al-mofhariz

Julian Assange: Tinker, Tailor, Newsman, Spy? The John-le-Carré-esque saga of Edward Snowden's run from the United States Government has sparked an interesting conversation on how to distinguish whistle-blowing from espionage. The fact that Snowden has been charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 certainly ought to give us pause.  After all, this is a law that was originally passed during the First World War, one that was used, among other things, to silence pacifists and other opponents of American intervention as well as political dissidents in the ensuing Red Scare of the 1920s. No doubt, then, an argument can be made that just like one person's freedom fighter is another's terrorist, so too can a whistleblower be reclassified as a spy depending on which side of a political argument you happen to find yourself on. Historians of science and STS scholars have thought a lot about the important work that all manner of classification can do. From Foucault's early arche

Drosophila melanogaster  is the tiny fruit fly that we humans share half our DNA with and that serves as a model organism for studying everything from courtship to our senses of smell, hearing, and vision.  Join the Secret Science Club and Imagine Science Films for a night of freaky, fly-inspired short films and a special lecture by neuroscientist and geneticist Josh Dubnau on how he uses  Drosophila  to study the human brain and the mysteries of memory . Dr. Dubnau is an associate professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he studies short- and long-term memory, and neurodegenerative diseases. His lab’s most recent research on transposons , also known as “jumping genes,” may offer a key to unlocking the secrets of memory loss and the aging brain. Before & After --Sway to  neuro-grooves --Sip our  bugged-out cocktail  of the night, the Fly Highball -- Win brainy  door prizes -- Stick around for the  larval Q&A -- Buzz & flit  with the cast of scientist/filmmaker A

As I'm sure most of you have heard, the US Supreme Court issued its ruling on the Myriad Genetics case today. There were no real surprises to speak of in the decision, as the court ruled exactly along the lines the executive branch asked it to. In an amicus curiae brief, lawyers for the US Department of Justice argued that whereas DNA sequences ought to not be eligible for patent protection, modified or so-called "complimentary" DNA does not qualify as a product of nature and is therefore patentable. The Supreme Court's ruling, authored by Justice Thomas, towed exactly this line. We've covered this case previously on this blog ( here , here and here ) so I won't go into all of the details now.  But there are a couple of things worth pointing out. Myriad's argument that gene sequences are patent eligible because the act of isolating DNA turns a product of nature into an invention is a stretch, to say the least. Still, there was widespread concern that inv

Humans have backbones, as do tens of thousands of other creatures . But why? To discover how vertebrates evolved, biologist John Long uses futuristic technology to peer deep into the past. He creates  bio-robots that simulate the behavior of animals, both living and extinct. His bio-robots search for resources, compete for mates, deal with threats—and adapt. Author of the recently published book, Darwin's Devices: What Evolving Robots Can Teach Us About the History of Life and the Future of Technology , Dr. Long asks: --How do bio-robots evolve? Is robot sex just zeroes and ones? --What does it mean to be intelligent? Are big brains really necessary? --How can evolvabots re-create conditions known only from 500-million-year-old fossils? --What can shark robots teach us about human evolution? How do robo-prey escape robo-predators? John Long is chair of the biology department, professor of biology and cognitive science, and director of the Interdisciplinary Robotics Research La