Fwd: EDGE 211: Why Do Some People Resist Science? Paul Bloom & Deena Skolnick Weisberg

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From: Edge <editor@edge.org>
Date: 30 May 2007 15:18
Subject: EDGE 211: Why Do Some People Resist Science?  Paul Bloom & Deena Skolnick Weisberg
To: Rhys Evans <wheresrhys@gmail.com>

Edge 211
May 29, 2007

(5,600 words)

This EDGE edition, at 5,600 words with video, graphics, and links, is available online at http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge211.html

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THE THIRD CULTURE
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NEWSWEEK INTERNATIONAL
June 4, 2007

COVER STORY

LIFE 2.0

A band of maverick scientists-including Craig Venter, who decoded the human genome-are in the verge of rewriting life's genetic code from scratch. They think they can create artificial cells that can manufacture drugs and new materials, prowl the bloodstream for caner and turn sunlight into biofuels. Are they playing God?

By Lee Silver
Newsweek International

June 4, 2007 issue - It last happened about 3.6 billion years ago. a tiny living cell emerged from the dust of the Earth. It replicated itself, and its progeny replicated themselves, and so on, with genetic twists and turns down through billions of generations. Today every living organism-every person, plant, animal and microbe-can trace its heritage back to that first cell. Earth's extended family is the only kind of life that we've observed, so far, in the universe.

This pantheon of living organisms is about to get some newcomers - and we're not talking about extraterrestrials. Scientists in the last couple of years have been trying to create novel forms of life from scratch. They've forged chemicals into synthetic DNA, the DNA into genes, genes into genomes, and built the molecular machinery of completely new organisms in the lab-organisms that are nothing like anything nature has produced.

The people who are defying Nature's monopoly on creation are a loose collection of engineers, computer scientists, physicists and chemists who look at life quite differently than traditional biologists do. Harvard professor George Church wants "to do for biology what Intel does for electronics"-namely, making biological parts that can be assembled into organisms, which in turn can perform any imaginable biological activity. Jay Keasling at UC Berkeley received $42 million from Bill Gates to create living microfactories that manufacture a powerful antimalaria agent. And then there's Craig Venter, the legendary biotech entrepreneur who made his name by decoding the human genome for a tenth of the predicted cost and in a tenth of the predicted time. Venter has put tens of millions of dollars of his own money into Synthetic Genomics, a start-up, to make artificial organisms that convert sunlight into biofuel, with minimal environmental impact and zero net release of greenhouse gases. These organisms, he says, will "replace the petrochemical industry, most food, clean energy and bioremediation."
[...more]
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge211.html#nw
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MAKING IT HAPPEN
Craig Venter galvanized the Human Genome Project. Can he do it for synthetic biology?

By Barrett Sheridan
Newsweek International

June 4, 2007 issue - Craig Venter is the rude boy of molecular biology. He made himself famous by decoding the human genome faster and cheaper than anyone expected, beating a team of rivals led by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Since then, Venter has spent much of his time aboard Sorcerer II, his high-tech research vessel, trolling the seas in search of new proteins. The findings will be helpful, he says, on his next project: synthesizing a living organism from a handful of inert chemicals. If he succeeds, he'll be able to turn cells into biochemical factories that can churn out biofuels. NEWSWEEK's Barrett Sheridan spoke with him by phone from Edinburgh, Scotland, on the problems and potential of synthetic biology. [...more]
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge211.html#nw
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OUR SYNTHETIC FUTURES
What might happen if we repurpose biology to our own ends?

Web-exclusive commentary
by Rudy Rucker
Newsweek
May 27, 2007

The SynBio approach is onto something big-a new version of nanotechnology, which is the craft of manufacturing things at the molecular scale. SynBio's plan is to capitalize on the fact that biology is already doing molecular fabrication all the time. What might happen if we repurpose biology to our own ends?

One big worry is what nanotechnologists call the "gray-goo problem." What's to stop a particularly virulent SynBio organism from eating everything on earth? My guess is that this could never happen. Every existing plant, animal, fungus and protozoan already aspires to world domination. There's nothing more ruthless than viruses and bacteria-and they've been practicing for a very long time. [...more]
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge211.html#nw
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WHY DO SOME PEOPLE RESIST SCIENCE?
By Paul Bloom and Deena Skolnick Weisberg

...In sum, the developmental data suggest that resistance to science will arise in children when scientific claims clash with early emerging, intuitive expectations. This resistance will persist through adulthood if the scientific claims are contested within a society, and will be especially strong if there is a non-scientific alternative that is rooted in common sense and championed by people who are taken as reliable and trustworthy. This is the current situation in the United States with regard to the central tenets of neuroscience and of evolutionary biology. These clash with intuitive beliefs about the immaterial nature of the soul and the purposeful design of humans and other animals - and, in the United States, these intuitive beliefs are particularly likely to be endorsed and transmitted by trusted religious and political authorities. Hence these are among the domains where Americans' resistance to science is the strongest. ...

PAUL BLOOM is a psychologist at Yale University and the author of DESCARTES BABY. DEENA SKOLNICK WEISBERG is a doctoral candidate in psychology at Yale University.

[MORE]
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge211.html#bloom2
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PEN/ROBERT BINGHAM FELLOWSHIP FOR WRITERS AWARDED TO JANNA LEVIN

The fellowship honors an exceptionally talented fiction writer whose debut work-a novel or collection of short stories published in 2006-represents distinguished literary achievement and suggests great promise.

2007 Awardee

This year's PEN/Robert Bingham Fellow is Janna Levin for her novel A MADMAN DREAMS OF TURING MACHINES Machines (Knopf).

[MORE]
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge211.html#levin
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THIRD CULTURE NEWS
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THE COLBERT REPORT
May 21, 2007

[Video] JARED DIAMOND

Author Jared Diamond has a book that tells why civilization succeeds. Yeh, I've read it. It's called The Bible.

"Jared Diamond tells Stephen we have about another 50 years to go." ...

[MORE]
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge211.html#colbert
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THE NEW YORK TIMES
SUNDAY BOOK REVIEW
May 27, 2007

'THE CANON: A WHIRLIGIG TOUR OF THE BEAUTIFUL BASICS OF SCIENCE' BY NATALIE ANGIER
Reviewed by Steven Pinker

A refresher course on the fundamentals of science that every person should master.

[MORE]
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge211.html#nytbr
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TEXAS MONTHLY
June 2007

HUMAN MATE SELECTION IS A MANY-SPLENDORED THING

David Buss has a grand unified theory about the evolution of desire. His research has identified 115 love acts, 147 things you can do to upset or annoy the opposite sex, and 237 reasons to copulate. But can that help me find romance?

by Karen Olsson

[MORE]
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge211.html#tm
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THE OBSERVER
May 27, 2007

MY WEEK: RICHARD DAWKINS

Travelling via the US is a bit of a trial for the evolutionary biologist, thanks to security gone mad. But later, he goes on to encounter another, lovely, kind of booby - and a terrific eco-friendly sports car

[MORE]
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge211.html#rd
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THE COLBERT REPORT
May 24, 2007

[Video] JIMMY WALES

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales says that his staff is scrambling to protect Wikipedia from Stephen....

[MORE]
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge211.html#wales
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CHARLIE ROSE
May 24, 2007

[Video] DAVID ROCKWELL

A conversation with architect David Rockwell. His book, co-authored with Bruce Mau, is "Spectacle". ...

[MORE]
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge211.html#rockwell
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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
May 25, 2007

SCIENCE JOURNAL

BIODIVERSE MYSPACE? ONLINE ENCYCLOPEDIA TO NAME ALL SPECIES

By Robert Lee Hotz

Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson and his colleagues launched the new online Encyclopedia of Life with $12.5 million from the MacArthur Foundation and the Sloan Foundation. Over the next decade, they intend to create a Web page for every species known and named. "We are going for nothing less than the complete mapping of the world's biodiversity," Dr. Wilson said. ...

[MORE]
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge211.html#hotz
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LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O'BRIEN
May 23, 2007

[Video] MARK 'DR. BUGS' MOFFETT

Conan meets some jealous slugs, a deadly frog, and a lesbian lizard....

[MORE]
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge211.html#mm
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MOVIE WEB
May 3, 2007

PBS GREENLIGHTS WIRED SCIENCE TO PREMIERE IN OCTOBER

PBS has picked up the first season of Wired Science, a production of KCET/Los Angeles in association with Wired Magazine, to premiere nationwide October 3, 2007, at 8 p.m. The 10-week primetime series translates Wired's award-winning journalism, design and irreverent attitude into a fast-paced, one-hour weekly television show that will span the globe to chronicle the scientific advances and technologies that are transforming the world.

[MORE]
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge211.html#mw
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EDGE BOOKS
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WHAT IS YOUR DANGEROUS IDEA?
Today's Leading Thinkers on the Unthinkable
With an Introduction by STEVEN PINKER and an Afterword by RICHARD DAWKINS Edited By JOHN BROCKMAN

Harper Perennial, US
Free Press, UK

"A selection of the most explosive ideas of our age."- SUNDAY HERALD

"Provocative" - THE INDEPENDENT

"Challenging notions put forward by some of the world's sharpest minds"-  SUNDAY TIMES

"A titillating compilation" - THE GUARDIAN

"Danger - brilliant minds at work...A brilliant book: exhilarating, hilarious, and chilling." _ THE EVENING STANDARD (London)

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WHAT WE BELIEVE BUT CANNOT PROVE
Today's Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty
With an Introduction by IAN MCEWAN
Edited By JOHN BROCKMAN

Harper Perennial, US
Pocket Books, UK

"...This collection, mostly written by working scientists, does not represent the antithesis of science. These are not simply the unbuttoned musings of professionals on their day off. The contributions, ranging across many disparate fields, express the spirit of a scientific consciousness at its best - informed guesswork" - Ian McEwan, from the Introduction,in THE TELEGRAPH

"An unprecedented roster of brilliant minds, the sum of which is nothing short of an oracle - a book to be dog-eared and debated." - SEED

"Scientific pipedreams at their very best." - THE GUARDIAN

"Astounding reading." - BOSTON GLOBE

"Fantastically stimulating." - BBC RADIO 4

"Intellectual and creative magnificence." THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER

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This EDGE edition, at 5,600 words with video, graphics, and links, is available online at http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge211.html
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EDGE

John Brockman, Editor and Publisher
Russell Weinberger, Associate Publisher
Karla Taylor, Editorial Assistant

Copyright (c) 2007 by EDGE Foundation, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

Published by EDGE Foundation, Inc.,
5 East 59th Street, New York, NY 10022

EDGE Foundation, Inc. is a nonprofit private  operating foundation under Section 501(c)(3) of  the Internal Revenue Code.
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