Nature of Science and Ethical Considerations

• These notes cover various topics related to the nature of science, its social and ethical implications, and the importance of community engagement in scientific research.

Week 1: What is Science?

• Researching ancient DNA (aDNA) has beneficial uses but raises ethical concerns.
• Methodological advantages of aDNA research may have ethical, moral, and practical repercussions if not utilized properly.
• Researching aDNA can affect living humans when looking at the lives of past ancestors, evidenced by the Kennewick Man case.
• It can be invasive and have repercussions for indigenous individuals, impacting sovereignty, land, and oil rights.
• Contamination of collected aDNA may occur from archaeologists, lab workers, or non-sterile disposables.
• Defining populations through aDNA infers identity.
• Ethical concerns arise from conflicting cultural, spiritual, or political beliefs when handling remains.
• aDNA evidence could contradict creation myths of local tribes.
• Considerations should be given to who to ask for consent, if it needs to be asked.
• It is importnat make sure human rights are protected, respected, or violated?
• Data misuse, has a potential to reinforce racial/ethnic stereotypes in political agendas.
• Inequalities occurs in the access of aDNA data, and wealth inequalities put certain groups at a disadvantage in studies.
• Cultural sensitivity and social/political implications should be accounted for.
• In some scientific research is both beneficial and harmful to certain populations.
• Genes and biology may have little influence with cultural affiliation, from an anthropological standpoint, despite being a valid source of evidence for NAGPRA

Karl Popper's Science Philosophy

• Popper's primary question was to determine when a theory should be ranked as scientific and to distinguish between science and pseudo-science.
• Theories must forbid something from happening.
• Theories must be refutable and testable.
• Confirming evidence is only valid if it results from a test.
• A theory must be falsifiable, refutable, and testable.
• Strict criterion of falsifiability might exclude complex and valuable scientific work.
• Challenging a theory is often seen as challenging science, relating to publication bias.
• Without proper questioning and testing, theories cannot be confidently confirmed; media may spread untested information.

Week 2: Science as Process and Practice

• People raising doubts about climate change science are not necessarily experts in climate science, but other disciplines.
• Corporations have PR people who are able to convince the public of uncertainty, with little credentials.
• The "tobacco strategy" uses uncertainty to delay policy implementation and maintain profits.
• Creates uncertainty in the general public, placing pressures on industries likely at fault for health consequences.
• Uncertainty is powerful because science can be refuted.
• It can be easy to convince the public that study findings are untrue under the idea that "more data is necessary."
• Scientists can learn about major issues, hide them from people, and use information to benefit their own monetary gains.
• Climate change issues are often politicized, making it hard to discern the truth.
• Cherry picked data in the news and media make it harder to gauge a full picture.
• Ethics requires transparency in scientific studies, but this can be used for other agendas for economic/political reasons.
• Modern science is a cooperative and collaborative "collective enterprise."
• Science is politicized for economic benefit, so we must understand how it works to remain unbiased.
• Latour and Woolgar take an ethnographic approach, and study laboratories like a foreign culture.
• The laboratory is a social space where researchers, machines, and data interact.
• Inscription devices/literary inscription: Instruments, technologies and processes that allow scientists to turn what they see in labs into “inscriptions” that are written or visual outputs (tables, graphs, printouts).
• The "black box" refers to the process by which scientific procedures are made inaccessible, so that only inputs and outputs are known.
• Scientific facts are shaped by social and historical context and depend on human influences, funding, etc.
• Science is not simply "pre-existing" facts, but is shaped by interactions, cultural contexts, and power dynamics.

Week 3: Disciplines & Interdisciplinarity

• Genetics became an individual discipline during the Mendelian era (1860s) when Mendel's pea plant experiments were 'rediscovered'.
• Offspring genetics are a combination of two alleles from the parent that are passed on from one generation to the next unchanged.
• The emergence of genetics was a matter of conceptual innovation rather than discovery.
• Bowler distinguishes three dimensions: conceptual, professional, and ideological to describe the emergence of genetics.
• The orthodox theory assumes "discovering" genetics leads to factual information through the scientific method.
• Theoretical, professional, and ideological views challenge the orthodox theory.
• 1700s - “Preformation” theory: embryo grew from a perfectly formed miniature already present in either parent.
• 1800s - Blending inheritance: offspring's characters are intermediate between those of its parents.
• Social dynamics of influences on distinct disciplines includes popularity, prestige, individuals, and science as a political activity.
• Genetic research can support ideas about intelligence, race, and behavior, and was used to support the eugenics movement.
• Andrew Barry and Georgina Born - The goal of art-science is to display complex scientific concepts in art, making it more accessible to the public.
• Art-science played a crucial Significance in the public's understanding of climate change.
• Interdisciplinarity involves integrating multiple disciplines affecting our world today.
• It is a response to societal, political, and economic factors.
• Barry asserts that interdisciplinarity is not a new concept and disciplines have always evolved historically.
• Global Health, public health, and computational biology are all also interdisciplinary.

Week 4: Science and Communication

• Lets different scientific concepts remain accessible to different disciplines, and stakeholder can interact with it.
• Emily Martin- Pidgin → a simplified language that develops communication between different groups that do not share a common language and on the other hand Creole is a stable language.
• Metaphors can perpetuate cultural ideologies, and can lead to stereotypes that may be harmful.
• Increased awareness of social implications in science will lead to a populace shift.
• It is important to challenge ideologies and their accuracy.
• Martin states, Reproductive success is seen as the eggs passive role in reproduction and sperm as the active heroic agent, making since more easily digestible.
• The scientists point of view might not be good because of bias within science, but can help minorities who are harmed by science.
• Awareness of the social implications of language, can help make science less susceptible.

Massimiano Bucchi's Views of Scientific Issues

• Bucchi critiques the standard model; it oversimplifies communications through linear communication and it also neglects people's involvement.
• Multidirectional models is better because it allows you to critique data and question.

Week 5: The Invisible Industrialist & Patenting

• Gaudillière and Loewy: Industrialisation and commercial is influentially dependent on scientific discovery.
• Also that funding from industries influences scientific research (bias).
• How academia, industry, and government each add to knowledge: Industrialisation is crucial.
• Sulston- you cannot patent existing things especially genes and we should make genes public.
• Vandana Shiva- biotech prioritizes those who controls it and biotechnology and the green movement lead to underdevelopment/poverty. By sacrificing people's rights to forest ownership for the accumulation if profits
• Privatization of genes should be made freely accessible and should encourage innovation without hefty fees.

Week 6: Asking Questions about How we Ask Questions

• Mary H. O'Brien states it is the role of scientists to push different policies and pick a side.
• Build trustworthy science for the public.
• There can be no neutrality because if assessment questions create complicity with the harm being done.
• Scientists can be advocates for the public due their expertise of scientific knowledge for the betterment of other people.

Carl Elliot Views on Expertise

• Elliot states that bioethicists are a position of authority due to them being in particular bureaucracy.
• Scientist should have a ethical judgment.

Week 7: Values and Objectivity

• Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren Klein: there can be no objectivity in scientific views (god trick).
• Everything is data with biases.
• Amy Moran-Thomas: Pulse oximeters give of biased results and scientist would need to be better at addressing the issue.
• The persistence of the results in inequitable because of the current "standard" of science.

Week 8: Community-based Science and Participation

• Claw: Three ethical discrepancies in the study: lack of consideration of ethnic tribes, impact of marginalized groups, and cultural insensitivity.
• Research needs ethical guidelines.
• There needs to be better engagement to promote the ethicness of Americans who are ethic.
• Lemke: There needs to better representation in genomics research and community engagement should be involved.
• Must be flexible when assesessing and improving for the better community and long term commitments are needed.

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