Promising Genomics: Iceland and deCODE Genetics in a World of Speculation
Part detective story, part expose, and part travelogue, Promising Genomics investigates one of the signature biotech stories of our time and, in so doing, opens a window onto the high-speed, high-tech, high-finance world of genome science. In a luminous account, Mike Fortun investigates how deCODE Genetics, in Iceland, became one of the wealthiest companies of its kind, as well as one of the most controversial, with its plan to use the genes and medical records of the entire Icelandic...
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"What an extraordinary tale, both entertaining and expertly told. I ended this page-turner chuckling and deeply informed about the outscale ambitions of bioscience, making a corporate Wild West of Iceland's cultural reserve. Scholarly science writing doesn't get any better than this."—George E. Marcus, Series Editor, Late Editions: Cultural Studies for the End of the Century"A chiasmic tour de force: entertaining, informative, and insightful, a brilliant picaresque romp. Promising Genomics decodes deCode, one of the signature biotech and genomics stories of our times, unsettling almost all the key issues—legal, scientific, regulatory, transnational capital, social justice, democratic—of modern biologists' business plans and of doing fieldwork in a high-tech, fast-paced, speculative economy."—Michael M.J. Fischer, author of Emergent Forms of Life and the Anthropological Voice and Anthropological Futures"Promising Genomics guides us through the gorgeous volatility of the Iceland genomic debates—media gullibility, corporate avarice, NGO activism, and the complicity of scholars that turn up to study them. Mike Fortun's ethnography gathers data from all over—Icelandic novels, town hall meetings, stock market speculation, the fortunes of Keiko the whale, Icelandic geography—to find a better way of engaging with contemporary genomic research. The narrative he constructs is intellectually compelling, affectively astute and politically alive. Promising Genomics is a watershed for scholars and activists working at the interface of biology and culture. It will reinvent your bioethical commitments."—Elizabeth A. Wilson, author of Psychosomatic: Feminism and the Neurological Body"Like an ethnographic prospectus, Promising Genomics brings the fine print of our encoded future to life. Fortun reveals how financial speculation, promissory science, and compromised politics have transformed the people of Iceland into genetic stock—and how Icelanders have responded. Anyone invested in the question of how techno-scientific futures are launched would be well advised to read this vivid account."—Ken Alder, author of The Lie Detectors: The History of an American Obsession
Ch. 1 LavaXLand 1Ch. 2 FriendXAdvance Man 24Ch. 3 FastXFast 28Ch. 4 CounterfeitXMoney 49Ch. 5 KariXdeCODE 54Ch. 6 DogXWhale 65Ch. 7 HistoryXFable 70Ch. 9 TrustXGullibility 82Ch. 10 DistanceXComplicity 114Ch. 11 NonXGovernmental Organization 136Ch. 12 IcelandXWorld 159Ch. 13 PublicXPrivate 175Ch. 14 Open FutureXSafe Harbor 183Ch. 15 ManiaXFundamentals 191Ch. 16 PromiseXDisclosure 196Ch. 17 Yahoo!XFinance 210Ch. 18 SameXDifference 223Ch. 19 PresumedXConsent 240Ch. 20 GenomicsXSlot Machines 253Ch. 21 EthicsXExpediency 266Ch. 22 EverythingXNothing 276Forward Looking 291Notes 293Bibliography 315Index 325
