Gene Jockeys

Biologist and science historian Nicolas Rasmussen delicately unravels the tangled fibres of discovery, entrepreneurship and lab life in the first decades of genetic engineering… An engaging, ultimately elegiac tale of lost innocence, as researchers struggle with the angel of the search for truth on one shoulder, and the devil of wealth and fame on the other. – Nathaniel Comfort Nature This provides an engrossing blend of technical survey and business history reconmmended for science and business collections alike! Midwest Book Review An engaging, informative work appropriate for general readers and beginning students of molecular biology or biotechnology. Choice Gene Jockeys deftly conveys a sense of the excitement and technical challenges of this time when free-wheeling scientists pursued their passions in newly evolving commercial settings. – Jonathan Khan Journal of American History Scholars generally should appreciate Rasmussen’s careful research and the wide sweep of source material that he references in extensive notes. – Sally Smith Hughes Social History of Medicine Rasmussen achieves admirably what he sets out to accomplish… Gene Jockeys will be the go-to source on the history of the biotech industry for some time to come, and particularly regarding the scientific and legal developments on which that industry’s growth rested. – Elizabeth Popp Berman American Historical Review

Nicolas Rasmussen is a professor of humanities at the University of New South Wales. His most recent book is On Speed: The Many Lives of Amphetamine.