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Some genetic engineering projects can take millennia to accomplish. In Shrinking the Cat: Genetic Engineering Before We Knew About Genes, Sue Hubbell describes how we've evolved four valuable species: corn, apples, silkworms, and domestic cats; and, along the way, furthered some less-desired species, such as apple maggots and gypsy moths. Hubbell mingles recent biological knowledge with archaeological research and glimpses into her private life (as a child, she studied a lion that was kept at a Chevrolet dealership) to produce a multifaceted and positive look at science and history. Hubbell says,

This is an interesting and hopeful time in which to live.... Genes, it turns out, are simple. But the processes of life ... do not yet seem to be. Until we can develop a deep, broad, and sensitive understanding of those processes ... we'll continue to suffer the unintended consequences of alterations.

Hubbell's brief, appealing book provides a pleasant way for anyone to learn more about genetic modification as conducted by the pre-Mayans, along the Silk Road, and in laboratories today. --Blaise Selby [via]