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Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Medical breakthrough: Cure for obesity or license to overeat?

I was interested to see different takes on the 'net concerning a bit of recent medical research.  The research involves inhibiting expression of a gene called RCAN1, which seems to regulate body fat.  Long story short, research suggests that inhibiting this gene in mice allows them to remain "thin" in spite of eating a diet in excess of their normal requirements.

The question naturally arises: What does this mean for humans?

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Progress in treatment with antibiotics

In our class on Design & Society, we discuss the so-called dilemma of progress.  With any design whose introduction poses potential risk, there is a decision to make on how to regulate it.  In simplest terms, there are two possibilities:

  1. Permissive: introduce the new design until such time as it proves to be overly harmful, or
  2. Precautionary: restrict the new design until such time as it proves to be acceptably safe.

Under conditions of uncertainty, it can be difficult to know which strategy is best.

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

When innovation precedes knowledge

One theme raised in our STV 202 class is that acquisition of information may precede practical knowledge of what to do with that information.  This issue is especially noticeable in health, where it has become very easy to track people's vital statistics but not so easy to know how to use the results to benefit them.

Think of any commercial fitness tracker you can name.