How far Should Science Take Us...?

NYT's Armchair Ethicist posed the following:

Recently, scientists at two laboratories tweaked a dangerous bird-flu virus in order to make it more contagious. Was it ethical to even undertake such an experiment? Does the importance of preparing for a pandemic justify publishing the experiment’s results? Should the importance of preventing bioterrorism justify governments’ suppressing the information? Is some information simply too dangerous to share — or even to ascertain?

Read the responses here.

Make Out Online

A "kiss transmission device"  is being developed in Japan to enable simulated french kissing via the internet.

"If you take one device in your mouth and turn it with your tongue, the other device turns in the same way," says the device's inventor in a YouTube video. "If you turn it back the other way, then your partner's turns back the same way, so your partner's device turns whichever way your own device turns."

Read the article here.

The Clergy Letter Project

Michael Zimmerman, Professor of Biology at Butler University, developed the Clergy Letter project to battle the misperception that science and religion are inevitably in conflict. Focusing specifically on the theory of evolution, Zimmerman maintains "numerous clergy from most denominations have tremendous respect for evolutionary theory and have embraced it as a core component of human knowledge, fully harmonious with religious faith." The Project aims to promote the view that "religious truth is of a different order from scientific truth. Its purpose is not to convey scientific information but to transform hearts." In the end, "the timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably coexist."

Additional resources from the Clergy Letter Project are available here.