ESRC Genomics Network celebrates Social Science Week
Released: 03 March 2006
The ESRC Genomics Network (EGN) will mark this year’s ESRC Social Science Week (10-19 March 2006), with a mix of events and activities across the UK tackling subjects as diverse as human cloning, science fraud, gene patenting and the working relationship between the natural and social sciences.
Genomics related science and technologies are considered key, by the UK government, to improving our health, wealth and welfare. The EGN’s events in Social Science Week are an opportunity for you to discuss some of genomics’ social, ethical and political issues with academic experts, policy makers and scientists, and find out about some of the UK’s most interesting social science research in this area.
Everyone - from politicians to schoolchildren - can take part in the free ESRC Genomics Network events. Further information is provided below.
Monday 13th March, Exeter 'Genes and Gene Patenting: Is it Fair?'
Everybody wants new medicines and inexpensive food, but not everybody likes multinational companies. As the World Trade Organisation considers the role that patent-like protection will play in the global trading system, Egenis invite you to take part in a panel-audience debate with expert witnesses styled on the format of BBC Radio 4's 'The Moral Maze'.
Contact: Adam Bostanci, 01392 264676
Tuesday 14th March, Exeter 'Science in the Dock - Art in the Stocks'
How deep is the link between art and science? This free public symposium will bring together artists and scientists from the South West to explore each other's work in an engaging setting featuring work by Dick Bixby and Gail Sagman.
Contact: Adam Bostanci, 01392 264676
Tuesday 14th March, Edinburgh 'Interdisciplinary Working across the Natural and Social Sciences: Process, Practice and Progress'
The event, organised by Innogen in collaboration with the National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) and the National Centre for E-Social Science, includes presentations and discussion of the challenges, opportunities, barriers and benefits of interdisciplinary working across the natural and social sciences in the area of genomics. Speakers and participants will be drawn from Innogen, Cesagen and NCRM and will be located at venues at the Universities of Edinburgh, Manchester and Southampton.
Contact: Julie Hamilton, 0131 650 2451
Tuesday 14th March, Lancaster 'Human Cloning: Hype, Horror or Here?'
CESAGen will be holding a workshop with students from local schools to discuss various issues around Human Cloning. The workshop will use a recent film , The Island, as a talking point, to examine issues such as the practices of cloning in the natural sciences, the distinction between therapeutic and reproductive cloning techniques, and the modes of representing these scientific developments in the media.
Contact: Anne Wilbourn, 01524 510840
Thursday 16th March, London 'Sound Science? Hope, Trust, Policy and Science Fraud'
In the light of the recent stem-cell cloning controversy in Korea and other investigations into scientists accused of fabricating results, the ESRC Genomics Forum is hosting a public panel-discussion to explore the impact science fraud has on trust between scientists, policy makers and the public and how we can protect against it. Panellists including Dr Ben Goldacre, the Guardian’s Bad Science Columnist, noted sociologist, Professor Steve Fuller, Dr Stephen Minger, Director Stem Cell Biology Laboratory, Kings College, London and Jeremy Webb, Editor, New Scientist will consider the pressure on scientists to match the weight of expectation against the limits of their science, the mechanisms in place to guard against fraud and the future security of evidence based policy.
Contact: Emma-Elizabeth Hargreaves, 0131 651 4746
Ends
Notes: 1. The ESRC Genomics Network includes Cesagen (Lancaster and Cardiff Universities), Egenis (University of Exeter) and Innogen (University of Edinburgh and the Open University), examining numerous aspects of the social and economic significance of genomics, and the ESRC Genomics Policy and Research Forum (University of Edinburgh) tasked with connecting this research with national policy.
2. ESRC Social Science Week is run by the Economic and Social Research Council to give people an insight into some of the country's leading social science research and how it influences our social, economic and political lives both now and in the future. This year ESRC Social Science Week has been moved alongside National Science Week, co-ordinated by the BA (British Association for the Advancement of Science).
Contact name: Contact: Emma-Elizabeth Hargreaves, 0131 651 4746
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