A lively exploration of the fast-fading borderland between fringe and mainstream science

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In Rapture, Brian Alexander takes readers into the surprising stories behind cloning, stem cells, miracle drugs, and genetic engineering to show how the battle for the human soul is playing out in the broader culture-and how the outcome will affect us all. Rapture's Dickensian cast of characters includes the father of regenerative medicine, an anti-aging guru, and a former fundamentalist Christian and founder of the company that reportedly cloned the first human cell. This motley crew is in part being united by the force of the opposition: a burgeoning bio-Luddite movement whose foot soldiers-a strange coalition of conservative Republicans, the Christian right, and the Greens-predict impending doom should we become adherents of the new bio-utopian faith. Sometimes irreverent, sometimes shocking, always entertaining, Rapture shows how the biotech agenda has come to be seen as both salvation and heresy, how we have gotten this far already, and why we'll go where nobody thought we could.