Yearly Archives: 2008

Bill Gates Says He will Release His Personal Genome

This entry was posted in Biology Health Care Science on by

With one caveat: he will not have his genome sequenced and release it until after the top 20 infectious diseases have been cured.
On Wednesday, 4/23, the University of Washington Department of Genome Sciences kicked of their 2008 Symposium with a Special Panel Discussion: The Personal Genome: Consequences for Society.
pg08poster.jpg
Gates joined Dr. George Church, Dr. Eric Lander and Dr. Leena Peltonen on the panel. After a 15 minute introduction by Dr. Lander the panel, moderated by Dr. Maynard Olson, answered questions from the audience, local and online, for the next 90 minutes. For example:

  • The personal genome is likely to benefit only those in developed countries. How will it assist undeveloped countries?
  • Does all this knowledge of genetic variations risk a world of designer babies?
  • Given the influence of environment over our health doesn’t the public over emphasize the power of genes?

Some important points:

  • Even though dramatic advances are being made at an accelerating pace genomicists are still just scratching the surface,
  • 2) there are significant privacy issues to be worked out,
  • there is a high risk of misuse and abuse of genomic information and
  • public education on genomicsand collaboration with the public on the above and related issues will be critical.

You can stream a video of this Panel Discussion. Dr. Lander’s introduction is worth the price of admission and Gates’ commitment is near the end of the program.

An Easy Decision for the Texas School Board

This entry was posted in Biology Education Religion Science on by

Nope, they should not have any trouble rejecting this proposal:

A bid by the Dallas-based Institute for Creation Research to train future science teachers was flatly rejected by Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board members Wednesday.

Here is a sampling of what you would get from ICR:

The purpose of ICRGS is (1) to prepare science teachers and other individuals to understand the universe within the integrating framework of a biblical perspective using proven scientific data, and (2) to prepare students for leadership in science education. A clear distinction is drawn between scientific creationism and biblical creationism, but it is the position of the Institute that the two are compatible and that all genuine facts of science support the Bible.
The programs and curricula of the Graduate School, while similar in factual content to those of other graduate colleges, are distinctive in one major respect. ICR bases its educational philosophy on the foundational truth of a personal Creator-God and His authoritative and unique revelation of truth in the Bible.

The first two goals of their distance education program are:

# create a network of science teachers who desire to teach scientific truths about biblical creation;
# learn the most effective ways to teach scientific truths about biblical creation;

Excellent goals! Ones that any decent science teacher can already handle just fine.
If someone really wants a course like this as part of their educational credentials then they should certainly be allowed to do so. But they should not expect it to qualify them to teach real science.

On a related note, John Freshwater can keep his bible on his desk. However, it sounds like some of his teaching points and methods are well aligned with ICR.

Update: Greg Laden has a related petition you should go sign.

Law and Politics

This entry was posted in Law on by

Professor Brian Tamanaha suggests that perhaps constitutional law should not be taught in law schools and notes:

Students who learn that constitutional law is infused with politics (though it cannot be reduced to that) might wrongly come to think that all law is like that, an easy error to fall into because constitutional law has so much prominence and attention within the legal academy.

Well, they would not be wrong about the reams of dead trees, being fully imbued with politics, shipped from the loading docks of legislatures far and wide.

Friday Ark #187

This entry was posted in Bird Blogging Cat Blogging Dog Blogging Friday Ark Invertebrate Blogging Pet Blogging Pets Weekend Cat Blogging on by

We’ll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and….?

Visit all the boarders, Link to the Ark and check back for updates through Sunday afternoon!

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You can find previous editions at the not quite up to date Arkives page.

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