Forward Contamination of Mars

Submitted by Esma Bozlak to fulfill the ethics in science requirement for the Young Scientist Program at BMSIS. Mars has attracted the attention of scientists from the past to present, and going to Mars to explore with robots as well as with humans has been of interest to many people. Many successful, as well as unsuccessful, Mars missions have been attempted since the beginning of the space age. The first successful launch was done with Mariner 4 in 1964. It was the […]

September 7, 2020

Ethics of Stem Cell Research

Submitted by Büsra Elkatmis to fulfill the ethics in science requirement for the Young Scientist Program at BMSIS. What are stem cells? Cells are the smallest known building blocks of living organisms. All of the cells in the human body have different functions. For example, white blood cells fight infection in the body while red blood cells carry oxygen, and heart muscle cells make the heart beat while neurons are used to transmit signals through the body and for the functions of […]

A partially-assembled jigsaw puzzle with a picture of DNA

August 31, 2020

The Uses And Potential Misuses of Synthetic Biology

Submitted by Pernelle Chan to fulfill the ethics in science requirement for the Young Scientist Program at BMSIS. Introduction/Overview With the rapid evolution of both technology and science, researchers and experts in a vast number of fields have been looking to create innovative, biological technologies that can benefit society (or to make a profit). One of the key realms of this innovation lies in the rising popularity of the field of synthetic biology. Synthetic biology is the creation or engineering of organisms. […]

August 27, 2020

Science Debate and Miscommunication on Social Media

Submitted by Emily Harari to fulfill the ethics in science requirement for the Young Scientist Program at BMSIS. Background Media Bias in American Media The Founding Fathers of the United States pointed out media bias as early as the 1800s, claiming it targeted their campaigns (1). The phenomenon is not new. However, social media has increased its prevalence. With fewer barriers to publication, almost anyone can disseminate information without adhering to journalistic etiquette. Most commonly, conversations on media bias pertain […]

February 13, 2018

The Ethics of Reproducibility in Computational Research

Sumeet Kulkarni shares his ethics & society case study, which he completed as part of our Young Scientist Program. I was motivated to choose this topic for study since my own BMSIS YSP project involved the computational modelling of bubbles growing in lava. The vesicles they leave behind when the lava solidifies into rock are important proxies in determining the atmospheric pressures at that epoch. This method has already been put into use in field studies of vesicle size distributions in […]

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