A Brand-New Bird, by Birkhead, Tim
Inventory #: 00827
Price: $12.00

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A Brand-New Bird, by Birkhead, Tim. Basic Books-Perseus Books Group: New York, 2003. Edition: First edition. ISBN: 0465006655. Hardcover, 8vo, 5.75 by 8.5 inches, 268 pages. Quarter bound in black over red; silver lettering on spine. Illustrated with eight plates of black and white photographs, plus other black and white illustrations as vignettes in the text.

Condition: As New with a remainder mark in a Near Fine jacket. Jacket is lightly rubbed and shows slight delamination in upper right front corner.

Contents: From the jacket

Behavioral ecologist Tim Birkhead describes how the rather plain but sweet-voiced green bird that was discovered by Spanish explorers in the 1300s became a craze in Renaissance Europe, how breeders gradually turned its green plumage to yellow, how [Hans] Duncker and [Karl] Reich combined genetic science with bird-breeding lore to produce an almost-red canary, and how British breeders were finally able to successfully produce a red canary in the 1960s. But more than just a fascinating account, this story makes a scientific turning point: this was the first instance of plucking specific genes from one creature and incorporating them into another.

The hunt for the red canary invoked all of the deep issues that trouble genetic engineering decades later: the nature of genes and how they work, the specter of eugenics, and the relative roles of nature and nurture in determining how an organism takes shape. A Brand-New Bird is the compelling tale of an important episode in the history of genetics and of two amateur scientists who unwittingly managed to be decades ahead of their time.