In discussions of potential eugenics that have become inevitable in the CRISPR era a distinction keeps on being made between gene elimination and genetic enhancement. Typically, it seems to be implicitly assumed that these are the only options when it comes to human germline editing though, as we see in the recent moratorium proposal in …
The Proposed Moratorium on Clinical Human Germline Editing
As most readers of this blog will know, last week Eric Lander and seventeen others (all seem to be biologists) published a commentary in Nature arguing for an immediate moratorium on clinical human germline editing. (For short, I will call this the Lander proposal while fully acknowledging the other authors.) The Presidents of the U.S. National …
Continue reading "The Proposed Moratorium on Clinical Human Germline Editing"
“Field Philosophy” Edited by Evelyn Brister and Robert Frodeman
I am publishing a paper, "Formal Epistemology in a Tropical Savanna," in this book edited by Evelyn Brister and Bob Frodeman. (The paper was the basis for a talk prepared for the Feminist Epistemologies, Methodologies, Metaphysics and Science Studies (FEMMSS) cognate session at PSA 2018. Though I could not attend due to ill health--an unexpected bout with …
Continue reading "“Field Philosophy” Edited by Evelyn Brister and Robert Frodeman"
Panel: “The Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919: 100 Years Later,” Wed, March 13, 2019 | GAR 4.100 |2:00 PM – 3:30 PM.
To mark the centenary of one of the worst disease epidemics ever, I will be speaking as part of a panel organized by the Univesity of Texas Institute for Historical Studies. My talk's title: "One Hundred Years Later: Unknowns of the 1918 Flu Epidemic." Here's the poster for the event. Here is the visual aid I'll …
Sahotra Sarkar 