Playing God...Will it be the death of us? UNNATURAL: THE HERETICAL IDEA OF MAKING PEOPLE BY PHILIP BALL

Playing God...Will it be the death of us? UNNATURAL: THE HERETICAL IDEA OF MAKING PEOPLE BY PHILIP BALL: "Unnatural is the story of all the ­Frankensteins who wanted to play God by creating mankind, some clumsily with ­models, others ­scrupulously with clones and genomes - while the original and best way of making people continues to be the one tried and tested millions of times every day.

We are all fascinated by unnatural ­creatures, whether they are giants or dwarves or indeed anybody who is not like ourselves.

But this is not a book about people who have had the misfortune to be born with some freakish abnormality, such as ­conjoined twins, or those with pinhead skulls, or so-called ­‘lionmen’ covered with long hair from top to toe, or any of those ­pitiable creatures who squirmed and ­scuttled from under the circus tent in Tod Browning’s unforgettable 1933 film Freaks.

Philip Ball poses different questions. Has ­anyone come close to creating a human being and, if not, how and when might it happen?"