David Ewing Duncan’s book, Masterminds: Genius, DNA, and the Quest to Rewrite Life is out in paperback. (Previous hardcover title was The Geneticist Who Played Hoops with My DNA.) Named as one of the SF Chronicle’s "Best Books of the Year", Masterminds is about the brilliant and sometimes quirky and even unsettling personalities at the forefront of today's genetics and biotech -- scientists who want us to live to be 150 years old, to regenerate our hearts and brains, and to create synthetic lives. For better or for worse, they are about to rewrite life on earth forever.

"Vivid, memorable portraits," -- James Fallows, Atlantic Monthly

"Can we trust the geniuses who are pushing into unknwon territories of gene mappiung and modification? An interesting book... clear and helpful" -- Barbara Maddox (The Dark Lady of DNA) in the Times of London

"Two-Hundred-year-old people? E-Mails sent by brain waves? Duncan sketches the (possible) future" -- USA Weekend

The original title for this book was The Geneticist Who Played Hoops with My DNA. Check out my website for more reviews and info -- go to http://www.davidewingduncan.com -- and scroll down this blog site to find out why I changed the title of this book.

READ THIS FROM THE BOOK'S PRELUDE: An excerpt from the book that sums up my view of this amazing, if slightly unsettling moment we're in as bio-science dashes forward in ways most people are only dimly aware of...

"This creative fire in biotechnology comes after a half-century of biological discoveries and more recent technological breakthroughs, combined with an unprecedented surge of funding from government and the private sector, and supported by a society that loves the gadgets, the medical miracles, and the standard of living afforded by modern science, even if the pace of change sometimes makes us feel uneasy. The outcome of this explosive moment in genetics is anybody's guess: a brilliant future or, if something goes terribly wrong, a nightmare. Or both. We will cure cancer, vanquish AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, increase lifespan to 300 years, eliminate pollution, and feed everyone on the planet. Or we will create a monster, either inadvertently or deliberately. Maybe we'll do it all. I believe this is the greatest story of our time, perhaps of all time. A species is developing the tools to redesign itself, to self-evolve in a way Charles Darwin never imagined.

"As a nonscientist enthusiastic about science, I am properly awed by the possibilities. I also wonder, at times, whether I should be afraid. I lean more towards amazement than not, but I am skeptical, too, strongly believing that nonscientists need to do their homework to understand the new science, to be informed enough to be impressed, cautious, or afraid. Most of all we need to stop being mystified, to learn enough to question intelligently and to push our high priests of science to explain what they're up to."