Why Compare?
Controlling Narratives
A Question of Europe
Unsettled Settlements
Food for Thought
Natural Mothers and Other Kinds
Ethical Sense and Sensibility
Making Something of Life
The New Social Contract
Civic Epistemology
Republics of Science

Biology and politics have converged today across much of the industrialized world. Debates about genetically modified organisms, cloning, stem cells, animal patenting, and new reproductive technologies crowd media headlines and policy agendas. Less noticed, but no less important, are the rifts that have appeared among leading Western nations about the right way to govern innovation in genetics and biotechnology. In this sweeping study of some twenty-five years of scientific and social development, Sheila Jasanoff compares the politics and policy of the life sciences in Britain, Germany, the United States, and in the European Union as a whole. She shows how public and private actors in each setting evaluate the products of biotechnology and try to reassure themselves about their safety and worth. Sheila Jasanoff is Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Trained at Harvard Law School, she is the author of many books on the role of science and technology in the politics of modern democratic societies, including "Science at the Bar", "The Fifth Branch", and "Risk Management and Political Culture"