How important will genomics be for future healthcare?

Short answer: Not very.

Biologists are stuck in an unfortunate situation. Most major funding sources in the US come through the government, and it’s essential to stress the impact your research will have on humans. Basic research for the sake of understanding the unknown just isn’t enough to secure funding nowadays. Everything has to be spun to make it appealing to humans since taxpayers are the ones funding the research, and the research needs to seem “justified” in their eyes. Want to study primate microRNAs to study how primates evolved? You better mention how microRNAs are involved in cancer, even if you have no interest in studying that. Want to figure out how spider silk proteins evolved to fulfill different biological tasks? Better mention how spider silk is stronger than Kevlar even though it’s practically impossible to mass produce.

The same is true for human genomics. When the human genome project was first announced, scientists made endless promises about how sequencing the human would lead to immense advances in human health. They had to say that to get funding for this basic research project. Years have passed and we’ve learned a great deal about the human genome, but we still haven’t had the medical revolution we were promised.

Frankly, we probably never will. For most people, getting their genome sequenced is going to be a novelty. You’ll be able to learn about your ancestry, but that’s about it. Sure, you may learn you have a 10% increase in your chance of getting heart disease, but is something that small going to change your diet and exercise routine? Only a tiny fraction of people will have diseases with very high penetrance (likelihood of showing the trait if you have the gene) that can be identified by genomics. And of those diseases, few are going to have preventative treatment or cures.

And right now that knowledge is only available to the very rich, who are more likely to have better preventative health care anyway. Yes, prices of genome sequencing are dropping rapidly, but we’re eons away from every person on the planet being able the afford their genome. Even if they could afford it, it’s not really worth it. The health of people around the world would most improve by increasing exercise and by having clean water and healthy food available. I mean, diarrhea is one of the leading causes of death in developing nations…are they really going to benefit from knowing their exact risk for diabetes? There are more basic problems that we need to fix first.

The field of human genomics is still incredibly important to study in order to learn more about our species and about disease…but it’s not going to be the panacea scientists had to promise in order to receive funding.

(I should add this isn’t just a personal opinion of mine, but one that is frequently voiced by a number of professors and other scientists during various panels I’ve attended)

This is post 23 of 49 of Blogathon. Donate to the Secular Student Alliance here.

Kids can sometimes be oblivious jerks

With Father’s Day tomorrow, I was reflecting upon some fond childhood memories with my dad when I realized…man, kids can be assholes sometimes, yet our parents still put up with us.

I can think of two specific instances from when I was little. Obviously I wasn’t trying to be a jerk at age 6, but the annoyance I inflicted on my parents is kind of amusing in retrospect. For example, I’ve always been an absolutely terrible sleeper. And back when I was young and couldn’t sleep, I still had the mindset that Parents Solve All Problem. So multiple times a week when I couldn’t fall asleep, I’d waltz into my parents’ room and tap on my dad’s shoulder, informing him of the problem and patiently waiting for the solution.

The solution: Him putting on All Dogs Go to Heaven and letting me fall asleep on the couch in front of the TV. Part of me wants to watch it as an adult to see if I’ve been classically conditioned to fall asleep during it. Mirrranndddaaa.

But as a little kid, I had no idea that 1. My parents didn’t actually have a solution to make me sleep 2. I was making them not able to sleep and 3. I could work a VCR on my own and cut out the middleman. Whoops.

I also have a very vivid memory of coming up with the best Halloween costume for my 6’6″ dad. You see, I took a paper bag and drew a Frankenstein mask on it…and made him wear it as he was taking me trick or treating all around the neighborhood…despite it having nothing to do with my costume. I remember at the time I thought it was the shizz, but in retrospect it had to look like crap since a 7-year-old made it.

Love: When you’ll walk around in public with a bag over your head for your daughter.

In retrospect I hope he had a couple manhattans to drink before dealing with that.

What did you obliviously make your parents put up with as a child?

This is post 22 of 49 of Blogathon. Donate to the Secular Student Alliance here.

How would you reform education in the US?

Sometimes I wish that when it comes to the institution of education in the US, we could just wipe the slate clean. I know that’s impossible, and that you have to work with the existing infrastructure and culture to make gradual progress. But if I could start from scratch and design a new educational system, these are some of the things I’d do:

  1. Raise teacher pay. I’m sure everyone here has had both wonderful and shitty teachers. One of the ways to reduce the number of terrible teachers isn’t to evaluate their performance of those of their students…but to actually pay them what they’re worth. Teachers are training our entire population how to think, yet they often have to work extra jobs just to pay the bills. I know too many people who were passionate about teaching and would have been wonderful teachers, but they went into other fields because they didn’t want to get paid diddly squat. We need to make the job more inviting to the best and the brightest by making it competitively priced.
  2. Less standardized testing. Standardized testing is basically bullshit. It doesn’t accurately measure intelligence or your likelihood of succeeding in college or your career. The only thing you can glean from looking at someone’s scores is their socio-economic status. Kids from rich areas with supportive families do much better than kids living in the ghetto with families who can’t even feed them. Hence why evaluating teachers based on their students is ridiculous. It discourages teachers from working in schools that need good teachers the most, and penalizes teachers who happen to get assigned lower level classes instead of the brightest honors students.
  3. Fail more people. Our country has become so obsessed with crap like “No Child Left Behind” and statistics that it’s forgotten the main point of education: To learn. Instead schools are constantly lowering their standards in order to graduate more students, lest they lose government funding. A high school diploma used to mean something. Now a college diploma doesn’t even assure you’ll get a job. Hell, people with biology PhDs have  a terribly bleak job market. We need to make these things mean something again. If you can’t read past an 8th grade level and can’t do basic algebra, then you should have to repeat the 8th grade.
  4. Promote vocational training. If you want to drop out of high school at age 16 because you know you’re going to be a chef or mechanic, then more power to you. We need to remove the stigma from people who have interests and passion and skill that’s not best used on memorizing Shakespeare (while obviously keeping the Shakespeare for those who want it). Lower the social pressure that says you need to go to college in order to be successful…since it’s simply not true.
  5. Teach how to think, not just memorizing facts. We have people who are college graduates without the slightest grasp of logic or the scientific method. People who can regurgitate the dates that wars occurred but not the politics behind why they occurred. People who can blindly follow instructions but who freeze up when encouraged to be creative or come up with their own plan. Science classes should be more about the process, and art classes should be embraced to foster creativity.
I’m sure I could come up with a million more improvements, but those are the ones that pop into my head first. How would you reform education?

This is post 21 of 49 of Blogathon. Donate to the Secular Student Alliance here.

Video: Naked bicyclists!

My favorite part of the Fremont Solstice Parade is always the naked bicyclists. Some people go the route of pure nudity, but most come up with elaborate body-paint costumes. Here’s a video I took today of the bicyclists, with dorky commentary about costumes I particularly liked. Highlights include X-men, Ninja Turtles, Rubic’s cubes, Care Bears.

Warning: Contains full nudity. Lots o’ penis and boobs.

This is post 20 of 49 of Blogathon. Donate to the Secular Student Alliance here.

Lunch time!

I built up enough post buffer that I was actually able to go out and get lunch! Sean and I went to Dot’s Delicatessen, which I can safely say is my favorite place to eat in Seattle.

Look at my adorable…eating establishment?

Every one of their sandwiches is mindblowingly delicious. The first time I had the BLT, Sean got a little jealous of the noises I was making. It’s just that good. Today I had their cheesesteak special, which was a delicious mess:

Most of their stuff isn’t quite that messy, but that’s what I was craving today. Sean got something a little prettier, a chicken-pasta-pesto-bacon soup that he said was delicious:

Mmmm, food porn.

This is post 19 of 49 of Blogathon. Donate to the Secular Student Alliance here.

Happy Caturday

You knew I’d make a Pixel post eventually!

Here’s how she wakes me up in the morning if I don’t have my door closed:

She’s getting kind of big…I don’t think I can call her a kitten anymore. Here’s her wishing the birds weren’t on the outside:

She’s a show off when the camera comes out:

If there was America’s Next Top Cat Model, Pixel would win:

This is post 18 of 49 of Blogathon. Donate to the Secular Student Alliance here.

Video: Susan Jacoby at the Women in Secularism conference

Susan Jacoby had the difficult task of taking on the 8:30am slot during the Women in Secularism conference…and she rocked it. It’s a long talk, but worth the time:

One of my favorite parts was when she talks about how some men have responded when people ask why more women aren’t involved with secularism… “Because women are stupid” they told her. We looked around the Women in Secularism conference wryly, wondering why the audience was mostly women. Obviously using the same logic, it’s because men are just stupid.

Pro-tip: That logic is terribly wrong.

This is post 16 of 49 of Blogathon. Donate to the Secular Student Alliance here.

Fremont Solstice Parade photos

Warning, contains naked bike riders in body paint.

Squid!
Ninja turtles!
Boyfriend: “Eh, we had enough naked people, we need some burkas to even it out.”

This is post 15 of 49 of Blogathon. Donate to the Secular Student Alliance here.

Today in traumatizing wildlife videos…

Nature is often weird. But sometimes, it’s REALLY fucking weird. I give you the pearlfish:

For those of you who can’t watch the video (though if you can, you really should)… Adult pearlfish are long skinny fish that live in open habitats. In order to not get eaten, they need to find a suitable place to hide. The problem is, they tend to live in places that are missing the typical hiding places like rocks and corals. They are, however, surrounded by lots of large sea cucumbers…so they hide by swimming up a sea cucumber’s butt and living inside of it. Most don’t harm their hosts, but some are parasitic, nibbling away at the sea cucumber’s gonads for nourishment.

This is post 14 of 49 of Blogathon. Donate to the Secular Student Alliance here.

Who wants a Pharyngula podcast?

PZ asks you to weigh in here. I’d be all for it!

I admit I’ve toyed around with the idea of podcasting for a while, but I just don’t have the time to do the administrative stuff that’s involved in hosting your own. I don’t have good recording equipment, but most importantly I don’t have the time to edit or organize. I’m happy to spontaneously show up and yap on someone else’s podcast, though!

Sometimes I wish I could just record the completely random, geeky, snarky conversations I have with my boyfriend and roommate. Especially when we’re all inebriated.

I admit I’m not a huge podcast person, just because I prefer to read things at my own pace instead of having to tune in. I’m terrible at multitasking when I’m listening to something, so I have to have a block of time to devote to listening. I also don’t really listen to skeptical/atheist podcasts because I get burnt out from the blogosphere. But the two podcasts I make an exception for are the Savage Love podcast with Dan Savage, and Smodcast with Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier.

Which podcasts are your favorites?

This is post 13 of 49 of Blogathon. Donate to the Secular Student Alliance here.