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WHAT:  Digging Deeper L: DNA, Genes, & Life in the 21st Century
WHO:  Led by Dr. Ron Boothe
WHEN:  Monday, June 16 & 23, 2008 -- 7:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m.
WHERE:  Mandolin Café, 3923 South 12th St., Tacoma, WA 98405

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United for Peace
of Pierce County
Study Circle:
June 16 & 23, 2008
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http://www.ufppc.org
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DIGGING DEEPER L: DNA, GENES, & LIFE IN THE 21st CENTURY

Scientists are on the verge of creating life from scratch in a test tube. In January, Science News reported that "A team of 17 researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) has created the largest man-made DNA structure by synthesizing and assembling the 582,970 base pair genome of a bacterium, Mycoplasma genitalium JCVI-1.0. This work, published online today in the journal Science by Dan Gibson, Ph.D., et al, is the second of three key steps toward the team’s goal of creating a fully synthetic organism. In the next step, which is ongoing at the JCVI, the team will attempt to create a living bacterial cell based entirely on the synthetically made genome."

This feat will have implications as profound as the breakthrough scientific discoveries of Copernicus and Galileo (the earth is not the center of the universe), Darwin (humans are not qualitatively different from animals) and Freud (human behavior is often not guided by rational thought).

Dr. Ron Boothe, author of Perception of the Visual Environment (Springer-Verlag, 2002) and former chief of the Visual Science Division at Emory University's Yerkes Primate Research Center, will lead the discussion. In January 2007, Dr. Boothe led the group in a discussion of a number of books on war and human nature.

The books discussed in Digging Deeper L:

—J. Craig Venter, A Life Decoded: My Genome, My Life (Penguin, October 2007).  --  “A great deal has been written about Venter as the head of Celera, the private research company that won a race with the National Institutes of Health's Human Genome Project to sequence the human genome. His role in this historic accomplishment has been both vilified and praised. Now, in a clumsily written autobiography, Venter offers his side of the story, portraying himself as the eternal underdog, fighting for truth and attempting to make scientific discoveries solely to help others. He is opposed in this struggle by a cadre of scientists out to advance their own careers, by a federal bureaucracy incapable of rationally using public funds to promote scientific advances and by the heads of corporations willing to do almost anything to make money. Venter accuses all of the big players -- the Human Genome Project's Frances Collins and Nobel laureate James Watson, among many others -- of outright dishonesty. Ignore the hyperbole and be skeptical of the accusations, but there's still a terribly depressing story about the politics of big science. Venter also attempts to contextualize the controversy swirling around the patenting of DNA sequences. Despite the lack of unbiased insight, this is well worth reading for the fascinating perspective it offers on one of the major scientific discoveries of all time.” —Publishers Weekly.

—Ronald M. Green, Babies by Design: The Ethics of Genetic Choice (Yale University Press, November 2007).  --  In his latest, Dartmouth College bioethicist Green (The Human Embryo Research Debates) embraces a vision of future parenthood bound to stir controversy, arguing that parents will, and should, give children the advantage of more "attractive physical features." Starting with the assumption that "we are entering the era of directed human evolution," he suggests that coming methods of in vitro fertilization will allow parents to genetically pre-select babies, not only to eliminate diseases like cystic fibrosis, but to promote what he calls "cosmetico-genomics." Scenario in place, Green explores a number of racially-charged hypotheticals: "Will dark-skinned African American parents choose to have lighter-skinned children?" Will Jewish parents use genetic rhinoplasty to change a 'Jewish nose'? Will Asian-Americans 'westernize' their children's eyes? Green answers that parents are right to reduce the unfair but very real social burdens facing their offspring, and dismisses objections as 'status quo bias.' Although he's peppered his argument with disclaimers that his vision would not reopen the door to the eugenics movements (the kind that underpinned Nazi Germany's genocidal master plan), readers may come away unconvinced; either way, this provoking book provides a rare, cogent look at the 'plusses' of genetically enhanced offspring.

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Since July 2004, United for Peace of Pierce County has been conducting “Digging Deeper,” a Monday-evening book discussion group, often in the form of a study circle. Topics have included peak oil, climate change, the corporation, torture, Iran, U.S.-Iran relations, the writings of Robert Baer, Islam, American immigration policy, Barack Obama and the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., Saul Alinsky’s life and writings, war and human nature, parallels between the U.S. and ancient Rome, the sustainability revolution, and the debt crisis, as well as abiding themes of war, peace, politics, and social change. Occasionally, the group has spent several weeks reading longer works, like Daniel Yergin’s The Prize or Robert Fisk’s The Great War for Civilisation.

DIGGING DEEPER meets every Monday from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Mandolin Café, 3923 S. 12th St., Tacoma, WA.

Participation is free. Some copies of the books are available for purchase or loan. Info: contact Dr. Ron Boothe (psyrgb@emory.edu).

****************
United for Peace
of Pierce County
Study Circle:
June 16 & 23, 2008
****************
http://www.ufppc.org
****************