TED RSS Feed: WSF report: Your Biological Biography

[David Sandusky]

My RSS Feed is a collection of inspirational Thinkers and Has Just Posted the Following:



TED's Matthew Trost reports from this Saturday session of the World Science Festival:

Nobel Prize winner and cell biologist Paul Nurse moderates a discussion between
+ the leader of the Human Genome Project, Francis Collins
+ physician and geneticist James Evans
+ and sociologist Nikolas Rose
... after a short introductory piece of context by Misha Angrist, who recently had his genome sequenced and analyzed by private genotyping firms and is writing a book on the topic.

Francis Collins offered some explanation on the basics of genomics, namely what a genome is and what it does. He classifies the genome as basically an "instruction book" which, were it a human one printed on regular paper in a regular font size, stacked up it would be as tall as the Washington Monument

Drawing from Angrist's thoughts on the implications of trying to find some predictive value in what he learned from having his genome sequenced, James Evans puts forward a discussion on Alzheimer's -- the possibility of predicting one's own risk, and whether or not this actually has value for people or whether it just needlessly damages them emotionally if they find out they're at risk. There has to be a way of managing the public desire for the information with the possible personal consequences of knowing this ... important to remember that genomic "risk" stretches across one's whole lifetime, and is not the same as physiology.

Collins shares the results of a study that seemed to show that people who were told their risk of Alzheimer's, even if they had a high probability, it didn't ruin their lives -- it just seemed to help them think more about preparing for the possibility.

Nikolas Rose objects to the definition of the genome as an "instruction book." He wants to "dethrone" genomics... He says that there has been creeping into science and public understanding a "genomic metaphysics" which misinterprets genetics as being the "source of who I am" -- when, really, there are lots of environmental factors that must be taken into account as well.

Everybody agrees that the Genetic Nondescrimination Act that George Bush signed into law several days ago is really good.

Angrist weighs in: Genomics is not something we can "put back" (like "toothpaste back into the bottle"), He reiterates the need to manage it and teach people about the complexities.

After an interesting Q&A session, Paul Nurse concludes with a "philosophical question" -- asking what each panelist feels about determinism. Collins isn't too impressed by determinism and points out that it's been a question for a long time. James Evans isn't convinced that we have free will. The group basically agrees that changing the justice system based on this question is not really going to work; courts aren't standing for deterministic arguments as a criminal defense.

Collins points out that half of all people in the audience have a genotype that makes them genetically predisposed 16-fold more than the other half, to commit crimes like murder... Those are the people with a Y chromosome -- males!



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