Online Contemporary Issues Seminar: The Gene

**Events may have been canceled or postponed. Please contact the venue to confirm the event.

Date & Time

Sat, May 18 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM

Address (map)

1129 Maricopa Highway #156

Venue (website)

Online/Virtual/Zoom

Online Contemporary Issues Seminar Series

The Gene – An Intimate History
by Siddhartha Mukherjee (2017)

Saturday, May 18, 2024

This revived online series will inquire into contemporary issues of science, politics, culture, and economics, meeting once per month and covering 30-50 pages of a text per session. We kick off the series with a look into the history and current questions of genetics. The Gene: An Intimate History was written by Siddhartha Mukherjee, an Indian-born American physician and oncologist, published in 2017. The book chronicles the history of the gene and genetic research, all the way from Aristotle to Crick, Watson and Franklin and then the 21st century scientists who mapped the human genome. The book discusses the power of genetics in determining people’s well-being and traits. It delves into the personal genetic history of Siddhartha Mukherjee’s family, including mental illness. However, it is also a cautionary message toward not letting genetic predispositions define a person or their fate, a mentality that the author says led to the rise of eugenics in history. This series will span over ten monthly sessions on this book, and then turn to other contemporary subjects.

May 18 Reading:

The Gene – An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Part Two – That Damned, Elusive Pimpernel; Regulation, Replication, Recombination; From Genes to Genesis (pages 161-200)

Scribner; Reprint edition (May 2017)
ISBN 978-1476733524

Schedule:

12:00-2:00PM PDT

Tutor:

Andy Gilman

Location:

Online. Register to receive the link.

 

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