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This is a critical response to reading assignments, 500 words, with at least 3 sources citing on the subject. The requirements itself have been attached to you, with the reading articles that is required of response (pick 1).

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Spring 2011 | NUS A Production of The Triple Helix THE SCIENCE IN SOCIETY REVIEW The International Journal of Science, Society and Law Why Do They Not Believe in God? Value of Doubt and the Scientific Method in Scientists’ Community Insects as Food for Thought When “Is” Meets “Ought” ASU • Berkeley • Brown • Cambridge • CMU • Cornell • Georgetown • Harvard • JHU • NUS • Penn • UChicago • UCL • UNC Chapel Hill • University of Melbourne • UCSD • Yale EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT TEAM Chief Executive Officer Bharat Kilaru Executive Editor-in-Chief Dayan Li Chief Production Officer Chikaodili Okaneme Executive Director of E-Publishing Zain Pasha Executive Director of Science Policy Karen Hong Chief Operations Officer, North America Jennifer Ong Chief Operations Officer, Europe Francesca Day Chief Operations Officer, Asia Felix Chew Chief Financial Officer Jim Snyder Chief Marketing Officer Mounica Yanamandala INTERNATIONAL STAFF Senior Literary Editors Dhruba Banerjee Victoria Phan Robert Qi Linda Xia Angela Yu Senior Production Editors Adam Esmail Indra Ekmanis Laura Tiedemann Robert Tinkle Sia Sin Wei Jovian Yu Senior E-Publishing Editors Anna Collins Jae Kwan Jang Rahul Kishore John Lee Jacob Parzen BOARD OF DIRECTORS Chairman Kevin Hwang Erwin Wang Kalil Abdullah Melissa Matarese Joel Gabre Manisha Bhattacharya Julia Piper TRIPLE HELIX CHAPTERS North America Chapters Arizona State University Brown University Carnegie Mellon University Cornell University Dartmouth College Georgetown University Georgia Institute of Technology Harvard University Johns Hopkins University Massachusetts Institute of Technology Northwestern University Ohio State University University of California, Berkeley University of California, San Diego University of Chicago University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill University of Pennsylvania Yale University Europe Chapters Cambridge University University College London Asia Chapters National University of Singapore Peking University Hong Kong University Australia Chapters University of Melbourne University of Sydney Monash University THE TRIPLE HELIX A global forum for science in society The Triple Helix, Inc. is the world’s largest completely student-run organization dedicated to taking an interdisciplinary approach toward evaluating the true impact of historical and modern advances in science. Work with tomorrow’s leaders Our international operations unite talented undergraduates with a drive for excellence at over 25 top universities around the world. Imagine your readership Bring fresh perspectives and your own analysis to our academic journal, The Science in Society Review, which publishes International Features across all of our chapters. Reach our global audience The E-publishing division showcases the latest in scientific breakthroughs and policy developments through editorials and multimedia presentations. Catalyze change and shape the future Our new Science Policy Division will engage students, academic institutions, public leaders, and the community in discussion and debate about the most pressing and complex issues that face our world today. All of the students involved in The Triple Helix understand that the fast pace of scientific innovation only further underscores the importance of examining the ethical, economic, social, and legal implications of new ideas and technologies — only then can we completely understand how they will change our everyday lives, and perhaps even the norms of our society. Come join us! TABLE OF CONTENTS Science of Morality: 4 A Darwinian account for the repulsion we feel at suffering 11 To Clone or Not to Clone: Current limitations and its possible ramifications Your Genes? 26 Reasons why they might not actually be yours Cover Article 4 When “Is” Meets “Ought” Marcus Moretti, Yale Local Articles 7 Drugged-up Superbrains Koh Wan Zi 11 TO CLONE OR NOT TO CLONE: Endangered Species Conservation 14 Insects as Food for Thought Emelyne Teo 16 I Recognize You: Not Just Skin Deep Zhang Qiong 18 Why Do They Not Believe in God? --Value of Doubt and the Scientific Method in Scientists’ Community Sudha Sundaram Tommy Shi Zheng International Features 22 Cash for Kidneys, or, How Do We Solve the Kidney Shortage Problem? 26 Your Genes Belong to Us 28 The Ethics of Research and Clinical Trial Outsourcing 30 Science Research Papers: Can You Always Trust What You Read? Cover design courtesy of Natalie Koh Ting Li, University of Melbourne Doni Bloomfield, UChicago Gengshi Chen,Cambridge Dayan Li, Harvard Chikaodili Okaneme, Cornell INSIDE TTH Message from the Incoming Chief Operating Officer, Asia It is my great honour to lead The Triple Helix, NUS chapter for the next academic year. Through the years, The Triple Helix has become a more established and recognized organization both in the local and international context. Such extensive outreach has allowed and encouraged discussion and debate on multidisciplinary issues in the triad of science, society and law. STAFF AT NUS President Mabel Seah Chief Operating Officer Chin You Chuen Editor-in-Chief Sia Sin Wei Managing Editor Rebecca Tan IT Directors Jiao Meng Lu Secretaries Low Mary-Ruth Ern-Lyn Zhang Qiong It is my hope that the TTH-NUS chapter will be able to have a wider outreach into the community at large and to reach out to other Asian universities to promote the same sort of multi-disciplinary discussions. We are also currently building up on our online presence and trying to collaborate with other organizations. This year will also see more projects to be initiated and undertaken by our chapter executive board and members. Last but not least, I would like to thank all our Advisors and Readers for your continued interest and support. Best Regards, Chin You Chuen COO National University of Singapore (NUS) The Triple Helix, Inc chinyouchuen@hotmail.com http://triplehelixnus.wordpress.com/ Writers Zhang Qiong Emelyn Teo Sudha Sundaram Koh Wanzi Tommy Shi Zheng Faculty Advisor Prof Andrew Wee T S Assoc. Prof Chin Wee Shong Message from the Incoming Editor in Chief In my capacity as editor in chief of our local chapter, I am pleased to present our latest issue of our publication of our local chapter. I wish to thank our local literary and business team that have contributed to our journal for their hardwork and effort. Our articles for this issue covers a diverse range of modern issues in the sciences, especially in the life sciences. For example, our local contributors have covered topics as diverse as conservation biology, the science-religion relationship, neuropharmacology, entomology and cognitive psychology. Taken together, they provide support to the notion that societal issues cannot be separated from scientific issues. For almost every scientific finding and development, the societal impact cannot be underestimated. Thank you for reading and supporting us. If you are interested in becoming a part of a team which examines the science-society relationship, please drop us an email. Thank you. Sia Sin Wei Editor-in-Chief The Triple Helix ,NUS siasinwei1988@hotmail.com Spring 2011 2 THE TRIPLE HELIX S © 2011, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved. INSIDE TTH Message from the CEO In tandem with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) conference in Washington D.C., The Triple Helix hosted its largest Leadership Summit with close to a hundred students in attendance from nearly fifteen chapters across three different continents. From professional speakers to an international poster competition, the experience was a paragon of the passion we demonstrate in every division of our young organization: from science policy events and freelance e-publishing work to the scholarly literary work ahead. Before you look through The Science in Society Review issue awaiting you, I hope to share with you my insight into the level of work behind every word. The articles in the following pages are derived from an outstanding level of editorial and literary commitment. Each piece represents not only the work of the writer, but also the work of one-on-one associate editors, a highly effective editorial board, astute international senior literary editors, an impressive faculty review board, and an imaginative production staff that reinvents the journal every issue. As you read the following pieces, we hope you will come to appreciate the truly professional level of work that goes into every paragraph. And it is with that same dedication to improvement that every division of The Triple Helix creates progress every day. The last year has been a transitional one as we established a fresh new online presence, brought back divisions in finance and marketing, and established a whole new standard for internal communication. We have truly come a long way from the handful of students meeting in coffee shops not even four years ago. But we have so many more dreams for TTH ahead. We invite you as readers and supporters to come forward and develop new visions that will push us to the next level. The opportunity is upon us and I hope that you will join us in our work towards a global forum for science in society. Sincerely, Bharat Kilaru, CEO The Triple Helix, Inc. Message from the CPO and EEiC We are proud to present you with another edition of The Science and Society Review! Over the past year, the Literary and Production departments have taken great care in ensuring that our science articles were published at their utmost quality. In order to achieve this, our staff members have invested a tremendous amount of time into editing and designing all the journals for publication. Realizing that coordination between Literary and Production throughout all steps of journal development is paramount for an efficient process, our departments collaborated with each other more than ever. Ultimately, our joint efforts have resulted in a publication that we feel best displays the talent of our student writers and the professionalism of our organization. As both of us prepare to graduate this May, we hope that the upcoming EEiC and CPO continue to strengthen our departments’ teamwork and overall productivity. Although handling a large number of articles and journals each semester can be a challenge, we trust that by sharing our expertise and experiences with our staff, future Literary and Production leaders will be more than ready to create the next series of outstanding Science and Society Review publications. It was certainly a pleasure serving The Triple Helix during our undergraduate careers, and we hope that you enjoy reading the Spring 2011 issue. Please continue to participate in this important dialogue on the role of science in society, whether through The Triple Helix or beyond. Sincerely, Chikaodili Okaneme and Dayan Li Chief Production Officer and Executive Editor-in-Chief © 2011, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved. THE TRIPLE HELIX Spring 2011 3 YALE When “Is” Meets “Ought” Marcus Moretti T he fifth anniversary of the Afghanistan War loomed stopped by a grenade that exploded just close enough to when Sgt. 1st Class Jared Monti and his troops were kill him instantly. fatally exposed to the enemy. The roaring blades of At Sgt. Monti’s Medal of Honor ceremony three years an American helicopter, sent to resupply Sgt. Monti’s unit later, President Obama, presenting the award for the first near the Afghan-Pakistan border, roused lurking Taliban time, asked in his panegyric, “Do we really grasp the meaning of these values? Do we truly forces nearby. The ensuing storm of AK-47 rounds sent understand the nature of these Evolutionary scientists are virtues, to serve and to sacrithe unit scurrying behind the fice?” [1]. For millennia, philargest boulders within sight. looking for evidence in favor After Sgt. Monti secured himlosophers have wrestled with of a Darwinian account for the questions like these, which self, he spotted one of his men repulsion we feel at perceiving downed and vulnerable. On his seek explanations for why acts first two attempts to ditch his like Sgt. Monti’s so imbrue the human suffering. Some call cover and rescue the downed soul. But the discipline arguthis search the “science of comrade, he was thwarted by ably making the most strides incoming fire. His third go was toward such explanations at morality” 4 THE TRIPLE HELIX Spring 2011 © 2011, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved. YALE present is not philosophy, but biology. Evolutionary scientists are looking for evidence in favor of a Darwinian account for the repulsion we feel at perceiving human suffering. Some call this search the “science of morality” because it may ultimately usurp philosophy’s dominion over ethics. As you read this, experiments that will accelerate this transfer of power are nearing completion all over the globe. The most common participants in these types of experiments are rhesus monkeys and chimpanzees, primates with whom we share up to 98% of our DNA, and our closest animal relatives. Their behavior defies the old anthropocentric claim that other apes, unlike us, are incapable of ignoring their own interests in order to protect those of another ape. Our language manifests this presumed hierarchy of creatures: when we call people “animalistic,” “reptilian,” or “Neanderthals,” we mean that they are stupid and self-centered. Believers of said anthropocentric claim may be said to be, as the writer Douglas Foster put it, in “anthropodenial.” Their hierarchy has been discredited, and a new spate of experiments hammers what may be the final nails into its coffin. In one experiment (Palagi et al., 2009), gelada baboons were shown images of conspecifics—members of the same species—yawning in hopes of finding a tendency for lower primates to identity with conspecifics [2]. As the experimenters predicted, when these animals observed yawns, they yawned back. This mimicry evinces a tendency to self-identify with conspecifics, which is the precondition for empathetic relations. Empathetic behavior in apes has indeed been well documented. In one study (Carter, J.D., 2008), a society of chimps was shown to be especially accommodating toward one of its members afflicted with cerebral palsy [3]. Not one of the disabled chimp’s neighbors exploited his deficiencies, which would be expected from truly solipsistic organisms. In fact, the group’s alpha male paid special attention to the needs of the disabled chimp and groomed him more gently than he did the others. These studies revive the evolutionary theory of altruism that is known as the “group-selection” theory. Its guiding rule is that animal communities in which members are cooperators will win out over communities of selfish creatures. The theory was discredited in the 1970s by biologist Richard Dawkins who posed a problem that he termed that of “subversion from within.” The problem is that some members may enjoy the spoils of others’ sacrifices without sacrificing anything themselves. These free-riders have a fitness advantage over the cooperators because they would enjoy, for instance, the protection afforded by those who stand guard, but never risk injury or death to fend off predators themselves. It appears that the free-riders would then win out over cooperators under group-selection theory, and cooperation would not be selected for. What may allow group-selection theory to overcome this worry is the observed tendency of primates to reciprocate negatively, that is, to take retributive action against free-riders. Primates may construct revenge systems, as they have been called in recent studies [4]. Premier primatologist Frans de Waal identifies partner selection as the chief method of enforcing the revenge system. If a partnered male © 2011, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved. Proponents of science’s annexation of moral territory cite the failure on the part of philosophers to reach a consensus on ethics after millennia of deliberation. But this debate is not one-sided ape reveals himself to be selfish and uncaring, his lady will promptly dump him. This also happens at the group level: if a member of the community is discovered to be free-riding, then the others may be unwilling to share their food with him. De Waal, in a recent paper that surveys developments in intra-group cooperation among primates, distinguishes between two types of evolutionary causes for action that are essential to group-selection theory: proximate and ultimate causes [5]. Proximate causes proliferate when the actions they entail immediately benefit the actor. An example of a proximate cause would be thirst. Quenching thirst requires the beast to hydrate itself, a biological necessity. Ultimate causes arise when an action helps the survival of the species, not just the organism, and may not provide any immediate benefits to the actor itself. Sex drive is a potent example of an ultimate cause. Humans mostly go at it in pursuit of the sensation of stimulation and (hopefully) orgasm. Sensual pleasure may be a proximate cause, but one’s body could go on without having sex. The broader survival of the species is what is at stake. Our sex drives are ultimate causes because they make sex something we all feel compelled to do, thereby ensuring homo sapiens’ perpetuation. A lustful population is more likely to thrive and persist than a more subdued one, hence the often gratuitous human sex drive. Evolutionary biologists have used this distinction between proximate and ultimate causes to explain altruistic acts. The selfless act—the donation of food or the forfeiture of one’s life to save another’s—can be explained by ultimate causes. The tendency for communities with intra-altruism to outcompete less selfless groups, ceteris paribus, allows the altruistic gene to proliferate. The short-term, proximal causes for such sacrifice, if they do exist, are often insufficient to overwhelm the grand loss. The larger force that keeps the population afloat explains the preponderance of behaviors whose personal costs are significantly higher than their personal benefits. In light of biology’s growing encroachments onto moral territory, a large swath of philosophy may face redundancies. If we are programmed to feel certain ethical obligations and not others, and those obligations have contributed to our species’ success, then what is the use in trying to propose an alternate set of ethical principles? Of course cultures are free to decide on their own positive values (honor, intelligence, etc.), but if there are at base some discoverable, proscriptive maxims, why busy over another set? Proponents of science’s annexation of moral territory cite the failure on the part of philosophers to reach a consensus on ethics after millennia of deliberation. But this debate is not one-sided. In a 2009 issue of Newsweek, THE TRIPLE HELIX Spring 2011 5 YALE science editor Sharon Begley launched a two-tiered attack against evolutionary psychology. She claimed first that the science was reprehensible in itself because it vindicates the “evolution made me do it” excuse [6]. Case in point: a 2000 book called A Natural History of Rape: Biological Bases of Sexual Coercion argued that rape is a naturally selected sexual strategy because it improves gene survival. Begley also attacked the field’s premise. Humans, she argued, never stayed in one environment long enough for psychological traits to compete in the epochal contest of natural selection, so what arose instead was a versatile mind that could adapt to inconstant circumstances. The first of these attacks is not well-grounded. As Begley herself seems to admit in her article, an attempt to discredit a science because its findings depress us is simply bad science. A condition of genuine scientific inquiry is the willingness to accept hard facts if valid experiments uncover them. If evolutionary psychology finds that troubling beliefs and desires come inbuilt, so be it. Even so, that evolutionary psychology produces repugnant findings is less of a concern than Begley made it out to be. That book that gave rape an evolutionary defense was later disproven by other studies, which pointed out the overwhelming odds against the survival of genes that bestow proclivities toward sexual coercion. Just as one would not expect a community to look fondly on free-riders, one would not expect community members to help a known rapist find food. The field’s most recent embarrassment was Harvard biologist Marc Hauser’s conviction on eight counts of scientific misconduct in his studies of primate morality. Hauser designed his experiments with the hope of identifying more human characteristics in primates, as several of his valid studies did before. His data-fudging was taken by some religious figures, philosophers, and even other scientists as an invalidation of the entire project. Many scientists, however, have come to the field’s defense. De Waal has pointed out that many areas of scientific study have had their fair shares of frauds, including chemistry and physics, but those anomalies did not shutter entire disciplines. Hauser’s misconduct was one unfortunate instance of malpractice and should not be taken to debunk the connection between evolution and morality. De Waal and other primatologists like Jane Goodall should not go unemployed because of one colleague’s misdoings. Setting these procedural complaints aside, evolution can still only go so far to answer the biggest questions of human existence. As Harvard professor of linguistics Steven Pinker argues, if evolution were the only source of life’s purpose, a man would be wholly fulfilled spending his afternoons at the sperm bank. But this is not so. Even if one believes that sex drive is at root the motive behind all action—whether it’s reading philosophy or playing the violin—a human needs more than science to find his interests and purpose. We search for more than just reproductive success in life, so evolution could only illuminate our biological proclivities, not our particular hobbies and tastes. To quarrel with this constraint on science, which holds it to providing knowledge about what is the case and not about what ought to be the case, would be to commit the notorious naturalistic fallacy. The fallacy holds that any statement about how things are cannot be used in an argument that concludes with a statement on how things should be. It highlights a salient gap between facts and obligations, and has been a trump card in moral philosophy since its 1903 articulation by the English philosopher G.E. Moore. Yet even this hitherto axiomatic principle is under attack. Neuroscientist Sam Harris seeks to refute the naturalistic fallacy in his new book The Moral Landscape, in which he proposes a moral system founded on scientific understandings of well-being. Morality, he argued, is the study of how to improve well-being, so why not use experimentally verified links between behavior and well-being to write social rules? While Harris acknowledges that science has the bulk of its work in this area ahead of it, he insists that science must be what guides ethical discussions in the 21st century. The viability of arguments like this and of the greater science of morality remains to be seen, but there are some present indicators of the direction of its course. If the innateness of our basic moral intuitions receives more and more evidentiary support—and if the present trend continues, it will—then the ancient conflict between evolutionary theory and religion may become more acute. Internationally renowned preacher Ravi Zacharias spoke at Yale recently and proselytized on behalf of Christ, citing him as the needle in Western civilization’s moral compass. Harris, a public atheist, takes this argument head-on and asks, why bother to pore through Christ’s teachings when moral standards are inbuilt? It is yet unclear how a complete set of morals could derive from evolutionary theory, but many scientists and philosophers nonetheless pray—or, hope—that a universal set of maxims will one day be found. As the minds of our fellow apes are shown to have more and more in common with our own, the traditionally clear-cut distinction between man and ape will blur. Since Copernicus, science has consistently reduced the importance of human beings’ role in the universe. Progress will likely devalue our race further, but that could do us some good. Man may be the most sophisticated around, and he has a long way to go before he figures himself out. Conveying pithily this critical truth, the 19th century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was prescient to let his Zarathustra muse, “Man is more ape than many of the apes.” References 4. Jensen, K. “Punishment and spite, the dark side of cooperation.” Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 365 (2010), 2723-2735. 5. de Waal, Frans B. M. & Malini Suchak. “Prosocial primates: selfish and unselfish motivations.” Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 365 (2010), 2711-22. 6. Begley, Sharon. “Why Do We Rape, Kill, and Sleep Around?” Newsweek, 20 Jun 2009. Accessed 28 Oct 2010. < http://www.newsweek.com/2009/06/19/why-do-werape-kill-and-sleep-around.html>. 7. http://nsf.gov/news/mmg/media/images/chimp_health3_h.jpg 1. Elliott, Philip. “MoH ceremony honors Monti’s sacrifice.” ArmyTimes, 20 Sep. 2009. Accessed 29 Oct 2010. . 2. Carter, J.D. “A Longitudinal Study of Social Tolerance by Chimpanzees Towards a Conspecific with Cerebral Palsy.” International Primatological Society XXII (August 2008), presentation. 3. Palagi, E. et al. “Contagious yawning in gelada baboons as a possible expression of empathy.” PNAS 106 (November 2009), 19262-7. 6 THE TRIPLE HELIX Spring 2011 Marcus Moretti is a sophomore studying Humanities and Political Science at Yale University. © 2011, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved. NUS Drugged-Up Superbrains Koh Wan Zi T he disheartening perception of intellectual inadequacy or lack of capability is no stranger to the scores of workers in today’s rat race and students in increasingly grueling modern education systems. Certainly, many of us have wished to be just that little bit smarter, or be endowed with better focus and memory to finish the task at hand or ace that test. Thus far however, often the only recourse has been to compensate by redoubling our efforts, or struggling to concentrate while battling countless distractions. Certain cognitive enhancers called nootropics offer the potential for a cognitive boost when we need it, providing a ramping up of focus or creative thought and greater retentive capacity. However, healthy persons are still relatively restricted to access to such approved cognitive boosters. For example, Ritalin and Adderall are prescription only drugs that are used to improve focus and treat patients with attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD). This raises the inevitable question: should nootropics be actively developed and made widely available to the general population? On the individual level, this could lead to greater personal satisfaction, while on a macro level, the economy stands to benefit from greater worker productivity and the potential knowledge gains to society are inestimable. What Are Nootropics? The word “nootropics” comes from the Greek root noos for mind and tropein for toward [1]. Nootropics are not to be crudely lumped together with all drugs that enhance cognition as they possess characteristics unique to them. This field of mental performance boosters is actually nothing new. It was first coined by Romanian psychologist and chemist Corneliu E. Giurgea in a 1972 paper, which sets out the properties of nootropic drugs as follows: 1. They enhance learning and memory. 2. They facilitate the flow of information between the cerebral hemispheres. 3. They protect the brain against certain physical or chemical injuries. 4. They cause few side effects and have low toxicity, lacking the usual pharmacology of other psychotropic drugs such as sedation or motor stimulation. [2] It is important to note however, that the above features are not binding and do not absolutely include or exclude a substance as a nootropic drug. The mechanism of action and molecular basis of many © 2011, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved. of these cognitive enhancers are often not clearly known. These drugs are thought to alter the balance of chemicals in the brain by either regulating the release of neurotransmitters involved in information processing, modulating ion channels and receptors, or affecting neuronal gene expression. For example, neurons that respond to the neurotransmitter acetylcholine are involved in concentration, focus, highorder thought processes and formation of new memories. Therefore, drugs that inhibit the breakdown of acetylcholine offer cognitive benefits in terms of increased alertness [3]. Cholinesterase breaks down acetylcholine, and in a similar vein, several cholinesterase inhibitors used in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease have been found to enhance learning and memory in older, healthy subjects [4]. The oldest of these drugs is Piracetam, which inspired the coining of the term nootropics. First synthesized in 1964, it was originally developed by Belgian pharmaceutical company UCB Group to prevent motion sickness [5]. Piracetam has since surpassed its original purpose and has being used in treating neurological diseases such as dementia and Parkinson’s disease. It has also improved aphasia after stroke and reportedly increases reading comprehension and accuracy in dyslexic children [6]. In addition, it exhibits the protective quality that has come to characterize nootropic drugs, Reprodued from [21] drastically increasing the survival rate of mice that were given the short acting agent oxydipentonium to halt breathing [7]. Piracetam has also been shown to have certain anti-aging properties. When aged mice were treated orally with high doses of Piracetam for two weeks, they displayed a 30-40% increase in the density of acetylcholine in the frontal cortex, equivalent to the levels found in healthy young mice [8]. Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that Piracetam not only helps neurologically impaired individuals, but healthy ones as well. In a double blind, placebo controlled study conducted by neuroscientists Dimond and Brouwers, a group of healthy college students were given 3 x 4 capsules of 400mg Piracetam or an identical dosage of the placebo per day. The subjects were tested three times, once before administration of the drug, the second time a week after drug administration and the third time two weeks after. The study noted a significant increase in verbal learning at the final testing 14 days after Piracetam was first taken. More significantly, the authors go on to conclude in their discussion that Piracetam is “a substance that in a specific respect is capable of extending the intellectual functions of man”, THE TRIPLE HELIX Spring 2011 7 NUS positioning it as the forerunner of a class of performance enhancing drugs [9]. Piracetam possibly heralds the field of nootropics, encapsulating the potential benefits it could yield to individuals and society as a whole if more such drugs were developed and made widely available. Some of the cognition enhancing psychopharmaceutical products already on the market are prescription drugs that were originally used to treat ADHD but have known off-label uses as study aids that decrease the need to sleep and increase concentration and focus [10]. Modafinil, a drug originally On the individual level, [cognitive enhancers] could lead to greater personal satisfaction, while on a macro level, the economy stands to benefit from greater worker productivity and the potential knowledge gains to society are inestimable developed to treat narcolepsy, for instance has being used for non-medical purposes to improve the working memory of healthy individuals. Further adding to its credentials as a cognitive enhancer, modafinil has been found to improve visual pattern recognition, spatial planning, and reaction time. It also improved attention and working memory in sleep-deprived physicians and aviators, exhibiting potential utility outside the laboratory and in real world situations [11]. Doped Up Superbrains With many nootropic drugs specifically enhancing memory or focus, it is no surprise that students subjected to the academic rigours of increasingly competitive education systems are gradually discovering their uses and turning to them for that extra capacity to focus, learn and remember. The most commonly cited reason for using these stimulant drugs is to enhance concentration (58%) and increase alertness (43%), indicating that people are indeed using them for their mental performance enhancing qualities [12]. A 2007 study at a large Midwestern public college in USA found that the lifetime prevalence of non-medical use of prescription stimulants was 8.5%, up from 6% the past year [13]. Furthermore, in a 2005 study of a nationally representative sample of 10 904 randomly selected students across 119 colleges, it was found that 4.1% of American undergraduates had used prescription stimulants for non-medical purposes in the past year. At 12 schools, this figure was greater than 10% and at one school as high as 25% [14]. In an informal poll conducted by Nature that surveyed 1400 people from 60 countries on their attitudes towards cognitive enhancers and whether they had taken them, one out of five respondents responded in the affirmative. With regards to whether healthy adults should be able to take cognitive boosters if they wish to, a high 80% of respondents said yes [15]. Clearly, the support for and use of cognitive stimulators is not a fringe phenomenon and there is a serious possibility that the socially 8 THE TRIPLE HELIX Spring 2011 accepted use of nootropics could gain greater traction. People looking for that extra brain boost are also likely to face no shortage of choice, going by a 2008 working group report from the Academy of Medical Sciences in England which estimates that of the more than 600 treatment compounds being assessed worldwide for neurodegenerative disorders, a large number of cognitive enhancers will emerge over the next few decades [16]. One of the currently most oft used nootropic drugs is Adderall. Ostensibly developed and marketed to treat ADHD, it has sales figures that suggest an alternative use as a cognitive enhancer for healthy individuals. In a 2006 study that found a past year prevalence rate of 5.9% for nonmedical use of prescription stimulants in college students, three quarters reported using Adderall [17]. In addition, an article published in The New Yorker cites the anecdotal case of “Alex”, a Harvard graduate who as a student took Adderall to juggle the academic demands placed on him and maintain a social life at the same time. Alex took Adderall regularly during his college years, which gave him the intense focus needed to rush out papers within tight deadlines while managing multiple commitments [18]. McCabe et al. found that the use of Adderall and similar stimulants was more common among students with low grade point averages, and also in colleges with more competitive admission standards, further evidence of a trend among college students to use nootropics to boost their academic performance [14]. Nootropics: Is it Fair? The ground that these smart drugs is gaining among students has led University of Sydney researcher Vince Cakic to put out the possibility that authorities could start testing students for drugs before exams. Cakic recognizes the increasing use of nootropic drugs among students to enhance academic performance. He cites drugs such as selegiline, normally prescribed to treat Parkinson’s disease, as being used as a motivation enhancer, and modafinil, used to treat narcolepsy, for staying alert [19]. Opponents of nootropics have drawn parallels with doped up athletes, saying that these drugs give students an unfair advantage. An inherent problem of this argument is that it implicitly assumes that without nootropics, a level playing field among students is possible or even exists. However, this is problematic as there are genetic factors and numerous social and environmental factors that produce myriad inequalities and make the academic playing field anything but level. Studies have shown that IQ is 50% heritable, and cognitive ability is a significant predictor of academic performance. In addition, resources such as home computer access, private tuition, and better childhood nutrition also contribute to improving academic performance, but they are disproportionately concentrated among the socioeconomically privileged [20]. Clearly, even without nootropics, academic competition is hardly fair, and nootropics could be viewed as simply another factor that contributes to uneven competition grounds. However, while other factors that contribute to inequality are hard to control and level across the board, nootropics can be relatively easily controlled by tighter regulation. This raises the question as to whether nootropics as an additional source of inequality should be allowed to proliferate, when it can instead be more strictly regulated. © 2011, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved. NUS Another problematic issue associated with nootropic use is that like other resource factors that can influence academic performance, nootropics tend to be more common among the affluent. Traditionally less affluent commuter schools have less than one fourth the rate of past year compound use compared with residential campuses that tend to be populated by a richer demographic, and at three historically black colleges, there were no reports of past year non-medical use at all. White students were deemed overall more likely than other ethnicities to engage in nootropic use. Furthermore, as noted previously, students at more competitive and selective colleges were more likely to use cognitive enhancers than those at less selective schools. If the general assumption is made that these students, that is, white and enrolled at competitive, prestigious colleges, are wealthier than their counterparts elsewhere, there is cursory evidence to support the claim that non-medical use of cognitive enhancers is indeed more prevalent among the more affluent [16]. Further adding to this disproportion is also the high prices of these drugs that place them outside the means of the less wealthy. This potentially adds additional distance to the divide between the socioeconomic levels in terms of academic performance insofar as these variables influence performance, making it more difficult for the less privileged to keep up with their wealthier peers. It is also important to consider the explicitly unfair advantage healthy individuals on drugs like Adderall would have over individuals with disorders like ADHD who actually need the drugs to function at the normal baseline. One Ivy League student with attention deficit disorder (ADD) cited in a 2009 review said that if someone without ADD were to take Adderall to gain improved focus, he would never be able to match them even on Adderall himself [16]. In these situations, it is clear that ethically, we cannot say with certainty that healthy students should be allowed to put their brain on steroids and gain an edge over their peers with ADD or other disorders. It is not difficult to see similarities between this and competitive sporting arenas, where athletes’ consumption of performance enhancing drugs is deemed as cheating. If use of nootropics should find traction among greater swathes of the college population, and the trend does point in that direction, drug testing before exams could be seriously considered. Outside of academia, the governing bodies for games such as chess and bridge have recognized the potentially unfair advantage cognitive enhancers could give players in a competitive setting, and have adopted the World Anti-Doping Code in an effort to gain inclusion into the Olympic Games. Under the Code, these organizations test their competitors for drug use before international competitions. Stimulants such as Adderall and Provigil are prohibited, unless taken for medical uses [16]. If these sporting bodies deem it necessary to test for drugs, it possibly brings us one step closer to the controversial issue of drug testing before examinations. What are the Risks? As with any other pharmaceutical substance, nootropics drugs have the potential for abuse. Ritalin and Adderall are regulated by the US federal government as Schedule II © 2011, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved. Reprodued from [22] controlled substances, whereby they are considered to have a high potential for abuse and consequent severe psychological and physical dependence. Provigil, a drug that has found off-label to enable mental alertness for extended periods of time, is a Schedule IV drug. It is also deemed to have potential for abuse, albeit to a lesser degree than Ritalin and Adderall. There are also risks associated with abruptly cutting drug intake if already on a regular regimen of the enhancers, and there is a very real possibility that healthy individuals could become over-dependent on the drugs and be unable to function without them [16]. It has also been noted that the enhancement of certain cognitive functions can only be realized at the expense of others. For example, transgenic mice with improved learning and memory function also display greater ability to recall aversive events. Therefore, while exam material might be more easily recalled, with it would also come the burden of easily remembering negative experiences better forgotten. This would have less than desirable effects on mental well being [20]. More pertinently, these drugs have even been used for purposes other than non-medical performance enhancers. There are reports of the pills being crushed into a powder and snorted for a drug-induced high [16]. Clearly, off-label uses of nootropic drugs are not entirely benign and they are certainly not a panacea for individuals seeking mental performance boosts. A Double-edged Sword However, while nootropics may seem to only confer unfair advantages, widen social disparities in terms of school performance, and put users at risk of addiction and overdependence, it would be foolish to overlook the potential benefits it could offer to society if managed properly. In fact, the selective use of nootropics among those with lower intellectual capacity or from deprived backgrounds has been advocated as a way to enhance educational opportunities for these groups. There are also those who say that the risk of cognitive enhancers fostering inequality is in fact remote, because of the number of studies suggesting that neuroenhancers work best with a low baseline and are less helpful for people who score above average [16]. For example, studies show that with modafinil, the greatest improvement is seen in people with lower IQs. In this way, nootropics might allow underperforming students to better compete with THE TRIPLE HELIX Spring 2011 9 NUS their peers. Instead of propagating greater inequality, they It is almost hypocritical to prohibit nootropic use on would paradoxically create a more even playing field in the the basis of unequal distribution as other socioeconomic process and raise academic performance standards. In fact, inequalities in education are readily tolerated and we do not one review predicts that if nootropics were to be the most see the banning of strategies such as private tuition which cost efficient means of enhancing academic performance, is clearly more readily available to the rich [20]. The key social programmes might push to make them accessible to here is moderation and control, and also being aware of the the under privileged [20]. As the larger portion of benefits potential risks. In fact, the largest benefit nootropics, when is reserved for low performing individuals rather than those taken in moderation, can claim to confer would be to society who are already doing relatively well, nootropics seem a as a whole rather than to the individual. While nootropics lot more equitable in this light. do propagate advantages that not everyone can enjoy and Furthermore, social disparities aside, it would seem certain individuals will inevitably lose out, society will reap counterintuitive to limit the use overall net gains. It would be of cognitive enhancers in insticounterintuitive to deny benIf nootropics allow students tutions of learning. Education, efits to the whole simply beespecially in universities, is all cause not everyone can enjoy to perform better in...crucial about encouraging students to the boons directly. phases in their education develop and expand their poCurrently, one of the largtential. It would be difficult to est barriers to greater cultural and secure better standards condemn a student for taking acceptance and practicality of of living later on, the social cognitive enhancers if he learns nootropic use is that they carry more than he would have otherinherent risks and are not free benefits would be very real wise. How well a student does from side effects. However, as in high school and university drug development progresses has significant influence on career opportunities, success and more upcoming nootropics are developed specifically in later life and future earnings [16]. If nootropics allows for healthy individuals, tested, and proven to be safe, greater students to perform better in these crucial phases in their acceptance of nootropics will not be far off. With the apeducation and secure better standards of living later on, propriate safety and regulatory measures in place, there the social benefits would be very real. Similarly, if a worker is insufficient reason as to why we should actively resist becomes more productive and accomplishes more with the the proliferation of nootropics in academia or society to help of neuroenhancers to the benefit of himself and the accomplish more. As science progresses and we gain new company, it is difficult to fault him. Zack Lynch, who co- and safer drugs and a better understanding of the workfounded NeuroInsights, a company that advises investors ings of these cognitive enhancers, nootropics could possibly on developments in brain-science technology, puts it very contribute to a more equitable and productive society. nicely when he says that neuroenhancers are not so much about “enhancing”, but rather “enabling” [18]. Nootropics Koh Wanzi is a student studying Life Sciences and English can enable people to accomplish more, empowering less Literature at the National University of Singapore. privileged individuals to greater heights. References 1. Lanni C, Lenzken SC, Pascale A, Del Vecchio I, Racchi M, Pistoia F, Govoni S. Cognition enhancers between treating and doping the mind. Pharmacol Res. 2008 March; 57(3): 196–213. doi:10.1016/j.phrs.2008.02.004. 2. Giurgea C. Pharmacology of integrative activity of the brain. Attempt at nootropic concept in psychopharmacology (Vers une pharmacologie de l’active integrative du cerveau: Tentative du concept nootrope en psychopharmacologie) (in French). Actual Pharmacol (Paris.) 1972; 25: 115–56. 3. Cognitive enhancement: All on the mind. The Economist [Internet]. 2008 May 22 [cited 2010 Dec 17]. Available from: http://www.economist.com/node/11402761 4. Jones R, Morris K, Nutt D. Cognition enhancers. In: Nutt D, Robbins TW, Stimson GV, Ince M, Jackson A, editors. Drugs and the Future: Brain Science, Addiction and Society. New York. Academic Press; 2007. 5. Shurte N. What are Nootropics? Smart Drugs to Supercharge Your Brain. Associated Content [Internet]. 2005 Jul 14 [cited 2010 Dec 17]. Available from: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5139/what_are_nootropics_smart_ drugs_to_pg2.html?cat=5 6. xPharm: The comprehensive pharmacology reference. Elsevier Ltd; 2008. 7. Giurgea C, Salama M. Nootropic drugs. Prog Neuro Psychopharmacol. 1977; 1:235–247. doi:10.1016/0364-7722(77)90046-7. 8. Pilch H, Mueller W. Piracetam elevates muscarinic cholinergic receptor density in the frontal cortex of aged but not of young mice. Psychopharmacology. 1988; 94(1): 74–78. doi: 10.1007/BF00735884. 9. Dimond SJ, Brouwers EM. Increase in the power of human memory in normal man through the use of drugs. Psychopharmacology. 1976 Sept 29; 49 (3): 307–9. doi: 10.1007/BF00426834. 10. Carey B. Brain enhancement is wrong, right? New York Times [Internet]. 2008 Mar 9 [cited 2010 Dec 17]. Available from: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/ weekinreview/09carey.html. 11. Bostrom N, Sandberg A. Cognitive enhancement: Methods, ethics, regulatory challenges. Sci Eng Ethics. 2009 June 19; 15: 311-341. doi: 10.1007/s11948-009-91425. 12. Teter CJ, McCabe SE, LaGrange K, Cranford JA, Boyd CJ. Illicit use of specific 10 THE TRIPLE HELIX Spring 2011 prescription stimulants among college students: prevalence, motives, and routes of administration. Pharmacotherapy. 2006 Oct; 26 (10), 1501–1510. doi: 10.1592/ phco.26.10.1501. 13. McCabe SE, Teter CJ. Drug use related problems among nonmedical users of prescription stimulants: A web-based survey of college students from a Midwestern university. Drug and Alcohol Dependence. 2007 Nov 2; 91(1): 69-76. doi:10.1016/j. drugalcdep.2007.05.010. 14. McCabe SE, Knight JR, Teter CJ, Wechsler H. Non-medical use of prescription stimulants among US college students: prevalence and correlates from a national survey. Addiction. 2005 Jan; 100(1): 96-106. doi: 10.1111/j.1360-0443.2005.00944.x. 15. Maher B. Poll results: look who’s doping. Nature news [Internet]. 2008 April 9 [cited 2010 Dec 18]. Available from: http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080409/ full/452674a.html 16. Solomon LM, Noll RC, Mordkoff DS. Cognitive enhancements in human beings. Gender Medicine. 2009 Jul; 6(2): 338-344. doi:10.1016/j.genm.2009.06.003 17. de Jongh R, Bolt I, Schermer M, Olivier B. Botox for the brain: enhancement ofcognition, mood and pro-social behavior and blunting of unwanted memories. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2008; 32(4):760–776. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2007.12.001 18. Talbot M. Brain gain: The underground world of “neuroenhancing” drugs. The New Yorker [Internet]. 2009 April 27 [cited 2010 Dec 19]. Available from: http:// www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/04/27/090427fa_fact_talbot. Accessed May 5, 2009. 19. Medew J. Call for testing on “smart drugs”. WA today [Internet]. 2009 Oct 1 [cited 2010 Dec 19]. Available from: http://www.watoday.com.au/national/call-fortesting-on-smart-drugs-20091002-gf8t.html 20. Cakic V. Smart drugs for cognitive enhancement: ethical and pragmatic considerations in the era of cosmetic neurology. J Med Ethics. 2009; 35: 611-615. doi: 10.1136/jme.2009.030882 21. http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2007/115-6/pills.jpg 22. http://healthit.ahrq.gov/images/oct27cdswebconference/images/image10.png © 2011, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved. NUS TO CLONE OR NOT TO CLONE Endangered Species Conservation Sudha Sundaram W hen Hans Spemann proposed his novel concept of can also be done instead), which is then prompted to form cloning organisms in 1938, he could not be blamed an embryo. An essential step here is reprogramming the for not choosing his words with more precision: genes of the donor cells by the oocyte cytoplasm. The embryo “Fantastical Experiment” [1]. The concept of cloning indi- is then implanted into a surrogate mother. The offspring viduals seems to be drawn right out of a vivid imagination, produced from cloning have the same genetic constitution as ‘fantastical’ indeed! Cloning has come a long way since the implanted donor nucleus and not of the surrogate mother then, though it has not lost out on being one of the most [3]. There are two techniques of nuclear transfer that have controversial sciences and today we have reached a stage in met with considerable success: the Roslin and the Honululu its advancement that we can talk technique. The former perabout its practical applications formed by Ian Wilmut and and uses. At large, cloning is one Keith Campbell led to the Despite these hurdles, the of two types either therapeutic creation of Dolly in 1997 [1]. main thrust for the concept or reproductive. Therapeutic is For endangered species, for medicinal purposes whereas the procedures for cloning of cloning is that it will reproductive involves duplicating are basically the same, albeit someday be perfected organisms. with some variations. During The first major successful cloning of endangered specase of cloning that caused a lot cies, the nucleus is provided of excitement and a stir throughout the world was that of by the endangered organism, whereas, the cytoplasm of the the creation of Dolly, the first living cloned sheep, produced egg cell used to form the embryo is usually derived from by Ian Wilmut in 1997, as mentioned by Rifkin in his article common domestic species such as a cow or goat. In other ‘Society should ban animal cloning’. It is stated in the article: words, interspecific cloning (cross-species nuclear transfer) is performed. This is usually done due to a lack or low ‘Dolly’s arrival has sparked much debate about availability of donor cells, oocytes or surrogate mothers of cloning’s potential benefits, as well as dangers, to the endangered species [4]. humans. What has been lacking, however, is discussion of how this affects the well-being of animals – as WHY WAS CLONING INITIALLY CONSIDERED? individuals and as species.’ [2] Captivity programs-wherein species are bred in humanly controlled environments such as zoos and conservation A recent area in cloning that has lately created a lot facilities - have been the traditional method of biological of sensation is that of cloning endangered species as an conservation. Captive propagation schemes, however, suffer initiative towards their conservation. Ethics aside, cloning from restricted physical space and even genetic reproductive of endangered species is neither profitable nor sensible. This failure. This is one major claim in favour of using assisted article proceeds to explain in greater detail why cloning is reproduction, which conservational cloning falls under. not a rational first choice in conservation. However cloning, with its research being just in its infancy stage, does not yield large numbers of offspring nor THE SCENARIO SO FAR does it necessarily provide any healthy and viable offspring. The basic idea behind the novel principle of cloning conservation If such offspring are created, they would be genetically simiis that in extremely small populations - especially ones on lar (as clones have been produced from a small remaining the verge of extinction - there is minimum genetic variation, population), following which a natural population cannot hence surfacing the urgent need to ensure no further loss of be created because of the drawback of inbreeding. genetic diversity. Cloning in such a case would be beneficial Despite these hurdles, the main thrust for the concept or at least a coping strategies to mitigate the loss of diversity. of cloning is that it will someday be perfected. “Clearly there Cloning of organisms is done by a technique known as is some way to go before it can be used effectively, but the nuclear transfer. All cloning experiments till now have used advances in this field are such that we will see more and variations of this very technique. It requires two cells - a more solutions to the problems faced” as so optimistically donor and an oocyte or egg cell. The egg cell is enucleated predicted by Professor Miller in the article ‘Extinct ibex is (its nucleus is removed), eliminating majority of its genetic resurrected by cloning’ [5]. information (nuclear DNA), so it passes down only the mitochondrial DNA into the clone. The donor cell is required to LIMITATIONS OF CLONING be forced into a dormant phase of cell division known as the Regardless of the noble reasons for pursuing cloning of G0 phase, causing the cell to shut down. The nucleus of the endangered species, the practice has not gained support donor cell is then transplanted into the egg cell (cell fusion among scientists nor conservationists. The following sections © 2011, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved. THE TRIPLE HELIX Spring 2011 11 NUS elucidate the arguments of scientists against the usage of cloning for endangered species. Inefficiency of Procedure The whole basis of using cloning as a conservation tool relies on the hope that cloning will reduce loss of diversity, but this would only be a practical approach if cloning efficiency were to be 100%, which it is presently not. Presently, the success rates for nuclear transfer in mammals are very low, with less than 0.1–5% of reconstructed embryos resulting in a live birth, considering statistics from the experiments performed on mice by Wakayama & Yanagimachi in 2001 [1]. That is, 200 to 1000 nuclear transfers are necessary for every viable offspring which may or may not survive to be an adult. An example would be that of Noah, the first interspecies gaur (a rare Tibetan antelope) clone - 692 skin cells were fused with cow eggs, 81 developed into embryos, 44 were implanted into cows of which 8 resulted in pregnancies. Five of these miscarried, two were induced to abort and one gave birth to Noah who went on to live for forty-eight hours after birth [6,7]. Considering the whole spectrum of species on earth, cloning has been performed mostly only on mammals; with not many efforts made to clone other vertebrates or even invertebrates for that matter, hence success rates in these organisms has not even been measured. Hence it may be that applying cloning technology for conservation is ‘hopelessly optimistic’ given the current efficiency. Additionally, some argue that we should try out new ways to better the processes employed in cloning. If we were to look at ways to maximise success using the methods we employ today, we would be directed to focus on poly-ovulatory, many litter bearing species. This rules out popular and media-enchanting mammals such as the giant panda and instead directs attention to species such as rodents. Ironically previously successful and tried traditional methods of conservation such as semen freezing, embryo transfer have not been applied to endangered rodent species (whose number surprisingly counts up to a 330). We set out instead to apply cloning - only a developing technique with extremely low success rate - for this purpose. However, if conservation is what we truly have in mind, should we not first make an effort to properly conserve these endangered species using traditional practices [8]? Therefore, to encourage cloning for direct use in conservation as of now may not be the best option, as cloning is faced with many other setbacks. Lack of Adequate Information for Creating a Clone An important setback that cannot and must not be overlooked is that of the dearth of information and knowledge on endangered species. The fact that their numbers are rare, means that, there is not much of research animals to observe; hence research tends to move if not slowly, only at a modest rate when contrastingly the term ‘endangered’ itself screams out urgency and the immediate need for protection and 12 THE TRIPLE HELIX Sprimg 2011 conservation. An undertaking of a cloning project for a specific species would require specific and accurate details relating to the physiology of the organism including development, maturation, gestation periods, oocyte recruitment and more which has never been studied before in most cases, with knowledge on most species being minimal, sometimes even non-existent. Perhaps the best example, paradoxically, would be to show endeavours of conservation programmes from the past. In 1994, a research programme for developing in vitro fertilisation and embryo transfer for breeding in snow leopards was embarked upon. Even as of 2004, the use of hormones in managing the ovulation and quality of oocytes for leopards had not been mastered completely [8]. Detailed information about the species reproductive system, in-depth knowledge of the cellular and development processes of the species are imperative before getting started on a conservation programme by cloning. Additionally, in many cases the donor has to be from a different species but interspecific differences do not make the Reproduced from [15] process easier. It creates a further hindrance of having to choose an organism available in sufficient numbers and also close biologically to be a suitable oocyte donor as well as recipient female [3]. As an example, though the gaur may have the cow as related species in the animal kingdom, there aren’t any strong surrogate candidates for the rare antelope [7]. Abnormalities in the Clone The obstacles faced with cloning of organisms are not only in the first few stages of impregnating the organism (which itself shows statistical figures as low as one in 277 in case of Dolly), but also later after the animal is born. Several studies cited in ‘Wildlife conservation and reproductive cloning’ show that nuclear transfer technology in its current state can lead to significant abnormalities in offspring including large birth weight, extended gestation, severe pulmonary and cardiac diseases, histological and placement disorders in many organs including kidney, brain, heart and muscle. The article also states that the health effects have been ascribed to ‘inefficient reprogramming and imprinting of nuclear DNA’, a process that would naturally occur during gametogenesis and early development and would govern whether certain genes are expressed from the maternal or paternal chromosomes [8]. Recent research in 2002 reported that the genomes of cloned mice are compromised by this very inefficient imprinting, and an analysis of more than 10,000 liver and placenta cells of the mice revealed that up to 4% of genes functioned abnormally [9]. Cloning Creates a Situation of Reintroduction While recent developments in cloning suggest the benefits of cloning, there is a need to consider the concerns of conservationists. The cloning of an extinct species and release into a natural habitat is equivalent to its reintroduction to a new environment. After a species is ‘rescued’ by cloning it would need to be re-established into the wild. One would © 2011, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved. NUS Reproduced from [16] then be introducing it into a stressed ecosystem which is why it became endangered to begin with; such a reintroduction would be considered by many as an act of cruelty [6]. Ecologists in favour of reintroduction as a conservation phenomenon contend that if attempted carefully it could be successful. For example, the Mauritius kestrel whose population which was declining to about nine individuals, revived to almost 700-800 when relocated to the island of Mauritius (cited in Groombridge et al. 2000). However, further analysis reveals that compared with pre-crash individuals, the population is now extremely homogeneous and is poorly equipped for adapting to environmental changes. Hence, a cloned species if introduced into the environment might very well be incapable of survival by acclimatization to its surroundings (a case similar to that of the kestrel mentioned above), but it could also have negative repercussions on species native to the environment it is being introduced to. Cloning: To be Used as An Excuse? Many Scientists and ecologists fear that cloning used in this field would be perceived as a method for fixing species loss; that it would provide a ‘silver bullet solution’, without an effort to prevent the loss in the first place. As concisely put by John Rennie: “The danger is that this could be seen as an alternative, but cloning is just one more tool to use along with the rest of the measures we already take to preserve species” [10]. Having cloning as an alternative could cause loss of vigour in the traditional conservation front, resulting in the public disregarding the importance of protecting the remaining individuals of endangered species. Moreover money and resources pooled into high-profile breeding projects maybe References 1. Bailey, B. (2000). Cloning the Gaur. Retrieved October 27, 2010, from http:// environmentalcommons.org/cetos/index.html: http://environmentalcommons.org/ cetos/articles/cloninggaur.html 2. BBC. (2003, July 18). ‘Scientists ‘to clone mammoth’’. Retrieved from http:// news.bbc.co.uk/: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3075381.stm 3. BERIS, U. D. (2009, May 11). Cloning Fact Sheet. Retrieved October 27, 2010, from http://genomics.energy.gov/: http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/ Human_Genome/elsi/cloning.shtml 4. Dobson, R. G. (2009, January 31). ‘Extinct ibex is resurrected by cloning’. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news: http://www. telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/4409958/Extinct-ibex-is-resurrected-bycloning.html 5. Durnan, K. (2001, January 12). Cloned Ox, from Rare Species, Dies. Retrieved October 27, 2010, from http://www.grg.org/ACTgaur2.htm 6. Holloway, G. (2002, May 28). ‘Cloning to revive extinct species’. Retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/: http://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/ asiapcf/auspac/05/28/aust.thylacines/ 7. Lisa Mastny, W. W. (2010, September 25). ‘Scientists clone endangered species’. Retrieved from http://findarticles.com/: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/ mi_hb6376/is_1_14/ai_n28848134/ © 2011, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved. better spent on cost-effective activities such as preserving certain pockets of habitat where rare species survive [11]. Considering that many species of animals are extremely difficult to breed, and attempts are unsuccessful more often than they are successful, it is probably wiser if other conservation practices are given more importance. Habitat preservation and prevention of poaching can go a long way in preserving rare species. Moreover, as exhibited by the recent ibex ‘resurrection’ only frozen DNA samples are required for cloning, we can always preserve tissues of animals in gene banks for future harnessing by cloning [5]. Also if assisted reproduction is looked upon as an absolute necessity for conservation, other approaches are more likely to yield productive results. Examples include artificial insemination, in-vitro fertilisation, embryo culture, and artificial implantation (from Smith and Brandhorst, 1999 cited in Wilmut and Paterson, 2009). In spite of the optimism offered by Professor Miller with regard to the advances in cloning unlocking solutions as mentioned earlier, there is no verification for this claim that solutions will open up for the problems posed. In fact, the multitude of problems faced by cloning endangered species remains as large as it was at the start. WHERE DO WE STAND NOW? Issues surrounding cloning have triggered controversies among the public and scientific communities. Most of the attention is focused on the ethical dimensions. This essay has not delved into ethics but instead, privileged the biological viewpoint. It has been argued that is it justifiable not to adopt cloning as a full-fledged conservation strategy, at least, in the immediate context. We need to give due importance to the fact that by manipulating the genome, the biological diversity within each species is put at stake. With current low success rates of implantation and survival of clones, lack of information, prevailing abnormalities in offspring and other negative results, reproductive cloning does not have a strong case as of yet. However, there are incipient benefits of cloning now but until methods are more reliable, it appears more prudent to formulate realistic strategies for species and wildlife conservation, using what we have at hand. Sudha Sundaram is studying Life Sciences at the National University of Singapore. 8. News, A. G. (2010, September 25). ‘CLONING: Bringing Back Endangered Species’. Retrieved from http://findarticles.com: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/ mi_m0DED/is_3_21/ai_66520544/ 9. Paterson, I. W. (2009). ‘Conservation and Cloning: the challenges’. In O. R. George Amato, Conservation genetics in the age of genomics. (pp. 204-209). Columbia University Press. 10. Perlman, H. B. (2000, Oct 8). ‘Scientists Close on Extinct Cloning’. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/ aponline/20001008/aponline171938_000.htm 11. Rifkin, J. (1998). ‘Dolly’s legacy: The implications’ The Animal’s Agenda. In G. E. McCuen, Cloning science and society (pp. 80-85). Gary E. McCuen publications. 12. Rojas, M., Venegas, F., Montiel, E., Servely, J. L., & Vignon, X. &. (2005). ‘Attempts at applying cloning to the conservation of species in danger extinction.’. Retrieved from http://www.scielo.cl/pdf/ijmorphol/v23n4/art08.pdf 13. Techniques. (1998). Retrieved from Conceiving a clone: http://library. thinkquest.org/24355/ 14. William V Holt, A. R. (2004). ‘Wildlife conservation and reproductive cloning’. Retrieved from http://www.reproduction-online.org: http://www.reproductiononline.org/cgi/reprint/127/3/317 15. http://images.nigms.nih.gov/imageRepository/2690/Dolly_the_sheep.jpg 16. http://www.dna.gov/rawmedia_repository/ THE TRIPLE HELIX Spring 2011 13 NUS CORNELL Insects as Food for Thought Emelyne Teo T he concept of what is not acceptable as food in English culture is well conveyed by an age-old conundrum: ‘What is worse than finding a maggot in your apple?’ – ‘Finding half a maggot’ [1]. Indeed, food choices are often associated with cultural identity [2]. With the classification of insects as pests and Western stereotype of indigenous people who consume insects as primitive or uncivilized, one can hardly accept the inferiority of eating insects. However, is entomophagy purely a barbaric act [2]? Let us begin searching for an answer with a brief overview of entomophagy. There are approximately 1500-2000 species of insects consumed by over 3000 ethnic groups across 113 countries. You may have heard of chawanmushi; but have you heard of zaza-mushi? Cooked in soy sauce and sugar, zaza-mushi – the larvae of aquatic caddis flies (order Trichoptera) – is a delicacy in rural Japanese towns. There is even an elite group of licensed Japanese hunters, who collect up to five pounds of zaza-mushi each per day. The hunters in turn sell their catch to insect canners for about $40 per pound. Since 1956, canning has become the fate of most harvested insects in Japan. Apart from zaza-mushi, canned insects such as baby bees, silkworm pupae and grasshoppers are common in Japanese retail shops [3]. Perhaps tarantulas are the most unimaginable arthropod dish that you would have ever heard. Surprisingly, tarantulas make a favourite dish in Venezuela and Cambodia. Theraphosa leblondi, the biggest spider in the world, is a popular dish in Venezuelan restaurants. The big-sized spider often occupies one whole dinner plate [3]. In a remote province in Cambodia, deep-fried tarantulas are sold for 500 riels ($0.20 U.S). The business is brisk and all the customers are men, as they think that tarantulas are good for their virility [3]. A quick glance at the commercialized practice suggests that entomophagy is not purely a barbaric act. The diverse and long established cultures of eating insects have made this practice a norm in many countries across the world. This phenomenon opens up a huge market for industries to harvest and serve insects for human consumption. Nonetheless, the scale of insects market in Japan and Cambodia may be too small to conclude the economic benefit of entomophagy. The first case study of mopane worm trade in Botswana will thus be a convincing illustration of the economic importance of entomophagy. Mopane Worm Trade in Botswana – A Source of Income In Botswana, mopane worm not only serves to satisfy hunger, but it also represents an important commercial enterprise. Mopane worm belongs to the order Lepidoptera. It is a caterpillar that feeds on mopane trees and has two seasonal outbreaks per year in April and December. The worms have thorn-like points on their backs that are sharp enough to slice unwary fingers. Yet women and children are daring enough to take the risk of harvesting them. Mopane worms offer a lucrative trade – women in Botswana sell loaded sacks full of dried mopane worms to trailers; trailers sell the worms to wholesalers, who resell them to merchants, who resell them again in the market [3]. As a country with the knowledge and tradition of harvesting the insects, mopane 14 THE TRIPLE HELIX Spring 2011 worm trade has long been an economy booster for Botswana. A good worm harvest in a year is estimated to be worth US $3.3 million, providing employment to 10,000 people [4]. To achieve greater economic benefits, much research has been poured into the study of mopane worm. In 2001, the Department for International Development (DFID) , a United Kingdom government department responsible for promoting development and the reduction of poverty, funded a three year research that sought to increase the understanding of mopane worm biology and its management as a valuable natural resource. Various harvesting and storage techniques have been developed through the research. Some of them include the development of a low-cost hand-held degutting device that can be made at village level and a novel dry roasting cooker that removes all the brittle spines of mopane worms [5]. These inventions have saved much work for harvesters. In particular, poor farmers, landless families and rural artisans of mopane woodland-dwelling communities in rural places such as Zimbabwe, South Africa and Botswana have benefited from the introduction of these inventions [4]. The increasing labor participation in mopane worm trade can thus alleviate poverty in these rural areas. Chongcha and Ant Wine – Eating Insects for Their Medicinal and Nutritional Values On top of underpinning major economic sectors of several African countries, the use of insects as traditional medicine exemplifies health benefits of entomophagy. Travelling north, the rich use of insects in traditional Chinese medicine is well documented. In China, insect excrement is often made into medicinal tea. Chongcha, a black fragrant tea that aids digestion, alleviate diarrhoea, and treat bleeding haemorrhoids, is made from tiny hard pellets of caterpillar (Hydrillodes morose) excrement. The medicinal properties of Chongcha are suggested to arise from the presence of pharmacologically active substance, ellagic acid, which is found in the caterpillar’s diet and excreted out intact [3]. Hydrillodes morose feeds mainly on the leaves of Platycarya stobilacea, a plant that is rich in ellagic acid [6]. This substance is found to have antiproliferative and antioxidant properties that account for the anti-haemorrhoids properties of Chongcha. Apart from medicinal tea, ant wine is also widely used in traditional Chinese medicine. The formic acid and various minerals in ants are said to be effective against Hepatitis B and rheumatism [4]. As a result of its health benefits, ant wine becomes so popular that it places the medicinal ant genus, Polyrhachis, in the threat of extinction [3]. Along with their medicinal properties, insects are also consumed for their nutrients. Insects are generally rich in minerals. For instance, crickets contain more than 1,550 milligrams of iron, 25 milligrams of zinc and 340 milligrams of calcium per 100 grams of dry tissue [7]. Three of them would provide an individual’s daily iron requirement. In addition, many insects have a fairly high concentration of the eight essential amino acids that cannot be synthesized in human body. In Uganda, termites are the main source of lysine and tryptophan, two essential amino acids that are limited in the country’s staple food [3]. Given their high nutrient and © 2011, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved. NUS protein level, insects should indeed be included in our diets. Grasshopper Control in Mexico – Ecological Benefit of Entomophagy Ecologically, the consumption of plant pests is advocated as a means of pest control [9]. In the Puebla-Tlaxcala Valley in Mexico, predominant crops such as alfafa, bean, corn, squash and broad bean are routinely attacked by the grasshopper Sphenarium purpurascens, an edible species [10]. It was reported that 30,339 ha of land in the state of Tlaxcala has been infested with the grasshopper. The application of insecticides, mainly parathion and malathion, is used as the primary method to control the pests. However, it has resulted in the escape of organophosphorate residues into water bodies which are lethal to many fish species. Moreover, the farmers often apply insecticides without proper personal safety equipment. Direct contact of insecticides introduces harmful effects such as respiratory disorders and toxicity that results in chromosome deviation and abnormal sperm counts of affected farmers. In view of the negative impacts of such a chemical control, the manual harvesting of S. purpurascens for consumption is preferred as an environmentally friendly way of controlling the pest. In addition, the replacement of insecticides by manual harvesting of the insect generates economical benefits. For the residents of Puebla, grasshopper harvesting has become their principal source of income. Sale of grasshoppers as food to the states of Oaxaca, Morelos and Mexico City yields annual profits of US $3000 per family. In contrast, insecticide application costs US $150 per farmer [10]. This adds up to a net gain of US3150 per farmer who adopts manual harvesting in pest control. As an energy-efficient source of protein, insect consumption can potentially alleviate some of the problems associated with livestock production. Currently, there has been much concern regarding raising livestock for consumption. First, livestock production takes up a considerable amount of land, which is approximated to be 30% of the land surface area on earth [11]. Secondly, the process of raising livestock generates a large source of greenhouse gases. Ruminant livestock produce about 80 million metric tons of methane annually, accounting for about 28% of global methane emissions from human-related activities [12]. On the other hand, insects are small organisms that do not take up much space or generate much greenhouse gases. Therefore, using insects as an alternative source of protein will not only generate ecological benefit, but also alleviate the existing environmental problems concerning livestock production. Finally, let us examine Mexican Jumil day, which features a ritual that is associated with a bug feast. This case study demonstrates that we can learn about other cultures through an insect feast. Mexican Jumil day falls on the first Monday after Day of the Dead, a special day when family and friends gather around for remembrance of loved ones that have already passed away. On Jumil day, Mexicans gather on a mountaintop between Mexico City and Acapulco [14]. As a ritual dating from pre-Aztec times, the townspeople eat jumiles (Euchistus taxcoensis), a type of stink bug which is half-inch long [3]. Jumiles migrate annually to the mountaintop and reproduce there between September and the next February [8]. The bugs are traditionally believed to be the souls of ancestors returning to the living [3]. Eating these symbolic bugs could mean to combine one’s body and the ancestor’s soul as one. This unorthodox ritual of eating bugs has also left a deep impression on people, making Mexican culture more well-known. Still, Why Not Eat Insects? Despite the establishment of multiple benefits of entomophagy, there is still a major attitudinal barrier to the use of insects as human food in western societies. The limited interest arises from hygienic concerns that view insects as a transmitter of disease. Interestingly, most people in western societies inadvertently consume insects from various food products. In fact, the United States’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has permitted certain levels of insects to be found in food products. In the United States, the allowable amounts of insect per 100 g of processed food products are as follow: 80 insect fragments for chocolate, 60 aphids, thrips or mites for frozen broccoli, 100 insect fragments for macaroni and other noodle products, 60 insect fragments for peanut butter and 150 insect fragments for wheat flour [9]. Therefore, education on nutritional, health and ecological issues associated with entomophagy can partly overcome the aversion towards insects. Insects as Food for Thought To sum up, this essay has established economic, health, ecological and cultural benefits that justify entomophagy. Yet in reality, entomophagy will hardly be accepted in Western culture. At the end of this essay, you may be tempted to try the grilled witchetty grubs, or you may be appalled by the fried tarantulas. After all, insects are food for thought – food that is worth exploring into for some, while for others, only in their imagination. Mexican Jumil Day – Learning about Other Cultures through an Insect Feast Emelyne Teo is a student studying Life Sciences at the National University of Singapore. References 7. Raloff J and Menzel P. Insects: The Original White Meat. Science News. 7 June 2008: 173(18): 16-21. 8. Kurt and Mondloch P. Dining Adventure: El Dia del Jumil [Internet]. [place unknown]; [publisher unknown]. [date unknown, cited 2011 February 20]. Available from http://plateinternational.com/diningadventures/daeldiadeljumil. html. 9. Yen AL. Edible Insects: Traditional Knowledge or Western Phobia. Entomological Research. 16 July 2009: 39(2009): 289-298. 10. Cerritos R and Santana CZ. Harvesting grasshoppers Sphenarium purpurascens in Mexico for human consumption: A comparison with insecticidal control for managing pest outbreaks. Crop Protection.1 August 2007: 27(2008): 473-480. 11. Yen AL. Entomophagy and insect conservation: some thoughts for digestion. The Journal of Insect Conservation. 30 December 2008: 2009(13): 667-670. 12. Gunning P. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Ruminant Livestock [Internet]. Washington; [Publisher unknown]. [updated 2007 March 22, cited 2011 February 20]. Available from http://www.epa.gov/rlep/faq.html. 1. Holt VM. Why Not Eat Insects. Dorchester: Great Britain; 1998. 2. Wood JR and Looy H. My Ant is Coming to Dinner. Culture, Disgust, and Dietary Challenges. Proteus: A journal of ideas: 5. 3. Menzel P and Aluisio FD. Man eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects. California: Ten Speed Press; 1998. 4. Knell R. Mopane Woodlands and the Mopane Worms [Internet]. United Kingdom; [publisher unknown]. [cited 2011 February 12]. Available from http:// www.mopane.org 5. Stack J and Ghazoul J. Mopane woodlands and the Mopane worm: Enhancing Rural Livelihoods and Resource sustainability. Forestry Research Programme [Internet]. [place unknown]; [publisher unknown]. [updated 2002 June 15; cited 2011 February 12]. Available from http://www.mopane.org/Workshop.pdf 6. Seeram NP, Adams LS, Henning SM, Niu Y, Zhang Y, Nair MG and Heber D. In vitro antiproliferative, apoptotic and antioxidant activities of punicalagin, ellagic acid and a total pomegranate tannin extract are enhanced in combination with other polyphenols as found in pomegranate juice. The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry: JNB. June 2005: 16(6): 360-367. © 2011, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved. THE TRIPLE HELIX Spring 2011 15 NUS I Recognize You Not Just Skin Deep Zhang Qiong I watched my lab partner attentively as she collected the experimental data. However, after I stepped out of the lab and thought of her, I could no longer remember any part of her face, despite the strong impression her attitude and rigorous arguments had left while she was interpreting the results. And I am not alone in encountering this; there are situations where people incorrectly judge a familiar face thus greeting a wrong person, or simply fail to recognize even a close friend until seconds later. Yet, it is commonly believed that having the ability to quickly and accurately identify people around you is one of the basic social skills that one ought to be equipped with. Recognizing faces, like memorizing names, has always been playing an important role in maintaining well functioning social networks. Medicines can get us nowhere in ameliorating a relatively poor situation of an individual’s ability to identify faces and more often than not it is purely regarded as a gift we are born with [9]. But is face recognition really as significant as people always assume it to be, or is it somehow plays a role but with its significance overemphasized by us all? The Superficial Nature of What Face Recognition is Based On Face recognition is a process that should not be overemphasized because of the superficial nature of what face recognition is based on. It is a process of identifying a person by analyzing selected features in a face [6]. Face features constitute of shapes and positions of major parts on the face such as eyes, nose, mouth, cheeks and forehead, with the original bony skull structure as the basis. And it is believed that almost all the visible facial appearances and important facial features can be accurately extrapolated and reconstructed just from a skull alone with elements such as emotions excluded in the face recognition process [2]. Smiles and frowns take longer to take effect compared with the required instantaneous response to a face when we want to make a quick judgment whether we know this person or not. The totality of a person’s personality could not be communicated via these face features alone. The familiarity of two persons cannot be directly reflected in the instantaneous process of face recognition because the biological ability to recognize faces is limited by the inability to recognize emotions. Thus, we can see that the role face recognition plays in maintaining a social network is not supposed to be as significant as nowadays people assume it to be. Face Blindness Renders Us Different in the Starting Line Face recognition is a process that should not be overemphasized because disease like face blindness renders us different in the starting line. There are people in the world to whom everyone looks similarly blank at first sight. They see facial features, but cannot perceive faces like normal people do even after encountering the same face repeatedly. It is a disorder of perception, either caused by brain damage or genetic abnormalities, called Prosopagnosia, where there is disproportionate impairment for faces as compared to non-face objects [5]. The significance of face recognition people take for granted put those who suffer from face blindness under great pressure. People with face blindness encounter multiple situations that develop social awkwardness and security concerns in their daily life. They simply walk right past people they know without greeting, they repeat the same introductory words to those they regard as new but actually have just talked minutes before, and they fail to become alert even when an unfriendly, strange face approaches them. As years go by, suffers of the disease regard themselves as social eccentrics isolated from the public [3]. Moreover, face recognition has been over-prioritized considering some individuals’ lack of this perceptual skill, comprising about one in forty of the entire population. Reproduced from [11] 16 THE TRIPLE HELIX Spring 2011 © 2011, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved. NUS Psychologist Ken Nakayama, at Harvard’s Vision Sciences Laboratory, claims that an even larger proportion of the world population, which is around ten percent, is suffering milder versions of face blindness [1]. Since many of us are different in the starting line in terms of how well we recognize faces, it is not an appropriate standard of judgment to people’s familiarity with each other or to how deep an impression a person had made in another’s mind. When people will also exclude you from the reach of their network the same way they think you do, if you are unfortunately lack such perceptual skill. We would like to ask, is face recognition an indispensible component in maintaining well-functioning social networks, or is this simply just a seemingly more effective method of recognizing people from the crowd? Last but not least, the significance of face recognition is not to be over emphasized because there are alternatives of recognizing people besides the face recognition alone. We can rely to a certain extent on these features to recognize people in our daily life, but we can still live a normal life if we are not as sensitive and accurate by not emphasizing the significance of face recognition too much. It is not as sympathetic if you grow up with the fact that everyone looks no different to you when you are trying hard to recognize their faces, compared with your reputation developed for arrogance when you pass by them without a greeting without a smile, in a world where people only recognize faces. Though the entire face is somehow not “visible”, detailed features and other parts of the body are still visualized. People suffering face blindness can actually live a normal life by relying on subtle cues and secondary clues as long as they do not rely too much on face recognition alone [4]. You can recognize your friends by the hairstyle they usually wear, their unique face expression and body language, and their voices as well. If your young sister has a mole on her left cheek, you can also recognize her that way. Face Recognition Challenged in the Case of Capgras Delusion Opposite to Prosopagnosia, Capgras delusion refers to a syndrome where people recognize faces and appearances quite well but have the wrong belief with strong conviction that a close friend or spouse has been replaced by a double, even in the presence of strong evidence to the contrary [10]. Reliance on face recognition is challenged here. They are actually able to consciously recognize faces, but an emotional response of a familiar face is somehow impaired. This explains the delusionary belief they have, where they can recognize their family members and friends but at the same time feeling something wrong, due to the loss of an emotional response. Though the example of Capgras delusion only represents certain clinical cases and is not a general one, the alarming delusionary world all made of doubles illustrates the confusion of identity and the necessity to reconsider the essence of familiarity. And it seems to them as if the face features are the least reliable cues to rely on. We could actually tell from this case that, the region of brain recognizing face features is distinct from that responsible for the emotional response. Face recognition is a process that should not be overemphasized because in doing so we are assuming that the process of face recognition plays a determinative role in triggering a subsequent emotional response. The Defects of the Face Recognition System Another reason why the role of face recognition is not to be overemphasized lies in the defects of the face recognition method itself. We might well assume the accuracy and effectiveness of the face recognition systems built on computer programmes that are designed to compare selected features on a digital image with the stored database, with the aim of timely identification and thus arresting of criminals. However, such verification processes may turn out to be less useful than most imagine. Hairs and spectacles can be rather distracting, as well as the angle of the camera’s projection. A case has been reported in the police department in Tampa, Florida, United States, where an experimental face recognition system could not correctly identify a single face in its database of suspects during its two-month trial period in 2001 and was discontinued eventually [7]. Besides, issues of identity theft are raised in which case people with clever disguises would be able to elude such systems. More effective methods like fingerprint identification and iris identification have be developed and applied [8]. Thus we can well see the downside of overestimating and overemphasizing the role of face recognition in a computational system. The defects in computational face identification system might not be directly comparable to that in a human social network, however, the doubts it raises about the effectiveness as well as the significance of the face recognition process is much like the same issue with human social networks. As in the case of Facebook, people bring the emphasis on the role of face recognition and post pictures of their faces on their profile pages. However, when the time comes and when we encounter our Facebook friends in real life, what makes both side recognizable to each other would be our daily acquaintance rather than just several Facebook visits. To sum it up, face recognition is a process that should not be overemphasized considering the superficial nature that it is based on, certain groups of individuals who are lack of this perceptual skill, and the underlying defects of the recognition method itself. Zhang Qiong is a student studying Computational Biology at the National University of Singapore. References 1. Bradt, S. (2006, June). Harvard University Gazette. Retrieved March 2010, from http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/06.01/05-faceblind.html. 2. Dataface. (2007, May). Retrieved April 2010, from http://www.face-and-emotion. com/dataface/physiognomy/physiognomy.jsp. 3. Davis, J. (2006, November). Face Blind. Retrieved March 2010, from http://www. wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/blind.html. 4. Health Jockey. (2008, November). Retrieved March 2010, from http://www. healthjockey.com/2008/11/28/new-research-gives-an-insight-on-face-blindness/. 5. Isabel Gauthier, M. B. (July 1999). Can face recognition really be dissociated from object recognition? Journal of Cognitive Neoruscience , 349-370. 6. ITS Psychology Dictionary. (2005, Semptember). Retrieved March 2010, from http://www.tuition.com.hk/psychology/f.htm. © 2011, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved. 7. Jay Stanley, B. S. (2002, April). BNET. Retrieved March 2010, from http:// findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1374/is_2_62/ai_83794480/. 8. NEUROtechonology. (2010, Janauary). Retrieved March 2010, from http://www. neurotechnology.com/megamatcher.html. 9. Page, L. (2009, September). Articlesbase. Retrieved March 2010, from http:// www.articlesbase.com/disabilities-articles/autism-and-face-blindness-1211176. html. 10. Young, G. (2009 September). In what sense ‘familiar’? Examining experiential differences within pathologies of facial recognition. Consciousness And Cognition , 628-638. 11. http://utilities.columbus.gov/Water/images/ToothySmile.jpg THE TRIPLE HELIX Spring 2011 17 NUS Why Do They Not Believe in God? Value of Doubt and the Scientific Method in Scientists’ Community Tommy Shi Zheng O ne of the most exciting politicians of our time, Barack Obama wrote in his almost centrist book, appealing to the less liberal conservatives, that he is a Christian, and in the same book (in fact, the same chapter) he is also a skeptic who believes in “evolution, scientific inquiry, and global warming” [1]. The friendly, if not welcoming posture to the religious and conservative right-wingers in the presidential election seem to have rewarded Mr. Obama. This political practicality of claiming to be both a believer and a scientific man may win electorates, but it obscures the intense conflict between the two competing camps of values an individual faces. Outside the ballot, the war between the religious and the scientific is a fixture in American news, on issues ranging from embryo and stem cell research to how to teach about religion in public schools. The latter is also an unsolved problem of Singapore educators, whose last attempt to incorporate religious study ended in a sour note after encountering objections from science teachers, angry parents and increasingly dividing student body under zealous preaching from different sources. The balance or even harmony of Obama’s claim is rarely a practical reality. Instead, within a person or a community, there seems to be an innate conflict for religion and science to co-exist, or at least a dilemma that perplexed many great minds. In fact, many great scientists’ autobiographies would be quite incomplete without mention of their struggle with their religion-by-birth, their religious family upbringing, Reproduced from [9] 18 THE TRIPLE HELIX Spring 2011 or fierce conflict with vocal religious institutions. Many scientists such as Copernicus, Newton, Darwin, Einstein, and Feynman share a similar label that suggests unorthodox religious interpretations: at one point in their lives they were labeled as a deist, an atheist, a free thinker, or a heretic radical unaccepted in most religious temples. Einstein was ‘not able to imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere’, whereas Feynman claimed ‘God was invented to explain mysteries’, and God is not needed when you discover a law about how things actually work [2]. Although not all the predominant scientists aforementioned intended to fight against a religious establishment, their scientific work undermined some of the very foundation of Religion, the most well-known example being Darwin’s Evolution Theory challenging a Holy Creator by countering the story in Genesis. Similarly, Einstein and Feynman may have no intention to be anti-religion, yet their work indicates inaccuracy or doubt of how world came into being. Work such as Darwin’s or Einstein’s suggests the possibility of falsehood, or at least raises reasonable doubt to the absoluteness of certain religious text. To understand scientists’ cynical attitude towards religion or at least the hostility from religious bodies towards certain scientific theories, we shall study the nature of the scientists’ work. From Copernicus, Newton, to Darwin and Einstein, the most acclaimed scientists of modern history was remembered not only for their ground-breaking scientific work, but for another reason. These scientists’ work either defied the then church interpretations of the Bible, or offered more detailed account of nature once accounted only by a line in the holy text. Such opposition would lead to a lasting combat for supporters thereafter, between religious bodies who once ruled unchallenged with the Book of Genesis and scientific community who now proposed a more detailed and better proved story. It is now clear that religious bodies if not failing, are evolving in the combat. Modern churches are changing their ways of preaching, integrating work of scientists and archeologists and getting more tolerant to doubt. Churches that once firmly state ‘Doubt is the enemy of Faith’ now accept a halfseeing, half-believing ...
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