04/07(Tue.) From Streaking to Glowing Fish (Stephen Chiu)

[stephen185]

Whether you remember it or not, most of us love streaking in our early childhood around age of two or less. Actually, before Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden, "the man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame."
(Genesis 2:25). Being naked or streaking, seems to be a natural behavior of human being. Back to the 70's, a number of scientific studies were
inspired because of the prevalence of streaking. "A Note on Student's Reactions to Streaking", which was published on The Journal of Perceptual
and Motor Skills, revealed the typical feeling of the young at that time. It concluded that "Streaking was not seen as deviant behaviour, nor
streakers as deviant by nearly all respondents.", after surveying over 200 university students who take it all seriously. Unfortunately, except in
some places where nudity in public is allowable as long as the nude remains moving, the law of most countries prohibits this originally legitimate
conduct. Still, however, we heard about this kind of activity happening somewhere in the world now and then.

Why do people streak? Philosophers have been struggling with this question since Plato first ran naked in the Acropolis. Many theories were proposed regarding why some people have strong desire to dash naked through public spaces. For instance, Doris McIlwain, a psychology lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, proposed that "Nudity is a great leveler in a way" and suggested that "streaking is an infantile form of attention drawing, in a Freudian kind of way." In fact, except for those with mental disorder problems, people nowadays streak or present themselves naked in public for specific reasons. From protesting against the commercial use of animals' furs to celebrating the end of an academic year, there are always some reasons for streakers to justify this daring conduct. But what exactly actuates the desire to expose oneself aboveboard if not caused by psychological illness? Could it be some special genes that make them more adventuresome than most of us?

Over the past decades, the knowledge and technique in genetics have been greatly expanded. Thanks to the advancement of the technology, human gene has been proven to be directly linked to personality. It was reported in "Nature Genetics" that people who have longer form of D4 dopamine receptor gene, or D4DR, appear to be more enthusiastic about "novelty seeking". Genetic research also claims that heredity is a major determining factor causing individuals to commit crimes. This inspires so called "Gene therapy" by which the researchers believe will help rectify
the criminal's behavior and reduce the crime rate. In addition to studying human behaviors, genetic technology has already contributed immensely to the yield increase of agriculture products and offers gene screening for evaluating the probability of getting cancer. One of the most recent examples was given by Angelina Jolie, a famous American movie actress, who had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed after doctor detected that she carries the BRCA1 gene, which indicates an estimated 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer. Angelina opted for this preventive treatment considering her family has a history of cancer, as her mother had breast cancer and died of ovarian cancer.

However, there may be other option in the not too distant future. As genetic technology advances, biologists have invented a new genome-editing technique that would alter human DNA in a way that can be inherited. According to the NIH's handbook, "A genome is an organism’s complete set of DNA, including all of its genes. Each genome contains all of the information needed to build and maintain that organism." Using genome-editing technique, the dysfunctional or unfavorable genes can be "edited" and turned into normal or beneficial ones and can be passed on to future generations. Thus,the descendant of those who suffer from genetic disease can live without being threaten by the same illness for good. Nevertheless, since the technique holds the power to mend or even enhance any human gene. “It raises the most fundamental of issues about how we are going to view our humanity in the future and whether we are going to take the dramatic step of modifying our own germline and in a sense take control of our genetic destiny, which raises enormous peril for humanity,” said George Daley, a stem cell expert at Boston Children’s Hospital. Besides, considering the high expense and profits this technology can bring in a capitalist system, it could benefit the wealthy and privileged by giving them a biological/genetic advantage in addition to their economic and social advantages. Therefore, some sort of norms and guidelines for human use of the genome-editing technique ought to be set before unleashing this powerful technology and the operation should be discreetly sanctioned as well.

So, what would be the next step of genetic technology? In the book, "NEXT"(危基當前), a scientific fiction written by Michael Critchton, who also
wrote "Jurassic Park", scientists create a parrot who can do math and really knows the meaning of words he says and a humanzee that not only
speaks English but also thinks himself a human. Both of them are created using recombinant DNA from transgenic technology, which uses enzymes to cut and paste together DNA sequences of interest from different sources. The recombined DNA sequences can be placed into vehicles called vectors that ferry the DNA into a suitable host cell or organism where it can be copied or expressed in terms of modified or novel traits. In addition, the author even predicts a new type of advertisement using next generation of Glofish that grows glowing scales in the pattern of characters of company's name, such as "INTEL"and "IBM", to name a few. However, along with the benefits of life span increase, vaccine for cancer, cure for paralysis, and the bio neon that genetic technology can bring us, could it also have some unexpected impacts on our lives? I believe you must have insightful thoughts on this subject. Please come to the meeting to share with us.

*1: Glofish--fluorescent fish (http://www.glofish.com/)

References
1. http://www.streakerama.com/whystreaking.htm
2. Balaban, Evan and Lewontin, Richard,"Criminal genes: how "crime" is becoming "criminal behavior" - and the danger within",
GeneWatch 2007 March-April; 20(2): 10-15 (http://issuu.com/genewatchmagazine/docs/genewatch20-2)
3. Benjamin, J., Li, L., Patterson C., Greenberg B., Murphy D. & Hamer D., "Population and familial association between the D4 dopamine receptor
gene and measures of Novelty Seeking", Nature Genetics 12, 81 - 84 , 1996.
4. "Next", Michael Crichton, Harper Collins Publishers, 2006.
5. http://www.glofish.com/
6. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/opini ... hoice.html
7. http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/handbook/hgp/genome
8. Doudna J.A., Charpentier E.,"Genome editing. The new frontier of genome engineering with CRISPR-Cas9."Science. 346(6213),2014 Nov 28.
9. Nicholas Wade, "Scientists Seek Ban on Method of Editing the Human Genome."
(http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/20/scien ... umans.html)
10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_patent

**"Theme song" of the meeting: "I wanna be free" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhrmw_RCpzM )
Suggested Questions :
Session I
1. Have you ever taken part in any protest or demonstration? Although a protest demonstrated with streaking or protesters being naked in public
can draw more attention, could it impair the conveyance of the idea and request to which the activity wants to appeal because of distraction? How would you describe those who streak or present themselves naked in demonstrations? Are they courageous, liberal, adventurous or counter-
cultured/radical?

2. Some genetic researches claim that heredity of "malign" genes is a major determining factor causing individuals to commit crimes and it can be
rectified through gene therapy. If this proves to be true, do you think the government should pay for the rectification of criminal's malign genes?
Would you be willing to pay for gene screening and the remedy so that your "not-so-benign" genes can be repaired? What if it will significantly
change your original personality while making you a "better" person?

3. Angelina Jolie, a famous American movie actress, had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed recently after being detected that she carries the BRCA1 gene, an indicator of high risk of getting breast and ovarian cancer. She may not need to take the preventive treatment if genome-editing technique is available for humans. Do you think it would be better to remain at a discreet but slow pace or we should try our best to accelerate the development of this technique?

Session II
4-1. Beauty obtained by cosmetic surgery can not be passed on to future generations, but genome editing can alter human DNA to enhance the qualities like beauty or intelligence and make it inheritable. If you know that the reason why your girl/boy friend is so beautiful/handsome and smart is because her/his parents took genome-editing treatment, will you feel uncomfortable because it's not natural? (or it IS natural as compared to that acquired by cosmetic surgery?)

4-2. There is a worry that if inheritable genome editing is unleashed in a capitalist society, because of high expense of the operation, the wealthy and privileged will gain a biological/genetic advantage in addition to their vantage standing in economic and social status. What do you think? How can we prevent the potential impairment on social justice while benefiting from this technique?

5. Assuming it is legal to sell human cells outright for monopoly of commercial reproduction, should the buyer be entitled to prohibit the seller and his offspring from blood donation because it could infringe the buyer's right? Furthermore, is it justifiable for the buyer to come after the seller's descendants for retrieving the cells if there is a shortage of gene samples since they inherit the unique cells the buyer have purchased?

6. What's your opinion about "gene-tuning" Glofish to grow glowing scales in the pattern of characters of company's name or logo for advertisement? Will it be a lucrative investment in developing this technique? What other potential applications you can think of regarding transgenic technology?

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Agenda:
6:45 ~ 7:00pm Greetings & Free Talk / Ordering Beverage or Meal / Getting Newcomer’s Information
7:00 ~ 7:10pm Opening Remarks / Newcomer’s Self-introduction / Grouping
(Session I)
7:10 ~ 7:50pm Discussion Session (40 mins)
7:50 ~ 8:10pm Summarization (20 mins)
8:10 ~ 8:25pm Regrouping / Instruction Giving / Taking a 10 Minutes Break (Intermission)
(Session II)
8:25 ~ 9:05pm Discussion Session (40 mins)
9:05 ~ 9:25pm Summarization (20 mins)
9:25 ~ 9:30pm Concluding Remarks / Announcements

********************************************************************************************************************************

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[Rock]

Ha! I just finished reading the thesis of Dr. Chiu. The streak part is much easier than the transgenic tech, and more fun, too.

[stephen185]

Ha! I just finished reading the thesis of Dr. Chiu. The streak part is much easier than the transgenic tech, and more fun, too.

Dear Rock, should I post more streaking-related questions instead?

[Rock]

Ooops, I made a mistake. Stephen just corrected me, though. Thanks.

[Rock]

More streaking, more fun. Would you do it if you've got a chance? If you do, I will follow you.

About genetic engineering, if we can make mules out of donkeys and horses, or ligers and tigons from lions and tigers, then why not chimeras from a lab? We can put them in a zoo with all the dinos.

[CarmenTao]

We come here to make improvements.

[stephen185]

I'm sorry, but I think there are just too many grammatical mistakes in this article. I was planning to bring a friend next Tuesday, but I hesitate because of this.
No offense. Please don't take it personally.

Thanks for your comments. The article will be revised.

[Iris Wu]

Carmen is very sharp. I glanced it over and did not notice the issues. Hope the "7th-dan black belt in Aikido, Steven Seagal" is not discouraged. Personally I think it is a very courageous thing to write anything in the forum, because you are putting yourself under scrutiny. It's much easier to get by in speaking in the meetings. We made a lot of mistakes in speaking and hardly got corrected. But for writing in the forum, we seem to have much higher standard. Maybe our reading is much better than our speaking, so we are less tolerant. I just hope we all treat the club and the forum as our learning platform. We are not perfect in speaking as well as in writing, and that is why we are here.

[Luis Ko]

if Iris can't notice the issues, guess i can't either.. oh, no, don't even have to guess..



by the way, Carmen, guess your English level is way beyond that of yoyo's. if you don't feel it's fine to still join the meetings, don't be just "hesitate" lo~

[CarmenTao]

Hi! Iris & Luis,
I'm not sure if you read the same version as I did early yesterday morning, but it's good to see that this article has been revised a lot in a positive way today. "No matter" in the first sentence has been replaced with "whether" and most mistakes have been corrected. I wish I could remove my previous post now.

Cheers,

Carmen

[Rock]

... I wish I could remove my previous post now.

Carmen

Hi, Carmen, our old friend, long time no see,

I asked Stephen if he was hurt in any way. He said that he is totally fine. He is a man; he can take it; no problem! Besides, just like you said, "No offense". We know that you are just being passionate about English, and that is exactly the reason why you're so good at it. No offense is taken. Please do join the meeting, and bring your friend, too. It's very true that we are here for improvements, in English and all the other things. Your presence will make our discussion more interesting, I'm pretty sure.

[CarmenTao]

Thanks, Rock. That's flattering.

[Iris Wu]

First, I have to say my knowledge and discipline in English grammar is far worse than many of you.

I understand Carmen is "春秋責備賢者" (hmmm..., how to say it in English??). She thinks It is ok to write comments freely in the forum, but for articles or any reading materials, she expects high quality because that is something everyone will spend time reading and learning for the discussion. I have to say that is fair intention/expectation and we should all be grateful to have these people to keep YoYo in check.

I really did not read the original article carefully because it was still a week away and I was busy packing for my trip to Tainan. I just didn't pay much attention to the details. Stephen is an almighty "7th-dan black belt" master, he did not waste time to argue/defense or wallow in self-pity, instead he went ahead to revise his work and came up with a new version of it. It is just amazing how people can be so gracious!

Stacy and I should have done more in this area. To encourage people to write, if you have long writing and would like to get proof-reading or suggestions, please send to us and we will find resources for that. Thanks for your patience and efforts to make YoYo a good place for learning.

[Sabrina Sung]

YA!! I could be host last Tue. because of Iris's kindly help, Hence, don't hesitate to ask them give you a hand
(dear Iris, don't kill me )

[stephen185]

More streaking, more fun. Would you do it if you've got a chance? If you do, I will follow you.

About genetic engineering, if we can make mules out of donkeys and horses, or ligers and tigons from lions and tigers, then why not chimeras from a lab? We can put them in a zoo with all the dinos.

Hey~ Rock, this might be a very lucrative idea.