In a groundbreaking work that draws on anthropology, history, philosophy, business and law, Parry links firsthand knowledge of the operation of the bioprospecting industry to a sophisticated analysis of broader economic, regulatory, and technological transformations to reveal the complex economic and political dynamics that underpin the new global trade in bio-information.

Bronwyn Parry is an economic and cultural geographer who holds a senior research fellowship at King's College, University of Cambridge. Her current research focuses on the creation and use of human tissue collections in the UK.

Part 1: Introduction Part 2. The Collection of Nature and the Nature of Collecting Revealing the Social and Spatial Dynamics of Collecting Collecting as Simple Acquisition: Decontextualization and Exoticization Collection as Concentration and Control Collection as Recirculation and Regulation New World Collectors Part 3: Speedup: Accelerating the Social and Spatial Dynamics of Collecting Retheorizing Life Forms: Material and Informational? The Rise of the Information and Bio-Information Economies Emerging Markets: The Regulation of Trade in Bio-Information Part 4: New Collectors, New Collections "When the world was a kinder and gentler place": Early Players and Vacation Pursuits "An historic revival of collecting" Impetus for the Revival: Technological Change The Biodiversity Convention: New Protocols and New Rationales GATT TRIPs: New Protections, New Incentives The Practice and Process of Collecting Part 5: The Fate of the Collections From Reproduction to Replication "Build it for us" Combinations and Permutations The Diminishing Role of in situ Collecting The Advent of Microsourcing Re-mining ex situ Collections The Emerging Trade in Collected Genetic and Biochemical Materials Hire Plants: Renters and Brokers Transacting Bio-Information: Licensing and "Pay-per-View" Part 6: Taming the Slippery Beast: Regulating Trade in Bio-Information Compensatory Agreements: The Rise of a Proto-Universal Culture of Regulation? Networks, Capillaries, and the Geography of Knowledge Systems Compensatory Agreements: Investigating Terms and Conditions Infrastructural Support and Technical Training Future Benefits: Royalty Payments Taming the Slippery Beast Regulating the Unlicensed Copying of Bio-Information Concentration and Control: Patenting Collected Materials The Complexities of "Co-Inventorship" Part 7: Back to the Future