linkstream2 microblog

QT:{{”
“One of Esvelt’s goals at M.I.T. is to facilitate that shift. Part of his job, as he sees it, is to challenge what he describes as “the ridiculous notion that natural and good are the same thing.” Instead, he told me, we ought to think about intelligent design as an instrument of genetics. He smiled because the phrase “intelligent design” usually refers to the anti-Darwinian theory that the universe, with all its intricacies and variations, is too complex to have arisen by chance—that there had to be a guiding hand. The truth is more prosaic, and also more remarkable: for four billion years, evolution, driven by natural selection and random mutation, has insured that the most efficient genes would survive and the weakest would disappear. But, propelled by CRISPR and other tools of synthetic biology, intelligent design has taken on an entirely new meaning, one that threatens to transcend Darwin—because evolution may soon be guided by us.”
“}}

How DNA Editing Could Change Life on Earth
http://www.NewYorker.com/magazine/2017/01/02/rewriting-the-code-of-life Intelligent design from CRISPR & gene drive rather than natural selection

Through a glass, darkly: Testing the [largely correlative] methods of neuroscience on [6502] computer chips
http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21714978-cautionary-tale-about-promises-modern-brain-science-tests-suggest

Building a Brain in the Lab
https://www.ScientificAmerican.com/article/building-a-brain-in-the-lab/ Nice summary of the development of organoids & their promise for personalized treatments

To bring a divided country together, start w…spit by
@SusanSvrlugahttps://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/12/24/to-bring-a-divided-country-together-start-with-a-little-spit Prominent piece on frosh #personalgenomics

@SusanSvrluga Surprised there’s so little discussion of #privacy, consent & ethics in this prominent piece

Your an adult. Your brain, not so much by @CarlZimmer
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/21/science/youre-an-adult-your-brain-not-so-much.html Non-obvious ethical implications of developmental neuroscience

QT:{{”
“The human brain reaches its adult volume by age 10, but the neurons that make it up continue to change for years after that. The connections between neighboring neurons get pruned back, as new links emerge between more widely separated areas of the brain.

Eventually this reshaping slows, a sign that the brain is maturing. But it happens at different rates in different parts of the brain.

The pruning in the occipital lobe, at the back of the brain, tapers off by age 20. In the frontal lobe, in the front of the brain, new links are still forming at age 30, if not beyond.

“It challenges the notion of what ‘done’ really means,” Dr. Somerville said.

As the anatomy of the brain changes, its activity changes as well. In a child’s brain, neighboring regions tend to work together. By adulthood, distant regions start acting in concert. Neuroscientists have speculated that this long-distance harmony lets the adult brain work more efficiently and process more information.”
“}}

The #Pangenome: Are Single Reference Genomes Dead? YES!
http://www.The-Scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/47510/title/The-Pangenome–Are-Single-Reference-Genomes-Dead-/ Division into conserved/core & dispensable/variable genes

Why Elephants Don’t Get Cancer – many TP53 copies
http://www.newsweek.com/2015/10/16/researchers-studying-elephants-improve-cancer-treatment-380822.html Result of #Peto’s Paradox: More cells don’t lead to more disease
see dog species

Assembling a new picture of humanity by @CarlZimmer
https://www.statnews.com/2016/10/07/dna-genome-sequencing-new-maps/ 1 graph to represent everyone, counterpoint to #personalgenomes

TWiEVO 9: How to crash your gene drive
July 5, 2016
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Jim Bull
Nels and Vincent speak with Jim Bull about the results of genetic models which suggest that the evolution of inbreeding in response to lethal gene drive might make population control difficult to achieve.

News Outlets Wonder Where the Predictions Went Wrong
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/10/business/media/news-outlets-wonder-where-the-predictions-went-wrong.html The real loser in the election: #datascience-based polling