Event 2

At the second event, I took the lecture called The Postgenomic Condition: Justice, Knowledge, and Life After the Genome at La Kretz Garden Pavilion, room 101, on May 18th. In order to learn more about the event, I first tried to understand the term of “Postgenomic” in the title before listening to the lecture. Richardson noted that postgenomic is used in the broad sense to represent to shifts in the life sciences that are both temporal and technical. In detail, the term specifies any biological studies after the completion of the major genomic projects that employs genomic technologies and draws upon genomic knowledge as well as the contemporary genome.

I looked at what was around while I waited for the event to open about 10 minutes. This is because it is a place that I have not visited in UCLA even though I am a UCLA student. The place has a purpose related to the topic of the event by serving as an important resource for a wide range of campus communities and the general public as well as outdoor laboratories in botany, ecology, evolution, biogeography, art, and photography.

The event was opened by a person, called Dr. Jenny Reardon, who is a professor of sociology and a founding director of the Center for Science and Justice Research at the University of California. Her research focuses on intense questions about identity, justice, and democracy in modern genomic research. Her training has reached a very broad field from sociology to science. Through the event, Jenny tried to convey the overall objective to bring new insights on the contemporary postgenomic condition to the people, since there is much controversy in the genomic about the traditional understanding of the boundaries between the genome and social environment, between the genome and social environment, between life sciences and social sciences. She has two articles titled “How to Talk About ‘Race’ and Genetics” (David) and “How not to Talk About ‘Race’ and Genetics” (BuzzFeed) with different opinions about "race and genetics" so that audiences can easily understand the topic in the lecture. In the past, the race was the only way to distinguish human differences for a long time. However, as science has developed, there has been a way to use genetic to differentiate races. There was a lot of controversy about the method. David mentioned that using the method could weaken the concept of racial discrimination in the past. On the other hand, BuzzFeed argued that the method is to grant science the right to define race, which is not the right thing to do. These two articles talked about the Justice of whether it is right or wrong to distinguish race from genetics. As I listened to this lecture, I thought about what I learned in week 6 and wrote my thoughts. In the Kac's project, the artist changed the rabbit's gene to create his own work. The project brought a lot of opinions about whether changing the animal's genes for art is just or not. As I said last week, it is difficult to see all facts in relatively new areas with little research, applying what Kelty said, “Outlaw biology (and hacker and Victorian biology) is not simply illegal or criminal, but before the law, outside it, engaged in problems which the law, and our understandings of what is right and wrong, have not yet become routine or recognizable”

However, Jenny's new observation on the condition of contemporary postgenomic created by sufficient study of justification, knowledge, and life for the genome truly encouraged me to broaden my point of views and perspectives.

Reference

1 - Richardson, Sarah. "What is Postgenomics?"Paper presented at the annual meeting of the 4S Annual Meeting - Abstract and Session Submissions, Crowne Plaza Cleveland City Center Hotel, Cleveland, OH, <Not Available>. 2014-11-25

<http://citation.allacademic.com/meta/p508815_index.html>

2- “History of this Garden”, MiMildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden. UCLA, n.d. Accessed 20 May 2018

<https://www.botgard.ucla.edu/history/>

3- “The Postgenomic Condition: Justice, Knowledge, Life After the Genome”, Institute For Society And Genetics, UCLA, n.d. Accessed 20 May 2018

<http://socgen.ucla.edu/events/the-postgenomic-condition-justice-knowledge-life-after-the-genome/>

4 - Reich, David. “How to Talk About ‘Race’ and Genetics”, The New York Times, March 30, 2018

< https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/30/opinion/race-genetics.html>

5 - BuzzFeed Opinion, “How Not To Talk About Race And Genetics”, BuzzFeed News, March 30, 2018. Accessed 20 May 2018

<https://www.buzzfeed.com/bfopinion/race-genetics-david-reich?utm_term=.ahv0QaY92#.jj2B2mOyY>

6 - Kac, Eduardo. "GFP Bunny." GFP BUNNY. Eduardo Kac, n.d. Accessed 19 May 2018. <http://www.ekac.org/gfpbunny.html#gfpbunnyanchor>.

7 - Kelty, Chris. "Meanings of Participation: Outlaw Biology?" (n.d.): n. pag. Accessed 19 May 2018.