The Red Canary : The Story of the First Genetically Engineered Animal

The creation of Dolly the sheep in the 1990s was for many people the start of a new era: the age of genetically modified animals. However, the idea was not new for in the 1920s an amateur scientist, Hans Duncker, decided to genetically engineer a red canary. Though his experiments failed, they paved the way for others to succeed when it was recognised that the canary needed to be both a product of nature and nurture. This highly original narrative, of huge contemporary relevance, reveals how the obsession with turning the wild canary from green to red heralded the exciting but controversial developments in genetic manipulation. "The Red Canary follows the compelling quest to turn the green canary red. While the idea of genetically modified animals seems like a recent concept, it was first throught up in the 1920s by Hans Duncker, an amateur scientist who became obsessed with creating the first red canary"--Back cover.