[.ca] Making PCR: A Story of Biotechnology (ISBN 0226701476)

From Amazon.com:
When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1980 that new life forms could be patented, biology escaped the confines of academia; biotechnology companies have been multiplying like hothouse organisms ever since. The conjunction of scientific research and corporate profits has created much angst, not least among working scientists. Paul Rabinow, an anthropologist, decided to research not some Pacific island tribe but this new breed of scientists in their natural habitat--a hot new biotechnology company. He chose Cetus, a company that developed a procedure called the polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, a method for replicating large amounts of DNA from tiny samples. His account of the benefits of the commercial approach to research, and of the conflicts over prestige and money, is well-balanced and original.

Source of scientific discovery:
Very entertaining biographical account of the discovery of PCR, individuals, corporations, money and financial risk in biotech. Highlights the solitary, individual act of scientific discovery and how this can be decoupled from corresponding financial reward (science is not business, business is not science).

Just another poor constructivist approach:
Making PCR becomes just deceptive at the end. Such fashionable network analysis - "a la Latour" - is directly linked with the rising of a new sort of extreme relativism, or Nihilism - it is not odd when the same author is a Foucaldian follower... His micro-analysis does not provide much information apart from an account of the well-known interests of every individual within a scientific community. The author displays some interviews and traces the ties of a social web which supposely explains something (?). However, it is indeed a good example of current constructivist approaches. The monography achieves to explain what is going on in the creation of PCR - just from the point of view of the socials relations around the scientific fact- , but it does not explain much about the relation between social variable and content of knowledge, so the content of science is again black-boxed. There is not much interest in such approach apart from the similarities with other precedent works (Knorr-Cetina, Latour, Woolgar, Mulkay and so forth.)

Excellent investigation of how science is REALLY conducted:
Paul Rabinow is an anthropologist who studies molecular biologists. He tells the story of the development of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a technique that revolutionized molecular biology. Rabinow succeeds in writing a book about science that is entertaining and informative to scientists and non-scientists alike. This book provides a first-hand examples of an unexpected revolution resulting from an unassuming research project, and the long road from concept to product. See also "French DNA" by Paul Rabinow and "The Golden Helix" by Arthur Kornberg.

An interesting look from the outside:
As a scientist (working on PCR technologies), the book was quite enjoyable, in particular the introduction in which the author has very interesting insights on the psychology of people working on scientific research, and made me pause for a "look at the mirror". The remaining of the book is a more casual reading, which nonetheless I found very interesting.

A great look at the biotech industry from the inside:
Rabinow apparently spent years observing and talking with the major players in the "discovery" or development of PCR. I disagree with the "reader from England," who apparently wants to believe that science happens in a pure vacuum. Rabinow shows how science is the product of human interactions--collaborations and antagonisms both--and how and why a lot of major research has moved from university laboratories into industrial parks. He works interviews with the scientists involved into the story, and it is a GOOD STORY that he tells. And everyone who has read Kary MUllis' autobiography should read MAKING PCR for alternative views!