ethics

Selecting Humans: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Gökçe Senger shares her ethics & society case study, which she completed as part of our Young Scientist Program. The term eugenics is derived from the Greek term Eugene, meaning ‘well-born.’ In 1883, it was first used by Sir Francis Galton, a British scholar and cousin of Charles Darwin1. He realized that high-quality intelligence and abilities were inherited through generations with an efficiency of 20%1. He then theorized that the human population could be improved by selecting individuals with desirable traits and encouraging […]

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Synthetic Biology Ethics

Palmer Fliss shares his ethics & society case study, which he completed as part of our Young Scientist Program. When one hears the phrase “synthetic biology”, images of clone soldiers, designer babies, cyborgs, and GMOs spring to mind. With the cost of genetic sequencing dropping precipitously thanks to advances in the technology, coupled with the rise of increasingly specific genetic manipulation techniques, synthetic biology has developed from a field only touched upon in science fiction to a real scientific field […]

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Risk of Radiation Exposure to Astronauts

Anuti Joshi shares her ethics & society case study, which she completed as part of our Young Scientist Program. Astronauts are inevitably exposed to radiation whether they are trapped solar protons or Galactic Cosmic Radiation (GCR). Heavy ions produce distinct types of biological damage to cells and tissues compared to X-rays or gamma-rays. An increase in the Solar Proton Event (SPE) or GCR can cause a greater chance of DNA mutation and therefore an even higher probability of contracting cancer. […]

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Body, Spirit, and the Emptiness of Space

Mohit Nalavadi shares his ethics & society case study, which he completed as part of our Young Scientist Program. Characterized by the belief that we can plan and create a better world through action, the 1960s approach to human progress may soon meet us again in 15 years. NASA, the ESA, SpaceX and others agree that the 2030s is the realistic decade in which we send humans to Mars. Inevitably, this in consequence will reinvigorate our primal instinct of exploration […]

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Podcast: Why Explore Space?

Our “Beer with BMSIS” podcast for May features a discussion between Dr. Sanjoy Som and Dr. Jacob Haqq-Misra about the philosophical question “Why explore space?“. One of the questions raised by skeptics of space exploration is the particular value that this enterprise adds to human civilization. The auxiliary discoveries of space exploration often are cited as the reasons for public investment, such as technologies that resulted from investment in space exploration but now benefit everyday consumers. Other reasons for valuing […]

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BlueSciCon Episode 29: Why explore space?

Dr. Sanjoy Som and Dr. Jacob Haqq-Misra Beverage: Irish Death (United States – Washington) Listen: [mp3 download] [ca_audio url=”http://beerwith.bmsis.org/BwBMSIS_29_MAY2014.mp3″ width=”500″ height=”27″ css_class=”codeart-google-mp3-player”]

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