How To Build A Dragon Or Die Trying: A Satirical Look At Cutting-edge Science

Father and daughter blend cutting-edge genetic technology with parodies of cutting-edge-science hyperbole while describing how to create a dragon. Their chapters are: so, you want a dragon; let there be flight; fire; dragons on the brain; from head to tail, other dragon features, and power-ups; sex, dragons, and CRISPR; after a dragon: building unicorns and other mythical creatures; and the ethics and future of engineering dragons and other new beasts. Annotation ©2019 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
The world has been enamored of dragons for centuries and they still have a firm place in pop culture such as Smaug in The Lord of The Rings and the dragons in Game of Thrones. People love dragons and are curious to know if a dragon can be created. This unique book on how to build a dragon, addresses how in theory we may be able to build a dragon using cutting-edge scientific methods. It also covers hot scientific topics such as CSIPR, bio-hackers, stem cells and bioengineering. It is both factual and humorous, as well as thought-provoking about the impact of technology on society. Along the way, the book takes a satirical look at cutting-edge science and how it is often hyped. It discusses key technologies that come into play as we imagine trying to turn our idea of creating a dragon into a fire-breathing reality and address questions such as: Can it breathe fire and fly? Can we make it impressively big? How would we make our dragon smart and train it? How likely is it we will die in trying to make a dragon? What should we do with dragons if we succeeded? While addressing all these issues the book also covers the ethical issues in building a dragon and the possibilities of using a similar approach in building other mythical beasts like the unicorn. This book, which will appeal to everyone, contains many compelling illustrations by the authors and other pictures of interest including of conceptions of dragons, pictures of pterosaur skeletons, and more. The author is well-known scientist Paul Knoepfler who is familiar to the public for his science, his blog The Niche, and his frequent contributions to lay stories on new science concepts such as stem cells and CRISPR. He also is known for his TED talk with almost 1. 2 million views and his two books — Stem Cells: An Insider's Guide and GMO Sapiens: The Life-Changing Science of Designer Babies. His co-author, Julie Knoepfler, is just 16 years old and may broaden the appeal of the book to a younger audience.