This introductory chapter first sets out the book's main purpose, which is to convey some sense of the new powers with which we are being endowed as genomics and a new molecular genetics grow out of traditional genetics, and of the likely impact and significance of those powers and their use. A second, equally important objective is to convey how knowledge, in the sense of theories, schemas, and ideas, has also changed in this context, along with powers and techniques. An overview of the subsequent chapters is then presented.

This introductory chapter first sets out the book's main purpose, which is to convey some sense of the new powers with which we are being endowed as genomics and a new molecular genetics grow out of traditional genetics, and of the likely impact and significance of those powers and their use. A second, equally important objective is to convey how knowledge, in the sense of theories, schemas, and ideas, has also changed in this context, along with powers and techniques. An overview of the subsequent chapters is then presented.