<P>The molecular life sciences are making visible what was once invisible. Yet the morewe learn about our own biology, the less we are able to fit this knowledge into an integrated whole.Life is divided into new sub-units and reassembled into new forms: from genes to clones, fromembryonic stages to the building-blocks of synthetic biology. Extracted from their scientific andsocial contexts, these new entities become not only visible but indeed "naked": ready toassume an essential status of their own and take on multiple values and meanings as they pass fromlabs to courts, from patent offices to parliaments and back. </P><P>In <I>NakedGenes</I>, leading science scholar Helga Nowotny and molecular biologist Giuseppe Testaexamine the interaction between these dramatic advances in the life sciences and equally dramaticpolitical reconfigurations of our societies. Considering topics ranging from assisted reproductionand personalized medicine to genetic sports doping, they reveal both surprising continuities andradical discontinuities between the latest advances in the life sciences and long-standing humantraditions. </P>