Archive for November, 2009
Yesterday President Obama issued an Executive Order establishing the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. The Commission’s Chair will be Amy Gutmann, President of the University of Pennsylvania and a political theorist. Its Vice Chair will be James W. Wagner, President of Emory University and an engineer. Over her career, Dr. Gutmann has [...]
One of the less attractive features of the political debate about human embryonic stem cells has been a tone of triumphalism when one side or the other can register a “victory.”
With new opportunities come questions about how to interpret the avalanche of genetic information and how to protect it from improper use.
A comprehensive approach to developing, deploying, and utilizing our eyes in the sky can revolutionize national security and environmental sustainability.
Earlier this month, the House passed a bill that will protect as many as 50,000 nuclear medical procedures a day in the United States. That’s how many procedures rely on nuclear isotopes produced by foreign reactors. The United States has been at risk of experiencing a shortage of these isotopes since the Chalk River Reactor [...]
Rekindling an innovation economy focused on regional clusters would go far to making Americans productive and optimistic again.
This weekend, federal rules enforcing the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act go into effect. From then on, there will be stiff legal penalties for hiring or employment discrimination based on genetic data, or for companies that request their employees submit to genetic testing. Rules governing genetic discrimination in group health insurance plan coverage take effect December [...]
The relationship between population and environmental sustainability is complex, and understanding the fraught history of debates on the issue is critical for scientists and advocates.
The lessons learned from the French Minitel network in the 1980s are still important as the FCC considers net neutrality today. A philosopher of technology talks about the importance of digital democratic innovation.
Earlier this week, six research universities announced a set of shared principles for increasing access to new medicines in poor countries. Boston University, Brown, Harvard, the Oregon Health and Science University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale joined the Association of University Technology Managers Monday in releasing the statement, which aims to guide licensing decisions [...]
It’s time to have a new conversation about population and the environment—one that is grounded in science and guided by values of human rights, equity, and social justice.
A significant proportion of American women leave scientific careers between earning their Ph.D. and winning tenure-track positions. Many of these “leaks” in the pipeline are the result of decisions to start families. Changes to federal and university policy can stem the losses, say the authors of a new report.
A U.S. District Court judge ruled Monday that a gene patent lawsuit filed against the Patent and Trademark Office could move forward. At issue are patents exclusively licensed by Myriad Genetics for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Mutations of the genes are strongly linked to significant risks of breast cancer. The suit, lead by the [...]
Most states refrain from prescribing rules governing partial match reporting or familial searching in statute, regulation, or well-publicized memoranda. This report represents the first effort to catalog in a comprehensive manner state policies and practices regarding partial match reporting and familial searching.
State crime labs can collect and analyze DNA evidence, comparing results to profiles stored in the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System. Here’s how the process works.
Certain “partial” and “familial” matches found in DNA databases can implicate an offender’s close genetic relatives as possible perpetrators of a crime. But there are no consistent federal rules on how to conduct such searchers and report findings.
