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Archive by tag | genetics

08 Apr 2014 | 12:21 GMT

Emily Anthes discusses how biotechnology is shaping the future of our furry and feathered friends

Posted by Alex Jackson | Categories: Books, Featured, Science around the world, Science communication and outreach, Technology, Tools and techniques, Uncategorized

American science journalist and author Emily Anthes with her dog, Milo.
Image Courtesy of Nina Subin.

Emily Anthes is a science journalist and author. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Wired, Scientific American, Psychology Today, BBC Future, SEED, Discover, Popular Science, Slate, The Boston Globe, and elsewhere.  Read more

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  • genetics
  • Science Communication
  • science writing
  • technology

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08 Feb 2012 | 10:00 GMT

Open Season

Posted by Soapbox Science Editor | Categories: Books, Science organisations

Open Season

Misha Angrist is the author of Here is a Human Being: At the Dawn of Personal Genomics (HarperCollins), now out in paperback. He teaches at Duke University and blogs at blogs.plos.org/genomeboy.
Us…and Them

And after all we’re only ordinary men.

Roger Waters

As a graduate student, I studied the genetics of Hirschsprung disease, a congenital disorder of the nervous system in the gut (and, as I describe in my book, a disease that would affect my own family many years later). Among the things I found to be most gratifying (and yes, occasionally frustrating) in my doctoral studies were the interactions with Hirschsprung patients and families. We students had pledged our fealty to Science writ large, yes, but we weren’t studying roundworms or fruit flies. Our “subjects” (a descriptor of research participants that, in my opinion, is condescending and should be retired ASAP) were thinking feeling human beings. If we found a highly penetrant mutation in their DNA, it had the potential to alter their reproductive decisions and their lives. It meant something to them.

But even if it didn’t, shouldn’t life scientists-in-training, especially those whose model organism is Homo sapiens, have some sort of mandatory exposure to, you know, life? Should there not be some inevitable, meaningful exchange between researcher and researchee?

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  • biology
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  • genetics
  • Misha Angrist

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07 Jul 2011 | 13:22 GMT

The Language of Genetics

Posted by Soapbox Science Editor | Categories: Books, Science communication and outreach

The Language of Genetics

Denis Alexander is this week’s guest blogger. He has spent 40 years in the biological research community in various parts of the world, latterly as Head of the Laboratory of Lymphocyte Signalling and Development at The Babraham Institute, Cambridge which he left in 2008. Since then he has been heading up the new Faraday Institute for Science and Religion at St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge, where he is a fellow.  Read more

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  • biology
  • Denis Alexander
  • genetics
  • history

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About this blog

Soapbox Science is a guest blog hosted by Nature Publishing Group, providing a forum for the discussion of science news, the history of science, ethics, details of expeditions or outreach activities and book reviews. The views expressed in each blog post belong to the author(s) and are not necessarily shared or endorsed by Nature Publishing Group. We welcome contributions from scientists, science communicators, project coordinators or book authors. If you'd like to take to the soapbox and contribute a guest post, please email blogs@nature.com.
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