Yesterday evening we went to see a documentary called DNA Dreams written by Bregtje van der Haak and hosted by DocLounge in Aarhus. It was about a company in China called BGI who are the largest genome sequencing centre in the world (I think - they are pretty big in any case!). The documentary focuses on their aims to sequence human DNA with the aim of identifying the intelligence gene. In the documentary we are shown that BGI have opened their European headquarters in Copenhagen. Obviously the documentary raises many issues in terms of ethical issues and human genome sequencing, and we were lucky to be able to skype with Bregtje van der Haak on the night after watching the film. There was also a molecular biologist from Aarhus University in the audience, and he gave a little talk on the background of genome sequencing. After the documentary he reiterated his thoughts on this topic, and mentioned that he is very worried about what the Chinese company plans to do with their research. However, other audience members pointed out that genome sequencing of crops, for example, could help millions of people. But the main worry is in relation to genome sequencing and humans. It was an interesting documentary and definitely a good one to start a discussion afterwards.
What are my thoughts on genome sequencing? The idea that it could help with crop production seemed feasible, but trying to identify the intelligence gene is not something I would be in favour of in the future. Also research is one thing, but implementing results is another. I'm not sure if I would like to live in a world that had only 'intelligent' people (as defined by this research).
Friday, February 22, 2013
Saturday, February 9, 2013
6 Nations Rugby here again
As I mentioned in a previous post, the RBS 6 nations rugby campaign for 2013 has begun, and Ireland started off well, but could not beat England today in a disappointing game. The bad, wet weather didn't help, but that wasn't the only reason the Irish team lost. England were definitely the better team on the day, and in my opinion look the likeliest to win the championship this year. We never really looked like scoring a try, and were busy fumbling the ball when it mattered the most. Oh well, hopefully we put in a good display against Scotland in two weekends' time. On the upside, Esben and I enjoyed a nice afternoon in the Irish pub Tir na Nog :o)
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