His 1998 book, "The Biotech Century", addresses issues accompanying the new era of genetic commerce. In its review of the book, the journal "Nature" observed that "Rifkin does his best work in drawing attention to the growing inventory of real and potential dangers and the ethical conundrums raised by genetic technologies... At a time when scientific institutions are struggling with the public understanding of science, there is much they can learn from Rifkin's success as a public communicator of scientific and technological trends."