Questions Apr 21

Beyond 51-52 (53-54 below*)

1. Why are we distinctively human rather than largely bovine, given the fact that we share 80% of our DNA with cows?

2. Critics of the standard Mendelian gene-centric view want to depose genes as what?

3. Who "gathered all the threads of the modern synthesis... into a single shimmering magic carpet"?

4. What's P.Z. Myers's apt analogy for epistasis?

5.  What's the neat 3-step of the selfish gene model that makes it so appealing?

6. What's the mainstream scientific perspective on race?

7. Why do genetic ancestry tests fall outside the FDA's regulatory authority?

8. Why does Obasogie think government has a moral and ethical responsibility to support race impact assessments of new biotechnologies?

DQ

• COMMENT: "You are 80% cow." Is that in any way a misleading statement, or one that is likely to be misunderstood?
• If genes are collaborators and not architects in the expression of traits, are they democratic or autocratic collaborators? 
• Are genes like quarterbacks who call the plays themselves, or who receive them from the sidelines? (And who or what is the sideline analogue, in this analogy?)
• "Nobody thinks just the quarterback wins the game," but teams with bad quarterbacks rarely win. Are genes like good quarterbacks, for those who've won the genetics game?
• Is altruism really altruistic, if it can be precisely quantified mathematically? 450
• Are you annoyed that Franklin is not mentioned along with Watson and Crick on 450, when West-Eberhard's gender is flagged as unduly slighted just a few pages later? 457
• "Genes do not exist for us, we exist for them." Agree?
• Has Richard Dawkins's crusading atheism detracted from his scientific credibility?
• Have you read The Selfish Gene? Was "selfish" the right word for what Dawkins meant to communicate? Would The Persistent/Inexorable/Immortal Gene have caught the public imagination to the same extent?
• How might an "extended modern synthesis" incorporate the insights of epigenetics?
• How do we balance a deep respect for "our common humanity" with the research imperative to discover the genetic variation responsible for the incidence of disease among specific racial/ethnic populations?
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Health news... weekly health news quiz
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*Beyond 53-54

1. Advocates for a moratorium on germline engineering advocate what actions?

2. "Our universities need to devote more resources" to what?

3. Name a current practice applying emergent biotechnologies that challenges core progressive and liberal values.

4. Why did some progressives who support stem cell research oppose the 2004 California stem cell initiative?

5. Paul Wolpe says presidential bioethics commissions should stay away from what?

6. What do "some feminists and social liberals and progressives... [and] free market liberals and economic conservatives" say about commercial reproductive surrogacy?

7. What did Gregory Stock say was the goal of the 1998 UCLA conference where James Watson said we should maximize the common good?

DQ

• Will greater understanding of the technological details of CRISPR clarify our ethical responsibilities with regard to its use?
• COMMENT: "Knowing science does not teach us how to live well with its power."
• "When and how should children conceived with high-tech assistance learn that they have two or three biological mothers?"
• "Should researchers transfer human genes or brain cells into non-human animals?"
• "Should researchers attempt to use cloning techniques to resurrect a Neanderthal?" (or a mammoth, or... ?)
• "How can we prevent harmful uses of human biotechnologies while preserving our commitment to science as a reliable method for producing shared knowledge?"
• Are you uneasy about chimeras?
• Should presidential bioethics commissions issue ethical recommendations?
• Should marketplace values govern pregnancy and childbearing?
• COMMENT: "If scientists don't play god, who will?" 485
• Is our fate in our genes?