Today’s announcement that the UK has approved the creation of babies from two women and one man offers an invaluable opportunity to discuss some of the real issues of science with your students.
Ages: 14-16, 16-19; Topics: Biology, Health, Science and society
When your doctor prescribes you a tablet and you get better, was it really the drug or could it have been the colour of the tablet? Andrew Brown investigates the placebo effect.
Sarah Garner and Rachel Thomas consider why well-designed and properly analysed experiments are so important when testing how effective a medical treatment is.
We know that particular genetic sequences can help us to survive in our environment – this is the basis of evolution. But demonstrating which genetic sequences are beneficial and how they help us to survive is not easy – especially in wild populations. Jarek Bryk describes some relevant recent…
The foundations of democratic western civilisation are under threat, argues Dick Taverne. Since the Enlightenment, material and social progress in our society has relied to a large extent on the achievements of science and on the freedom of scientists to question and experiment, free from dogma and…
The Exploring the Living Cell DVD includes a wide range of films about the cell, covering many topics and providing background information for lessons: the history of the discovery of the cell, ethical debates about stem cells and evolution/creationism, and current research in cell biology. For the…
Is it acceptable to use human embryonic stem cells in research? What about live animals? Professor Nadia Rosenthal, head of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Monterotondo, Italy, talks to Russ Hodge about the ethics of her research.