© 2021 Sergei Valerievich Sokolovsky
2021 – № 2 (22)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.33876/2224-9680/2021-2-22/11
Citation link:
Sokolovsky S. V. (2021). O ‘redaktirovanii’ cheloveka: kalibrovka metafory [About Human “Editing”: Calibration of a Metaphor]. Medicinskaja antropologija i biojetika [Medical Anthropology and Bioethics], 2 (22).
Author info:
Sergei Valerievich Sokolovsky, Dr. Hist. Sc., is a Chief Research Fellow at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology (Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow).
Keywords: genome manipulations (genetic “editing”), human genome, “genetic scissors”, CRISPR-Cas9, metaphorics, popularization of scientific knowledge
Abstract. The article focuses on the metaphorics used in academic and non-fiction literature that addresses the topic of the human genome “editing”. Apart from the metaphor of editing, the review touches upon the metaphors of genome mapping, gene as a target (the metaphor of targeting), the organism as a machine, etc. Because the choice of metaphors is a key aspect in public perception of scientific discoveries, the one that conditions public approval or blocking of new directions of the scientific quest, thorough analysis, and elaboration of metaphoric means are necessary, so they convey the complicated scientific data. Equally necessary is fine-tuning of stylistic tropes used for science popularization.
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