Unnatural Selection: Introduction

The information page is here; unfortunately, there's no preview yet. As it's more than somewhat difficult to reproduce my annotations, I'll try it the old-fashioned way, i.e. quotes and comments.

• "This is a tale about evolution." Micro or macro? Yes, I know that a very large number of evolutionists still hold to Darwin's guess that 'if an organism can change a little bit in a short amount of time, why shouldn't it be able to change a lot in a long time?' Judging from the fact that we're still human, I'm guessing it's micro.
• "...something far more personally meaningful than...a rationale for museum dioramas." DNA is as close to us as our skin. It tells about our probable past, present, and future.
• A question frequently raised is whether society can catch up in understanding the research. To which I add: Should society do so?
• "...the chemical basis of yourself or someone else." Alluding to the second quote, this also prompts another question: Is that all it is? Or is it something more?
• "We must never minimize the...portent of these new discoveries." At the same time, we should not overestimate it.
• "[The Human Genome Project] is well ahead of its own schedule for mapping the genome by the year 2005." This book was written in 1998. The mapping was complete in 2003.
• Speaking about a November 12, 1963 New York Times article about genetic research, Wingerson suggests two important conflicts: science-vs.-society and ethics-vs.-science.
• People to learn about: "The head of the Human Genome Project, Francis Collins, M.D....James Watson...[and] Sandra Kretz, who was a vice-president at Quantum Health Resources." Collins expressed voluble concern about potential misuses of research results. One of these is denial of insurance coverage. See the Genetic Nondiscrimination Act.
• I was somewhat dissatisfied with the lessened degree of specificity of details brought up in the introduction. Says Wingerson: "...I have simplified details...Above all I have tried to adhere to two basic tenets of my own profession of journalism: to be both accurate and fair." Fair enough.

Chapter 1 is tomorrow.