The Priesthood Of Science

"Hear and her sisters are now sealed off from the rest of the world in their private enclave at Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada. She is still tormented by her parents' decision to genetically modify the brains of their twelve daughters - and by her own agreement to allow a similar procedure to be used later on a much larger group of human embryos." "Her doubts engender a series of debates with Abdullah al-Dini, a molecular biologist, about whether scientists have the right to hand over the vast new powers they have discovered to a world riddled with religious fanaticism, ethnic hatred, and a yearning to see the "end of days" prophecy fulfilled. These debates hark back to the Second World War when physicists were competing to unveil the secrets of nuclear power, and the possibility of the atom bomb, just as Nazi Germany and its allies were launching their terrifying bid for world domination." "Meanwhile, that group of engineered embryos has become one thousand young people just turning eighteen, and the gender politics among them is threatening to bring down in ruins Hear's gamble on a new beginning for human society."--BOOK JACKET.

William Leiss, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and Officer in the Order of Canada, has been a professor at seven universities: Simon Fraser, Calgary, Regina, York, Toronto, Queen's and Ottawa.