Recently in Articles, Books and Reviews Category

Last Friday's New York Times contained this article on the quickly-growing field of synthetic biology. It is a very interesting and informative piece that is not just about the field itself, but about the way it is attracting students that otherwise may not have considered careers in biology, and the differences between the haves and the have-nots in the competition to make recognized contributions to this exciting field of research.

The author, John Mooallem, clearly intends for the story to have a moral (read the piece and that should be abundantly clear), yet he also points us to different interpretations of what that moral might be. 

Thanks to, friend of the Rock, Vicki Fong for calling this book review from the New York Times to my attention.  Rebecca Skloot's decade-long commitment to uncovering the details of "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" and her natural writing talents have apparently provided us with a compelling story that raises a whole host of serious ethical questions:  questions about medical testing and informed consent, about the ethically dubious background assumptions that are often operative in scientific communities, about the debts that may be owed to the descendants of unwilling (and otherwise largely forgotten) participants in the scientific process.

If you were a student working in a lab that was doing important work with HeLa cells, and you discovered this book, what would you do?

If a therapy developed and tested through the use of HeLa cells allowed you, or a loved one, to survive a life-threatening illness, and you discovered this book, what would you do?

If you were a descendant of Henrietta Lacks, and you could not afford health insurance or health care, what would you do?      

Thanks are due to, friend of the Rock, Sanford Gray Thatcher for bringing this article from Inside Higher Ed to our attention. 

I think Kiss and Euben do a nice job of articulating some of the central pedagogical challenges faced by those of us who teach ethics, and of making the case that ethics can be central to the mission of the university without undermining its commitment to critical inquiry and academic freedom (which, I have to admit, have always seemed to me to be substantive ethical commitments, rather than morally-neutral cognitive values).  I'll be interested to hear what you think.

After reading the article, please feel free to leave comments below, or to respond to the original query on our Facebook page. 

You can read about Penn State's own Cole W. Camplese, and his (for now, at least) unorthodox approach to teaching in this article from the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Feel free to share your comments concerning the pros and cons of his approach below!