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“A profoundly hopeful and often funny book about how the dividing line between human, animal and machine isn’t as clear as you might think . . . This is a must for animal lovers, as well as anyone curious about the future of biology.”
—io9.com
“Fascinating . . . A heartwarming chapter is devoted to the dolphin Winter, whose injured tail was replaced with a prosthetic one . . . with legislation regulating the animal biotech industry highly inconsistent . . . Anthes eloquently explores the arguments framing the debate.”
—Nautilus
"Ever since humans first tamed a friendly wolf, we've been shaping animals to conform to our needs and wants. Just look at a Siberian husky next to a poofy, orange Pomeranian. Science journalist Emily Anthes' new book, Frankenstein's Cat, explores animals created by molecular genetics or wired up to electronics, but, she says, the ethical questions that come along with these futuristic critters are not completely new." --Mother Jones
Emily Anthes author of Frankenstein's Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech's Brave New Beasts, shares some of her favorite science books and writers at Politics & Prose on on Tuesday, March 19, 2013.
From fruitflies to white mice, animals have long been on the front lines of scientific research. In her second book, Anthes, a science journalist, looks closely at animal biotechnology, considering what cloning, genetic engineering, and the resurrection of extinct species from surviving DNA could mean for both animals and humans.
Emily Anthes talks with Jim Fleming about her book, "Frankenstein's Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech's Brave New Beasts."
“[Frankenstein’s Cat is] far more than just a fascinating read about animal manipulation. As it touches the third rail of ‘manipulating Nature,’ which seems to irritate non-religious liberals as much as evangelicals, its implications go far beyond controversies associated with animal biotechnology to the ethics of “positive eugenics” in humans. [Anthes] colorfully explores all the fascinating and in some cases gruesome ways humans are reshaping the animal kingdom . . . she thoughtfully pleas for reasoned contemplation and discussion rather than knee jerk reactions.”
—Forbes
"Tusked mice, transgenic goats lactating antithrombin, dogs with prosthetic testicles: science writer Emily Anthes reports from the wilder shores of animal biotechnology. A team at Fudan University in Shangai, China, for instance, has created 500 strains of modified lab mouse—and hopes to engineer 100,000. A Florida medical team has made a prosthetic tail for an injured dolphin. There is plenty more, but Anthes devotes the final word to bioethics, arguing that the advances are a chance to commit anew to animal well-being." —Nature
Researchers are beginning to understand how to “hack” the central nervous systems of certain animals in ways that would allow us to control their movements—including a flying beetle which can be remotely steered. Emily Anthes, author of Frankenstein’s Cat, looks at the potential applications, as well as the ethical considerations, of remote controlled animals.
Tom Levenson - filmmaker and Prof of Science Writing at MIT - hosts Emily Anthes. author of Frankenstein's Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech's Brave New Beasts. They'll discuss animals and biotechnology.
Want to know what's going to happen to animals in the next century? Then you must read science journalist Emily Anthes' new book Frankenstein's Cat, about how the animals of tomorrow will be transformed by high tech implants and genetic engineering. io0 has an amazing excerpt from the book -- about how the CIA tried to create cyborg cat spies.
A lot of people get squeamish at the thought of eating what some call "frankenfish," or other genetically-modified animals, but writer Emily Anthes tells KIRO Radio's Ross and Burbank Show that we should give it a chance.
Listen to the full interview on KIRO.
How is biotechnology changing our pets, our livestock and other wild things? Ross Reynolds talks with Emily Anthes, the author of "Frankenstein’s Cat: Cuddling up to Biotech’s Brave New Beasts," about how biotech will change our pets and livestock. Listen to the full interview on KUOW.
"IF patience is a virtue, then AquaBounty, a Massachusetts biotech company, might be the most virtuous entity on the planet.
In 1993, the company approached the Food and Drug Administration about selling a genetically modified salmon that grew faster than normal fish. In 1995, AquaBounty formally applied for approval. Last month, more than 17 years later, the public comment period, one of the last steps in the approval process, was finally supposed to conclude. But the F.D.A. has extended the deadline — members of the public now have until late April to submit their thoughts on the AquAdvantage salmon. It’s just one more delay in a process that’s dragged on far too long."
Read Emily Anthes full op-ed in The New York TImes. >>>
"In her new book, Frankenstein's Cat: Cuddling up to Biotech's Brave New Beasts, science journalist Emily Anthes talks about how the landscape of bioengineering has expanded since Dolly the Sheep was cloned in 1996. Scientists, she says, are now working to create pigs that can grow organs for human transplant, goats that produce valuable protein-rich milk, and cockroaches that could potentially serve as tiny scouts into danger zones for the military."
Frankenstein's Cat was selected by the editors at Amazon as one of the Best Nonfiction Books of March. Emily Anthes's journey into the world of animal biotechnology was chosen among ten other works, including new books by Sandra Day O'Connor and John Gribbin.
Barnes and Noble also selected Frankenstein's Cat as one of the Best Books of March.
"I have seen the future of animals and it is glowing. Literally.
Three years ago, I set out to explore the world of animal biotechnology, to see just how scientists were using advances in genetics, electronics, and materials science to totally re-engineer and re-invent animal bodies." —Emily Anthes
Read the full article on Slate
"Fluorescent fish, cloned cats, dolphins with prosthetic tails — these are just a few of the many oddball creatures you’ll read about in Frankenstein’s Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech’s Brave New Beasts, a new book by science journalist Emily Anthes.
In it, Emily describes her tour through unconventional animal facilities across the country, from a barn of transgenic goats in California to a lab that’s cloning endangered species in a forest outside of New Orleans. Emily somehow manages to tell a fun story without glossing over complex scientific concepts and thorny ethical issues."
—By Virginia Hughes
Read the full interview on the National Geographic blog.
Why make tiny flying drones when you can fly real insects by remote-control? It could lead to a neuroscience revolution, explains Emily Anthes in an excerpt from her new book Frankenstein's Cat in The Observer.
Denis Marcellin-Little is an orthopedic surgeon at the College of Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina State University. Over the last seven years, he has been pioneering a remarkable intervention for dogs with missing legs, giving them prosthetic limbs that are permanently attached to their bodies. In the procedure, known as transdermal osseointegration, Marcellin-Little implants one end of a titanium rod into whatever remains of a dog’s leg, attaching the metal directly to the bone. The other end of the metal implant attaches to an artificial foot. So far, he’s outfitted six dogs and two cats with these bionic limbs, and he’s currently preparing three more canines for the procedure. We caught up with Marcellin-Little to ask him what it takes to build a pooch a brand new leg.
Read the interview in The Bark.
In December, wolf 832F ventured out of her territory in Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley. As soon as she left the park, she lost its protections, and the wolf, a 6-year-old alpha female, was shot and killed by a hunter.
Emily Anthes' Frankenstein's Cat named One of the Top Ten Science Books of 2013
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