New-Media Arts-Based Public Engagement Projects Could Reshape the Future of Generative Biology

Article Summary by Diaa Ahmed Mohamed Ahmedien Interactive new-media artworks have been always known as a powerful means of science outreach not only because they visually communicate the research outputs to the laypeople but also due to their operational structures that enable non-scientists to be integrated into the processes of science-making. I have discussed several […]

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Traditional Proverbs Help Us Understand Hunger and Malnutrition in Malawi

Article Summary by Anne Dressel, Elizabeth Mkandawire, Lucy Mkandawire-Valhmu Hunger and malnutrition are ongoing challenges in Malawi, especially in rural areas. Over 80% of the population is rural, and many practice subsistence farming—growing their own food to feed themselves and their families. The World Food Program estimates that 37% of Malawian children under the age […]

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June 2021 Special Issue: Global Genetic Fictions

Global genetic fictions [read the article summary] by Clare Barker ‘More than biological’: Cherie Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves as Indigenous countergenetic fiction‘Between-time stories’: waiting, war and the temporalities of care by Shital Pravinchandra Environmental racialisation and poetics of influence in the postgenomic era: fire, soil, spirit [read the article summary] by Lara Choksey Reading heredity […]

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March 2021 Issue

Can Death Cafés resuscitate morale in hospitals? [read the article summary] by Rachel Hammer, Nithya Ravindran, Nathan Nielsen ‘This place is not for children like her’: disability, ambiguous belonging and the claiming of disadvantage in postapartheid South Africa [read the article summary] by Michelle Botha and Brian Watermeyer Public health crises in popular media: how […]

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Politics of Difference and Grammars of Influence in the Postgenomic Era: Fire, Soil, Spirit

Article Summary by Lara Choksey The great and humbling lesson of the Human Genome Project was that histories of embodiment are complex social matters. The era in the life sciences imperfectly described as the postgenomic, the period ‘after’ the sequencing of the human genome, has involved a turn to the effects of influences external to […]

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Time Considered as a Helix of Infinite Possibilities

Article Summary by Jay Clayton This contribution to the special issue of Medical Humanities on Global Genetic Fictions focuses on an award-winning science fiction story by Samuel R. Delany, “Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones.” In the story, Delany imagines something he calls “hologramic information storage,” which allows an interplanetary Special Service agent […]

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Painful Metaphors: Enactivism and Art in Qualitative Research

Article Summary by Peter Stilwell There is now widespread consensus that pain is subjective, meaning that it is a private and personal experience. Because pain is experienced from a person’s unique perspective, others (e.g., healthcare practitioners, family, friends) cannot directly “see” or fully understand what the experience is like. To somewhat express what it is […]

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Genetic Enhancement, TED Talks and the Sense of Wonder

Article Summary by Loredana Filip Science can be communicated to the public in various ways, including books and journal articles. And yet in our digital world, online interactions have a growing impact on the audience. TED talks became a widely available and highly popular resource for the communication and reception of science. They reach huge […]

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Shame-to-Cynicism Conversion in The Citadel and The House of God

Article Summary by Arthur Rose “Shame is everywhere in medicine”, a recent call for voices by The Nocturnists reminds us, “and yet—due to its taboo nature and the culture of silence that surrounds it—shame is nowhere in healthcare”. Admitting shame is often, itself, treated as shameful, which may account for this ubiquitous absence. This article […]

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