in soap operas, comic books, advertising, and other expressions of mass culture, the authors propose that these domains provide critical insights into science itself.

With a new introduction and conclusion, this new edition will continue to be an engaging, accessible, and provocative text for the sociology, anthropology, and bioethics classroom, as well as stimulating reading for those generally interested in science and culture.

Dorothy Nelkin, University Professor at New York University, passed away in the spring of 2003. M. Susan Lindee is Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

June 2004
312 pages