A Medical Ethicist Asks How Can We Regenerate, Not Restore, Life Before COVID

A Return to What Was Cannot Fix the Challenges Laid Bare by This Unavoidable Pause

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On the walls of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where I work, there is a print by the artist Raymond Pettibon. It shows a swath of blue paint above the words, “Yes, but alas, the blue sky has been repainted. By restoration, there is no telling how much you have lost.”

I usually visit Pettibon’s work on my way back from teaching rounds with the medical teams in the Intensive Care Unit. Alone after raw encounters with broken and ailing bodies and disrupted lives, I often seek out the reminder: restoration …

How Powerful Interests Use Science to Sway Public Opinion | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

How Powerful Interests Use Science to Sway Public Opinion

In the 1960s, the Sugar Industry Subtly Influenced Scientific Consensus Without Ever Committing Fraud

In a 2016 article, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, documented a surprising link between the sugar industry and research on fat. They showed that during the 1960s, …

Life—As We Know It—Is in His Hands

Our DNA Is Software. And J. Craig Venter’s Going to Code Us All.

We’ve reached a pivotal moment in our understanding of what life is. Biologist and entrepreneur J. Craig Venter, one of the scientists responsible for bringing us to this point, explained …

With Great Scientific Power Comes Great Responsibility

If Synthetic Biology Allows Us to Play God, What are the Rules?

Synthetic biology has been called “genetic engineering on steroids.” It’s also been described as so difficult to pin down that five scientists would give you six different definitions. No matter …

Don’t Mind Us Snooping Through Your Genes

What Ethical Challenge Looms Largest As Medicine Rapidly Digitizes?

 

Medical technology and record keeping have gotten good. A little too good. Your health secrets are shuttering about in cyberspace, vulnerable to interception by hackers. Your DNA can tell you …