Evolving Tomorrow Genetic Engineering and the Evolutionary Future of the Anthropocene

""Evolving Tomorrow" scrutinizes how evolutionary change happens, how modern-day genetic engineering can influence it, and what consequences we can expect to see in the future of the Anthropocene era. The first half of this book explores how living organisms change over time and how it can happen fast. It explains nature's evolutionary forces, how these forces interplay with genetics, and the intricacies of genetic biotechnologies like CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing. Some genetic engineering with CRISPR-Cas9 gene drives will present a new force of evolution termed "genetic welding" if unleashed into the wild. Extensive real-world examples from nature draw on the author's decades of experience conducting research around the world in the lab and in the field. The second half of the book investigates the applications and implications of manipulating evolution and genetic engineering to alter and create new species. It explores the ecosystem consequences and environmental bioethics of changes to plants and animals, including through de-extinction, rewilding, and invasive species. It deliberates competing perspectives of the meaning of "wild" and "nature." It considers the ethical conundrums of genetic engineering of our own species, including the potential emergence of a new form of eugenics. The ideas developed in this book build the crucial links across evolution, ecology, biotechnology, and ethics to ground how global society will decide how and when it acts to shape the inevitable evolutionary changes that accumulate in the world of tomorrow and throughout the next millennia"--