Essays
In the Beginning Was the Word
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn has been credited with this admonition: Guard every word, for every distinct word expresses a distinct idea, and when the word dies, so does the idea.
Although we live in a popular culture driven by images, the spoken word remains the most common and most personal form of communication. Words have at least two advantages: they're portable and they're infectious. Words can be toted and shared in two forms: spoken or written. Unlike projected visual images, your audience can take home word images, and they can share them with others.
Risky Business
Issues in Teaching about Safety and Regulation
Stigmatization of biotechnology's safety has caused a curious twist in public policy, says Mark Cantley of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Scientifically, it's safe--that is, as safe as other genetic manipulations. But opinion polls indicate the public does not perceive it as safe. One response is to erect special regulations intended to reassure the public.
This causes Cantley's Curious Twist: the new regulations are intended to protect biotechnology from the public, rather than their proper role of protecting the public from biotechnology.
Wholesome, Holistic and Holy
Controversies over Biotechnology and Food
We are now ten years into the public debate over modern biotechnology applied to food production, a debate that pivots as much on fears, perceptions and values as on safety (1). In the mid 1980's, the development of bovine somatotropin (BST, also called bovine growth hormone, or BGH) as a method to increase milk production made news. So did plans to test in a California field whether a bacterium modified by cut-and-splice gene technology could reduce frost damage when sprayed on crops. The legacy of this decade includes cartoons of emaciated drugjunkie cows, and images of Moon-suited scientists walking on Earth among rows of crops.
No Trick More Enlightening
Making Every Demonstration an Experiment
Food is fundamental to many aspects of culture and religion. You can also use food to communicate basic ideas about science because classical and modern biotechnologies are so commonplace in food production. Food is accessible, inexpensive and safe; and therefore it's a great topic to use in helping develop inquiry skills in students--no matter what their age.