Book Review: Stem Cells - Science and Ethics
This colourful, illustrated guide to stem cells is the perfect companion for any student wishing to gain a greater understanding of stem cell research, use and ethical debates...
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Image by Matthew Daniels via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human (HeLa) cell in telophase (chromatin stained blue, microtubules forming the spindle stained green, kinetochores stained pink).
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Film Review: The Kids Are All Right
The Kids Are All Right is about the long-term committed lesbian relationship of Jules (Julianne Moore) and Nic (Annette Bening) and their relationship with their two teenage children, 18-year-old Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and 15-year-old Laser (Josh Hutcherson), one born to each mother using the same unknown sperm donor. There is nothing particularly unusual about this film to begin with. Both kids call their parents 'Mum' and behave towards them like normal teenagers, with a mixture of love and ...
Event Review: Whose Genome Is It Anyway?
Would you publish your genome? Last week, the 12-member Genomes Unzipped project published their direct-to-consumer genetic test results online. They say they're dispelling fears and encouraging discussion about what genetics means for society. But, in a Royal Institution debate on Thursday, Wellcome Trust Director Sir Mark Walport said openly disclosing their DNA would - like drunken Facebook party pictures - return to haunt them...
Book Review: Debating Human Genetics
It is almost a cliché to say that genetics has moved beyond the boundaries of science, penetrating social and cultural understandings of ourselves as individuals and social beings. Dr Alexandra Plows' book Debating Human Genetics is in this sense not a groundbreaking contribution. The book is the product of a three-year academic project. In it, Dr Plows approaches the social phenomena of the 'gene' by examining the ways different people or 'publics' are engaging with human genetics...
Film Review: The Switch / The Back-Up Plan
The Switch and The Back-Up Plan are films about donor insemination and the single woman. Two New York women opt to use a donor's sperm after their dreams of settling down with 'Mr Right' and starting a family don't go to plan. Both films treat the topic of donor insemination as rom-com territory rather than the makings of a gritty drama...
Theatre Review: Firing Blanks
After a critically acclaimed run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Tom Spencer's 'Firing Blanks' comes to the Tristan Bates Theatre in Covent Garden, London...
Book Review: Generosity
Scientists have pinpointed a handful of genes that contribute small, but significant, amounts to the happiness of some individuals. So is there some truth in the idea that our genes somehow limit our capacity for happiness? This is the backdrop for American author Richard Powers' latest novel Generosity...
Book Review: It Takes a Genome
I'll admit right from the start that I'm a bit of a waste of time when it comes to science: I dropped most of it at 14 in favour of Latin, and the remainder of my school science was taught by an ageing physicist who spent most of the following 18 months telling a very involved shaggy-dog story about an octopus and some bagpipes...
Book Review: The Genius in All of Us
David Shenk's book sets out its stall as an exploration and explanation of the nature of 'genius'. You'll be encouraged to know that we can all be one if we really want; hence the title. I'd like to suggest, though, that it really tells us something about the nature of 'science'. Namely that despite how science likes to represent itself, it is manifestly not an objective enterprise...
TV Review: Dispatches - When Cousins Marry
Why am I criticising a campaign to reduce the incidence of severe autosomal recessive diseases? After all, I spent five years of my 40-year clinical career in medical genetics living in Oman - a Muslim country where over 50 per cent of marriages are consanguineous? Let's dig deeper!...