Category Archives: science and technology and knowledge

Some (perhaps) Depressing Updates

Panel Blasts Government On Gulf Oil Spill Response

October 7, 2010
A preliminary report released Wednesday by the federal commission investigating the BP oil spill blames the Obama administration for misrepresenting “the amount and fate of the oil” in the Gulf of Mexico.

Scientists and Soldiers Solve a Bee Mystery

October 6, 2010
Since 2006, 20 to 40 percent of the bee colonies in the United States alone have suffered “colony collapse.” Suspected culprits ranged from pesticides to genetically modified food.

Obama talks green, GOP talks freeze

October 2, 2010
Wind, solar and other clean energy technologies produce jobs and are essential for the country’s environment and economy, President Barack Obama said in promoting his administration’s efforts.

The president used his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday, a month away from congressional elections, to charge Republicans with wanting to scrap incentives for such projects.

Scott Page on Leveraging Diversity

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As you find definitions for Democracy, Socialism, Capitalism and Communism, you will undoubtedly confront the notion of diversity — what is it, why is it important, how do ensure diversity since it’s apparently important for human evolution.

In all, as you define the above terms, you will be examining the characteristics of our society, particularly as we discuss Ecological Democracy. Diversity shows up here, again.

Scott E. Page, who came to Midd last year, wrote The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies. (Read some of the book here)

I suggest that you find the time, either alone or in groups, to check out Scott’s lecture at the University of Virginia and follow his logic. Regardless of what endeavor you choose in the future, thinking about how diversity works — and can work — will be extraordinarily useful. Of course, thinking about how we might be able to enable diversity to evolve in a healthy manner with Democracy — or whatever else we come up with as we contemplate our world — is extraordinarily important.

The Lecture: Leveraging Diversity

After watching the lecture, if, by group say, each group synthesizes and summarizes what you hear and then point to what you find important will be very useful; then if each person of each group adds and comments on what others are summarizing and saying, this will be useful too — and perhaps a model of what Page is talking about.

The New Biopolitics of Race and Health

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“The New Biopolitics of Race and Health” by Dorothy Roberts of Northwestern University School of Law

Disparity and Health Inequities- Introduction

In Chicago

1/3 of blacks would not have died if rates of black and white deaths were equal
black women are 2X more likely to die of breast cancer than white women (even though whites are more likely to get it)
black women are not more susceptible, white women just had more access to new technologies from 1996-2004

Globally

50% of black woman wouldn’t have died of breast cancer if rates were equal
Rates of child mortality (before the age of 5) is 6/1000 in high-income countries, 88/1000 in developing countries, 120/1000 in poor countries
In the U.S, there were 83,570 excess black deaths (the number of deaths that could be prevented in the U.S if the black-white mortality gap were eliminated)

New Biopolitics of Race

Different approaches to the WHY behind health inequalities
One explanation is to treat race as a biological category, which attributes disparate health outcomes to racial differences
Roberts says this approach is denying the impact of race on society and reinforces racial inequality
Human Genome Project showed no evidence of racial divisions (Bill Clinton, Francis Collins, Craig Ventor all noted this at the conclusion of the project)
For some reason, the results of the Human Genome Project are now being geared towards research involving the differences of race (on a genetic level) and health. Nicholas Wade of the New York Times said researchers are now being “forced to confront a treacherous issue: the genetic differences between human races”. Roberts says this is ridiculous, and that none of the results of the project suggest this line of research.
Somehow, she says, the reasoning is that the 0.1% genetic difference in people’s genomes accounts for race which accounts for unequal health outcomes. Roberts says this argument is ridiculous.

Research

Flawed studies about genetic differences, race, and health have gained lots of media attention

Study done that supposedly proved that genetics were the cause of blacks having more preterm babies. The researchers said the experiment was independent of social constraints, but they only controlled a few things. Without proof, or any scientific backing, they leapt to the conclusion and created a theory that genetics were the cause of the difference in the number of preterm babies between black and whites. This highly flawed study made it to a New York Times headline.

Millions of dollars are being invested into genetics and race research (especially from the U.S and U.K). Roberts mentioned this article

Drugs

If genes are the cause of health inequities, there are 3 ways to address this

nothing we can do, blame nature
gene therapy
drugs

This last option has gained a lot of attention. Roberts described the history of BiDil, which is a heart disease prevention drug that is specifically made for blacks. The drug is actually just two generic drugs put together, and was originally patented for anyone. The FDA only patented the drug once it was specifically marketed for blacks. The FDA said this was a “step towards personalized medicine”. The original goal of the Human Genome Project was to provide personalized medicine, but the FDA is now using race as a proxy for genetic difference, while waiting for legitimate drug treatment differences based on people’s individualized genotypes. Dr. Steve Nissen, of the FDA, said himself, “We’re using self-identified race as a surrogate for genetic markers”. Roberts says this is unfounded and inappropriate. Obviously, the FDA is using race and health concerns for it’s own commercial advantage.

New Race Based Genomics – where is this new ideology being implemented (already mentioned drugs and research)

race as a category in biomedical and human gentic varation research
race specific pharmaceuticals
genetic ancestry testing
DNA forensic and biobanks
reproduction-assisting technologies (eggs and sperm grouped by race)

What “They’re” Saying

This new theory says that racial differences are real at the molecular level, but constructed at the social level. Treating race as an ideology, rather than a scientific truth, is what causes social tensions (the example of political correctness). People are starting to believe that social justice is actually working against improving health through genetics!

What Dorothy Roberts is Saying

Why would we ever divide cell lines by race? The idea that we should divide people by race as a biological category is engrained. But we are seperated by society, not by genetics. “Race is a political category, not a biological one”.
Inequity is a product of the social and political situation, and is not a “natural” difference. Inequity is unjust and calls for social change, not solutions involving individual choice (like race-based drugs).
Social justice is a way of achieving better health, and genetics and social justice should not be pitted against each other.
“A More just World would be a Healthier One”

Corporate Captilism vs. Intrinsic Nature of Race

What is causing this change in thinking? Roberts’ says it is a combination of both corporate capitilism (whatever sells, example of BiDil) and the perputuating defintion of racial order. Ever since race was invented, the idea that some people are naturally inferior has persisted. The very function of race was to create political division. The evidence of natural divisions is now manifesting in genetics. This sort of manifestation has been happening for years (ex. Tuskiki experiments in the 1970’s) and just because it’s said to be based in science doesn’t mean it is unbiased or justified. The two components are working together to spread this ideology, one has “a hand in the pharmaceutical industry” and one is based on “the usefulness of race in America”.

Zoe and Dorrie

The End of Nature, FEMA Trailers, and Bed Bugs

Roundtable:Teaching at the Intersection (9/24, 4pm)

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Middlebury professors discussed the new interdisciplinary minor that Middlebury is offering in Global Health.

1. Svea Closser, Department of Sociology-Anthropology, Middlebury College

Discussed the creation of the minor

-Outlined some of the courses she teaches for the minor (Core course is SOAN 267 Global Health)

-Growing interest in global health led to creation of minor (Supply and demand)

2.Sarah Stroup, Department of Political Science, Middlebury College

Discussed goals of program: To teach humanitarian and charitable action at home and abroad

-“The causes and solutions to disease are political and economic”

This connects to the theme of the keynote speech given by Dorothy Roberts who claimed that social inequalities created by race lead to higher mortality rates for African-Americans.

-Teaches class on international humanitarian action

-Difference between humanitarian relief on a global scale and community scale

a. Global- Developed countries like the US see disasters as oppurtunities for change, but this is impossible because of pre-existing political problems (Rwanda)

b. Community- Easier to take action because easier to understand social/political dynamics of a smaller group.

3. Steve Viner, Department of Philosophy, Middlebury College

Discussed moral responsibilities we have as wealthy citizens of a developed country and moral dilemmas of global health

-Who should get what in terms of relief

-What moral responsibilities do we have to the global poor

Example: 18 million children die prematurely worldwide due to diseases like malaria.

–Unicef has a program where you can donate 25 dollars to pay for all the vaccinations for a child in a poor country

-It should be our moral duty to donate this money, yet some don’t

-Those who do donate feel like they did something above and beyond the scope of their duties when in reality just did what they should do

-In the case of natural disasters more people likely to give because no one is to blame for situation

-We need to see global poor as our equals

-Thinks that liberal arts leads to better understanding of global health issues because more in tune with social and political issues

4. Robert Cluss, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Dean of Curriculum, Middlebury College

-Discussed the role of liberal arts in minor (side note, this minor perfectly exemplifies an interdisciplinary program, if you look at the professors who spoke they come from chem, religion,soan, poli sci, and philosophy departments)

–Study Abroad plays big role in program

5. Q and A session led by James Davis, Department of religion

[Senior student who started globomed at mid] How do you see the future for Middlebury and the study of global health? Are there any limitations?

-We are lucky to have J-term, allows for lots of innovative and creative classes

-No plans to create major out of minor

2. [Linda White Japanese/WAGS] How much is gender a topic in these courses?

-Courses stress that women’s rights are just natural human rights but applied to women.

3. [Sophomore student] What are we not doing as developed countries to help the underdeveloped countries?

-People aren’t doing the easy things like donating 25 dollars. Many people can do this but don’t

-We need to realize it’s our duty to help, not optional

4. [Jeremy Greene prof. at Harvard]

How does the combination of all these fields lead to a comprehensive minor?

-The beauty of liberal arts is that everything doesn’t have to make sense. If you pull knowledge from many different fields and it doesn’t all add up to something understandable, you’ve still learned.

Best,

Cooper and Nick

The Heat is Killing Me and the End of Nature

The Heat is Killing Me

Roundtable: Local/Global (9:30-11)

In this session, we learned of both local (Middlebury) and global (Bangladesh and NE Brazil) health and sustainability projects.

Abul Hussam, Center for Clear Water and Sustainability Technologies, Dept of Chemistry and Biochemistry, George Mason University.

Dr. Hussam’s project originated because his family has been drinking water laced with arsenic, a huge problem in Bangladesh. His talk emphasized sustainable technologies (SONO arsenic filter) and the social implications, though he dealt less with this aspect.

He highlighted 3 UN Millennium Goals that his project is tackling:

MG1: eradication of extreme poverty and hunger
MG7: ensuring environmental sustainability (water <>sanitation<>hygiene)
MG8: develop a global partnership for development

Water is interconnected with sanitation and hygiene — the problem of sanitation has to be solved simultaneously. In Bangladesh, people get their water from 5 sources:

surface water, the most popular and dangerous
groundwater (tube- wells) — where we find a lot of arsenic
deep tube wells
dug wells
rainwater harvesting (very difficult to do because if it sits it develops bacteria and other organic “things” and it has to be filtered quickly, which is difficult and expensive)

People who drink water with arsenic for long periods develop Arsenicosis, which can look like this. Thus, from arsenicosis multiple problems arise: marginalization, lack of opportunity, and the labeling “poor.” Arsenicosis is a disease of poverty.

So Dr. Hussam and colleagues developed the Sono arsenic filtration system. They’ve been able to get this filter to thousands, but new technologies have to be developed and the commercial segment has to enter into the picture thus lowering costs. It took 2 years to get people to buy into the filters because once the water is cleaned it tastes different and people were used to drinking their polluted water and saw this as the “right” water.

Maria Carmen Lemos, School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan

Professor Lemos’ work concerns how people use information, particularly climate change, to make informed decisions about development. She said that all issues of development are linked to — or have to be linked to climate change since it affects everything we do. The affects of climate are not distributed evenly. For instance, those who have affect climate change the most, will be least affected by these changes; those that have affected climate change the least, the poor,for instance, will be most affected.

She gave us a vulnerability function, which makes a lot of sense: Vf(E,S, AC) = Vulnerability is a function of exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity.

The rest of her talk focused on Adaptive Capacity:

the ability of a system to adjust to climate change, to moderate potential damages, to take advantage of opportunities, or to cope w/ consequences
set of resources, and the ability to employ these resources, that are prerequisites to adaptation

Thus, Adaptive Capacity is a positive (+). But we’ve lived with the notion that more is better — more knowledge, more spaces, more of everything is better (sounds like McKibben, here, in our reading/syllabus). More, says the professor, has failed so we have to change this idea.

How do we reframe adaptive capacity in climate change since the following characteristics [of adaptive capacity] make it difficult? :

latent nature
dynamic
lack of baseline date
difficult to measure
what scale?
there are many unknowns (such as how do we measure social capital?)

She advocates a 2 tier approach: Generic (income, education, health, safety, political access) and Specific (drought response, disaster relief, climate information)

You have to build adaptive capacity before the disaster, before the risk becomes manifest.

Dr. Brian Saltzman, Dentist, Middlebury, Vermont, Open Door Clinic, Addison County

Most prevalent childhood disease in childhood is dental decay. Dr. Saltzman is therefore tackling this issue through his Open Door Clinic and through education, focusing on the marginalized, particularly the migrant worker.

He spoke about “Dental IQ,” which is the knowledge of diets and foods, which really comes into play with socio-economics.

Dr. Saltsman sees EDUCATION as the primary problem and the solution — we need more people and more bodies to help in this.

Panel: Finding Meaning

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The main idea of the panel was to discuss the complicated issue of global health. The first speaker was Katherine Ott, a curator at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. She argued how culture relates to the issue of public health. Ott says, “We live in a world surrounded by stuff,” referring to the material objects that control and manipulate our society. She discusses the fact that medicine has extended its purpose into mainstream society. It is no longer just a remedial drug, something used to help people recover, but it is now a part of everyday life. With this progression, society has also developed a fear of medicine such as date rape drugs and workout pills. This transformation from a drug used strictly to help people to something that assists and enhances many facets of someone’s life shows how society has become just as concerned if not more concerned with profit and material wealth as the well being of humans.

The other speaker was Richard Keller, a professor of medical history and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He suggested that medicine was essential in building strong empires which is a concept taken directly from Dr. Paul Chatinieres. Throughout history, powerful nations such as the United States and France have offered medicine to people in underdeveloped countries. Keller questions why these institutions would provide such help. To most it may seem as if these powerful nations are providing help to be moral and helpful but in reality, some countries are simply trying to gain more resources and expand their nation. There seems to be a linked distrust in two areas you might not necessarily expect- warfare and medicine. In both cases, less fortunate countries are concerned about the help that “wealthier” or more advanced countries are providing. For example, in Morocco, a French based country, Hubert Lyautey stresses the necessity and power of physicians due to their ability to assist and save the lives of those who are suffering. In addition, in recent time, Colin Powell talks about the importance of NGOs and how they are an important part of our combat team. Obviously the military is the most significant facet, but Powell considers the NGOs almost as important due to their daily interaction with the people in these struggling nations. Due to the language barrier and the dissimilarities of their culture, citizens of impoverished countries do not believe the intentions of countries such as America to be honorable. For instance, David Brooks talks about how many countries such as Haiti resist assistance of different cultures which is often the cause of their problems. There is an existence of a voodoo religion which some believe causes Haitian people to reject and resist outside help. As a result, they are are unable to deal with problems such as the earthquake.

-AJ and Joey

Climate Change and China

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The Chinese turn climate change into a work issue, an interesting and worthwhile editorial by T Friedman of The New York Times.

And because runaway pollution in China means wasted lives, air, water, ecosystems and money — and wasted money means fewer jobs and more political instability — China’s leaders would never go a year (like we will) without energy legislation mandating new ways to do more with less. It’s a three-for-one shot for them. By becoming more energy efficient per unit of G.D.P., China saves money, takes the lead in the next great global industry and earns credit with the world for mitigating climate change.

So while America’s Republicans turned “climate change” into a four-letter word — J-O-K-E — China’s Communists also turned it into a four-letter word — J-O-B-S.

“China is changing from the factory of the world to the clean-tech laboratory of the world,” said Liu. “It has the unique ability to pit low-cost capital with large-scale experiments to find models that work.” China has designated and invested in pilot cities for electric vehicles, smart grids, LED lighting, rural biomass and low-carbon communities. “They’re able to quickly throw spaghetti on the wall to see what clean-tech models stick, and then have the political will to scale them quickly across the country,” Liu added. “This allows China to create jobs and learn quickly.”

The question has to be, where is the American will? Why do we move away from science and data? Why are we reluctant to read the tea leaves and act accordingly?