Culturing Life: How Cells Became Technologies. By Hannah Landecker . 2007. Harvard University Press (ISBN 9780674034761). 276 pages. Paperback. $$18.95. Cell culture techniques have shaped the scope of biology since the start of the 20th century and are responsible for major advances in biomedicine. Hannah Landecker, an associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles, has written an engaging account of some of the major advances in cell culturing. The book is divided into a lengthy introduction, five chapters, and an epilogue. The introduction is the weakest point of the book, being not only long, but somewhat abstract for the layperson. The first chapter, entitled ““Autonomy,”” covers major events that allowed cells to be manipulated outside the organism. It focuses on …