648 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE But Wiener’s views, while naive from a scholarly standpoint, may be exactly what is needed to inspire practitioners, especially since they are linked to a strong sense of moral responsibility. Wiener himselfrefused to participate in projects he thought might benefit the military. He felt that long-term investment in fundamental science and the absolute minimum of secrecy were the way to win conflicts like the Cold War and prepare for what lay beyond it: “our long-time chief antagonist will not be Russia, but is to be sought for among the continuing threats of hunger, thirst, over population, and perhaps the new dangers of the poisoning of the world in which we live by the radioactive by-products of an atomic age” (p. 143). One of Wiener’s most intriguing policy suggestions is that those responsible for adjudicating patent disputes be educated in the inven tion and discovery process. Those of us doing detailed work on the invention process would certainly agree. Wiener tells us a little about his own creative process; when he found the solution to one set of problems, he looked for other problems to which this solution applied. But he also asked himself another, provocative question: “Now that I have come to a result, what problem have I solved?” (p. 22). One wishes he had talked more about his own invention process. In conclusion, Wiener’s book would be a useful stimulus for discussion of social and ethical issues in science and invention, especially if used in contrast with works like Bruno Latour’s Science in Action (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987), which provide a very different view of science. Wiener has faith that science, at its best, represents one of the highest activities of the human mind: “The thesis that I am maintain ing and have maintained in this book is that the continued existence of an atmosphere in which fundamental science can develop to such an extent that it can fulfill not only our hopes but our needs, depends on the faith of the community that the work of the intellect is worth promoting and that institutions devoted to the furtherance of the atmosphere in which this work can take place represent a public interest” (p. 122). At a time when institutions of higher education are under attack, we can all derive inspiration from Wiener’s faith. Michael Gorman Dr. Gorman is an associate prolessor in the Division of Technology, Communications, and Culture of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Virginia, where he teaches interdisciplinary courses and does research on the psychology of science, invention, and design. The Uses of Life: A History of Biotechnology. By Robert Bud. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Pp. xvii+299; illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $49.95. Robert Bud’s fascinating, if episodic, history of biotechnology is most timely. If we live in a postmodern age, where boundaries between fact TECHNOLOGYAND CULTURE Book Reviews 649 and fiction are often blurred and simulacra serve as models of the real, then biotechnology captures the spirit of the age. A report in Nature on the extraction of DNA fragments from a fossil weevil from the Creta ceous, dinosaur-dominated period was tied to the opening of Jurassic Park (June 10, 1993); the book and movie The Andromeda Strain (early 1970s)—a blending of Hollywood and Stanford—in turn served as the reference point for naming the biotechnology company Cetus after the adjacent constellation. “Biotechnology” is a culturally loaded term, often conjuring futuristic images of a hyperreality driven by multina tional profits and populated by cyborgs, hybrids of engineering and biology. Yet many scientists, industrialists, and regulators deplore the sensationalism surrounding biotechnology. To them the technology is simply a refinement of age-old practices of modifying and harnessing animate nature—notably microorganisms—for agricultural and phar maceutical uses. As Bud notes (p. 213), key officials at the National Science Foundation and Food and Drug Administration now feel that the word biotechnology has become “a significant millstone around the neck of both the industry and the government,” urging the removal of the word from the regulatory vocabulary. What’s in...