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@genotopia
A "new" account of the double helix? Nah.
It’s been a minute since someone has recounted at length, in a book, the story of the solving of the double helix structure of DNA. Matthew Cobb’s Life’s Greatest Secret, which focuses on the genetic code, does a fine job. There’s Robert Olby’s Francis Crick: Hunter of Life’s Secrets (2009). Brenda Maddox’s superb Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA (2002) gave Rosalind Franklin the full,…
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Science, Scientism, and Stephen Pinker
Science, Scientism, and Stephen Pinker
I have an essay in Nature this week on how science has shaped human identity, part of their 8-part anniversary series on the history of science over the last 150 years. The response has been overwhelmingly positive — thank you!
There’s always a few cranks, though. What has stuck in some people’s craw is my distinction between science and scientism. Science is a set of practices to investigate…
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Making DNA "DNA"
Making DNA “DNA”
On Jan. 2 at 10 pm, PBS American Masters is airing “Decoding Watson,” a film that casts a gimlet eye on James D. Watson and includes commentary from Yours Truly. Here’s a little piece I wrote for their website.
In it, I argue that the notion that no one has done more than Watson to make DNA “DNA” — to weave the molecule into our understanding of life and, further, to turn DNA into a cultural…
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The First Lawyer of Behavior Genetics Speaks Out Against Plomin's Blueprint
The First Lawyer of Behavior Genetics Speaks Out Against Plomin’s Blueprint
In his latest post, the behavioral psychologist Eric Turkheimer writes that in Blueprint, Robert Plomin appropriates his ideas without attribution and twists their meaning. You may have heard of the so-called First Law of Behavior Genetics: All human behavioral traits are heritable.” Turkheimer coined this and two further “laws” to point up ironies in the way behavior genetics was being…
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The Eugenics Crusade, on PBS's The American Experience
The Eugenics Crusade, on PBS’s The American Experience
I and a large number of my smart and thoughtful colleagues are part of the latest episode of the PBS series The American Experience. This show is, “The Eugenics Crusade.” I’ve seen about half of it and it’s very well done. Television worth watching and getting outraged about!
It airs tonight, Oct. 16, 2018, at 9 pm Eastern and Pacific/8 Central on your local PBS station!
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/…
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Lies, damned lies, and GWAS
Lies, damned lies, and GWAS
Well, I provoked another kerfuffle in the pages of Nature. And it’s a troubling one, because it suggests a widening culture gap between the sciences and humanities—a gap I’ve spent a quarter-century-and-counting trying to bridge.
The piece in question is my review of Robert Plomin’s new book, Blueprint. I want here to give some context and fuller explanation for that piece, without the editorial…
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TBT: Galàpagos Tortoise I'm excited to learn that the entire 15-year back-catalog of the quirky and wonderful The Believer…
Your DNA is Weirder than You Think
Your DNA is Weirder than You Think
My review of She Has Her Mother’s Laugh, Carl Zimmer‘s wonderful new book on heredity, just appeared in the latest number of The Atlantic. The book casts a long shadow, covering history, science, medicine, and agriculture, all woven together by Zimmer’s energetic yet reflective reportage.
My essay plucked just one theme out of many in the book— Genotopia readers will recognize my interest in…
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Nanoparticle Supersoap Creates ‘Bijel’ With Potential as Sculptable Fluid A new two-dimensional film, made of polymers and nanoparticles and developed by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), can ... Read more
Streamers
Bands of color indicate changes in environment where a particular microbe can thrive.
These hot springs—often as clear as swimming pools, as though methodically poisoned to kill algae and small plants—are chocked with life. Even pools of boiling sulfuric acid have diverse communities of microbes. They drift invisibly in the crystal-clear center, down to depths of many meters. They can live…
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Microbe Safari II: Geyser Creek
Microbe Safari II: Geyser Creek
This microbe safari is risky business. We are an hour’s bush-whacking off the trail, in the Yellowstone back-country, amid a field of geothermal pools. Most of the pools are at or near the boiling point. Some are alkaline, while others are as sour and corrosive as stomach acid. There was danger in nearly every step. The whole district is shot through with potholes, each one potentially deadly.…
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Microbe Safari
We were an eleven-person ant-line marching down the boardwalk, laden with oversized, overstuffed backpacks, coolers, and tiny buckets on six-foot handles. The path to Artists’ Paintpot bore left, preparing to ascend. Steam plumed out of the Earth ahead on the right. Our leader veered left and stepped off onto spongy moss and plunged into scrubby pine forest. For the next hour, we bushwhacked our…
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I arrived on the second day of creation. Laurie Barge had invited me to spend the day in her lab, modeling the origin of life. She…
My latest effort: a look at some exciting new research on the origin of life.
Assessing the ethics of CRISPR
Assessing the ethics of CRISPR
The Nuffield Council on Bioethics has issued an open call for evidence to inform its examination of ethical issues arising in relation to genome editing. “Submission of evidence” is defined broadly, and includes opinions, reflections, and suggestions. No flames or trolls though, obviously.
The deadline to respond is Monday, 2/1, it’s recommended that it’s roughly 2000 words if submitted in…
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Criticism of Lander reaches mainstream media
Criticism of Lander reaches mainstream media
Sometimes the Whigs get called on the carpet. Carolyn Johnson summarized the kerfluffle over Lander’s history of CRISPR in today’s Washington Post. “The tweetstorm erupted,” she writes,
when the leader of an institution vying for control of the technology published a lengthy historical account of CRISPR in a top scientific journal, an account that one critic (who happens to work at the opposing…
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Landergate: a link list
Landergate: a link list
Lander’s article has spawned further commentary, as well as raising afresh the general issue of the CRISPR patents. I’ll try to keep a running list. I’ll include links from yesterday’s post for completeness. If I miss any posts or articles, post it in a comment and I’ll add it.
Here’s an article from Nature, Jan. 12, on the heating up of the CRISPR patent battle.
…and one from The Scientist.
…and
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A Whig History of CRISPR
A Whig History of CRISPR
“Shitstorm” would be one term of art for the reaction in the genome community to a commentary in Cellby Eric Lander, published on January 14. It presents as a definitive account of the discovery of CRISPR, the “gene editing” technique invented in 2013 and which blasted onto the science pages this year. CRISPR is likely to go down as the most important biotechnological invention since Kary Mullis…
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