Oct. 28-30: Reserve These Dates!

 

THE GAIRDNER FOUNDATION 50TH
ANNIVERSARY TORONTO SYMPOSIUM:

Wednesday, October 28- Friday, October 30, 2009

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2009

Gairdner 50^th Anniversary Symposium on Stem Cells, Disease Mechanisms and Future Therapies in collaboration with the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine.

Location: Macleod Auditorium, University of Toronto

Time: 9am -12:45pm

Co-Chairs: Dr. Janet Rossant, Sick Kids Hospital, Toronto, ON
Dr. Gordon Keller,Director, McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine, UHN, Toronto

Introduction: Dr. John Dirks, President and Scientific Director,
the Gairdner Foundation

9.00-9:30
Shinya Yamanaka, Professor, Department of Stem
Cell Biology, Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences, Kyoto University, Japan

Induction of pluripotency by defined factors

9.30-10:00
Gordon Keller, Director, McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine, Toronto, ON.

Directed differentiation of pluripotent stem cells to functional tissues

10.00-10:30
Andras Nagy, Senior Investigator Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, and Canada Research Chair in Stem Cells and Regeneration ,Toronto, ON

Transposon-mediated reprogramming provides a powerful exploratory tool for understanding stem cell induction

10.30-10:45 Break

10.45-11:15
Mario Cappechi, Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics and Biology, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah

Stem cells of the intestine

11.15-11:45
Phillip Sharp,Institute Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston MA

The roles of small RNAs in stem cells

11.45-12:15
Samuel Weiss, University of Calgary, AB

Adult neurogenesis and the formation of social memories

12.15-12:45
Oliver Smithies, Excellence Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of North Caroline, Chapel Hill, NC

On being a scientist for 60 years

12.45 Reception

1:15-4:45 - Gairdner Global Health Symposium

Location: Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, 155 College Street, 6^th Floor, Toronto, ON M5T 3M7 Canada,

1:15-1:25

Introduction: Dr. John Dirks, President & Scientific Director, The Gairdner Foundation

Welcome: Dr. Jack Mandel, Director, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto

The Global Health Stage

Chair: Kiyoshi Kurokawa, Professor, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo

1:25-1:40
Jeff Koplan, Director of Global Health, Emory University

What's global health and why is it important?

1: 40-1:55
Tachi Yamada, President of Global Health Program, Gates Foundation

Innovation and access in global health

1:55-2:10Mark Walport,Director, Wellcome Trust.
Building capacity

2:10-2:25
Peter Singer, Director, McLaughlin-Rotman Centre
for Global Health, University Health Network and University of Toronto

Global health: why Canada should care and what Canada should
do.

2:25-2:45
Discussion

2:45-3:00 Break

The Challenge of Chronic
Disease

Chair:Alan Bernstein, Executive Director, Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise

3:00-3:20
Nubia Munoz, Inaugural Canada Gairdner Global Health award recipient

Burden of cancer associated with infectious agents in developing countries.

3:20-3:35
John Sulston, Cambridge, UK
What is Science for anyway?

3:35 -3:50
Margaret G. McGlynn, President, Merck Vaccines, Merck and Company Inc.
The evolving global vaccine landscape

3:50-4:05 Prabhat Jha, Director, Centre for Global Health Research, University of Toronto
Death and tobacco taxes

4:05-4:20
Richard Peto,Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, Co-Director, CTSU, Oxford University
Halving adult mortality worldwide

4:20-4:40 Discussion

4:40-4:45 Conclusion

Dr. John Dirks, President and Scientific Director, the Gairdner Foundation

1:30-4:45 -The Cell: An Endless Frontier

Location: Macleod auditorium,
University of Toronto

1:30-1:40 Introduction

1:40-2:00pm
Elizabeth Blackburn, Morris Herzstein Endowed Professor in Biology & Physiology, Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics University of California, San Francisco
How cells - and organisms - respond to perturbing their telomere maintenance

2:00-2:20pm
Ulrich Hartl, Max- Planck Institute for Biochemistry, Martinsried, Germany

The cellular machinery of protein folding: Molecular chaperones in health and disease

2:20-2:40
Avram Hershko, Technion Institute of Technology, Haifa

Roles of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation in cellular regulation

2:40-2:55 Coffee Break

2:55-3:15pm
Bob Horvitz, David H. Koch Professor of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Genetic control of programmed cell death in C. elegans

3:15-3:35pm
Victor Ambros,Professor, Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA

Small RNAs in every corner of the cell

3:35- 3:55
Gary Ruvkun,Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School

A C. elegans endocrine system that couples detection of xenobiotic drugs to regulation of reproduction and longevity

3:55 - 4:15
Robert G. Roeder, Arnold and Mabel Beckman
Professor, Laboratory of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Rockefeller University, NY

Transcriptional regulatory mechanisms in animal cells

4:15- 4:35pm Richard Axel, Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and University Professor, Columbia University, NY
Topic TBA

4:35pm Concluding Remarks

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2009

7:15 - 9:00am -
Gairdner Industry Breakfast, Unclogging the Pipeline: Rejuvenating drug discovery
Location: MaRS Centre, MaRS Collaboration Centre Auditorium


Moderator:Cal Stiller, Chair, Genome Canada/Bioquest Innovations Inc. /Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and Professor Emeritus, University of Western Ontario; Toronto, ON


Speakers:
Philip Sharp, Institute Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Cambridge, MA

Corey Goodman, Past President, Biotherapeutics and Bioinnovation Center, Pfizer Inc.; San Francisco, CA
David Baltimore, President Emeritus, Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Biology, California Institute of Technology; Pasadena, CA

Please RSVP by email tothegairdner@gairdner.org, include the first and last name of the total number of guests attending.

9:00 - 3:00 -2009 Canada Gairdner Recipients' Lectures, The Charles Hollenberg Symposium

Location: JJR Macleod auditorium, University of Toronto

9:00am Dr John Dirks, Welcoming remarks

9:15 -9:45am Dr. Peter Walter, Professor, Department of Biochemistry, University of California, San Francisco Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, CA,
Protein homeostasis in health and
disease

9:45-10:15am Dr. Kazutoshi Mori, Professor, Department of Biophysics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Japan
The unfolded protein response: To
mammals and beyond

10:15-10:30 Coffee Break

10:30-11:00am Dr. Lucy Shapiro, Director, Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine,Professor, Developmental Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA
The systems architecture of the bacterial cell cycle

11:00-11:30am Dr. Richard Losick, Professor, Microbial Development and Gene Regulation, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Developmental biology of a simple organism

11:30-12:00pm Dr. David Sackett, Professor Emeritus, Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON
On the tribulations of not performing
randomized trials

12:00-1:00pm Lunch Break

1:00-1:05 John Dirks, Introduction of the Inaugural Canada Gairdner Global Health Award

1:05-1:45 Dr. Nubia Munoz, Emeritus Professor, National Cancer Institute, Bogota, Colombia and Visiting Scientist, Catalan Institute of Oncology, Barcelona
From causality to prevention: the case of cervical cancer

1:45-2:15 Dr. Shinya Yamanka, Professor, Department of Stem Cell Biology, Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences, Kyoto University, Japan
Induction of pluripotency by defined factors

2:15- 2:45 Dr. Sydney Brenner, Distinguished Professor, The Salk Institute, San Diego
Humanity's genes

FRIDAY OCTOBER 30, 2009

8:45-3:00-Gairdner/Nobel and Gairdner Laureate Forums

Location: Convocation Hall, University of Toronto
All sessions will present a moderated panel discussion,
followed by Q&A from the audience.

Friday's events are free but registration is required.
Click here.

8:45-10:15amAttack and Repulsions: Infections and the Immune System

Dr. David Baltimore (Moderator), Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Biology, California Institute of Technology, CA

Dr. Ralph Steinman, Henry G. Kunkel Professor & Sr. Physician, The Rockefeller University, New York

Dr. Emil Unanue, Paul & Ellen Lacy Professor, Department of Pathology & Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO

Dr. Rolf Zinkernagel, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland


10:30-12:00pm The Metabolome: Food and Fuel for Thought

Dr. Joe Goldstein (Moderator), Julie and Louis A. Beecherl Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science, Southwestern Medical Center, University of Dallas, TX

Dr. Jeff Friedman, Marilyn M. Simpson Professor, The Rockefeller University, New York

Dr. Tony Pawson, University Professor, Program in Molecular Biology &Cancer, Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Toronto

Dr. Michael Brown, Paul J. Thomas Chair in Medicine, Southwestern Medical Center, University of Texas, Dallas, TX

Dr. Ron Evans, Professor, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla California

2:00-3:30pm Cancer: Can New Insights into Biology Yield Better Results?

Dr. Michael Bishop (Moderator) Chancellor, University of California, San Francisco

Dr.Harald zur Hausen, Professor Emeritus, German Cancer Research institute, Heidelberg, Germany

Dr.Dennis Slamon, Chief, Department of Hematology, Oncology, University of California, Los Angeles

Dr. Bob Weinberg, Professor of Biology, Member, Whitehead Institute, MIT, Cambridge, MA

Dr. Barry Marshall, International Research Foundation for Helicobacter and
Intestinal Immunology, Virginia

7:00- 8:30pm
The Personalized Genome: Do I Want to Know?

Dr. Michael Hayden, Director and Senior Scientist, Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

Dr. Sydney Brenner, Distinguished Professor, The Salk Institute, San Diego

Charles Sabine, Award winning NBC News correspondent and carrier of the gene for Huntington's Disease

If you need more information please contact Sheila Robinson at

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Selfish genes and transposons

Back in 1980, the idea that large fractions of animal and plant genomes could be junk was quite controversial. Although the idea was consistent with the latest developments in population genetics, most scientists were unaware of these developments. They were looking for adaptive ways of explaining all the excess DNA in these genomes.

Some scientists were experts in modern evolutionary theory but still wanted to explain "junk DNA." Doolittle & Sapienza, and Orgel & Crick, published back-to-back papers in the April 17, 1980 issue of Nature. They explained junk DNA by claiming that most of it was due to the presence of "selfish" transposons that were being selected and preserved because they benefited their own replication and transmission to future generations. They have no effect on the fitness of the organism they inhabit. This is natural selection at a different level.

This prompted some responses in later editions of the journal and then responses to the responses.

Here's the complete series ...

Paradigm shifting at the Royal Society meeting in November

Suzan Mazur has been making a name for herself by promoting the overthrow of modern evolutionary theory. She began with a lot of hype about the Alternberg 16 back in 2008 and continued with a series of interviews of prominent evolutionary biologists.

Now she's focused on the upcoming meeting in November as another attempt to shift paradigms [see New Trends in Evolutionary Biology: The Program]. She's not entirely wrong. Many of the people involved in those meeting see themselves as paradigm shifters.

The illusions of Denis Noble

Denis Noble was a Professor of Physiology at Oxford University in the United Kingdom until he retired. He had a distinguished career as a physiologist making significant contributions to our undestanding of the heart and its relationship to the whole organism.

In recent years, Noble has dabbled in philosophy and evolution. He has become a vocal opponent modern evolution (sensu Noble) and the way science is currently conducted. Some of his criticisms have made it onto two popular books: The Music of Life and Dance to the Tune of Life. He is one of the leading proponents of the "Extended Evolutionary Synthesis" (EES) and he is one of the founders of The Third Way of Evolution, a wishy-washy and scientifically inaccurate way of attacking a strawman version of evolution and providing a safe haven for religious scientists.

How Do Intelligent Design Creationists Define "Creationism"?

David Klinghoffer showed up in the comments on James Shapiro Claims Credit for Predicting That Junk DNA Is Actually Part of a "highly sophisticated information storage organelle" to ask about creationism.

He didn't like the fact that I define "creationism" as belief in a creator and anyone who believes in a creator is a creationist. I identified several flavors of creationism including Young Earth Creationism, Intelligent Design Creationism, and Theistic Evolution Creationism. This is exactly the same sort of definition used by many people and it's the one described in the Wikipedia article on creationism. (It has even more flavors.)

David Klinghoffer didn't like that so he decided to make an issue of it by posting on Evolution News & Views: What Is a "Creationist"? Let's take a look at what he says in order to learn a little more about the creationist mindset.

Thinking critically about the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology

Our department is preparing to review our undergraduate courses and programs. Part of the review will be to examine our fundamental goals and objectives and determine if we are meeting them. In preparation for this exercise, I've been going over some papers that have been sitting around my office.

One of them concerns teaching the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology (Wright et al., 2014). It was just published last year. The authors have discovered that students have a "weak conceptual understanding" of information flow. Here's how they describe it in the abstract.

The central dogma of molecular biology, a model that has remained intact for decades, describes the transfer of genetic information from DNA to protein though an RNA intermediate. While recent work has illustrated many exceptions to the central dogma, it is still a common model used to describe and study the relationship between genes and protein products. We investigated understanding of central dogma concepts and found that students are not primed to think about information when presented with the canonical figure of the central dogma. We also uncovered conceptual errors in student interpretation of the meaning of the transcription arrow in the central dogma representation; 36% of students (n = 128; all undergraduate levels) described transcription as a chemical conversion of DNA into RNA or suggested that RNA existed before the process of transcription began. Interviews confirm that students with weak conceptual understanding of information flow find inappropriate meaning in the canonical representation of central dogma. Therefore, we suggest that use of this representation during instruction can be counterproductive unless educators are explicit about the underlying meaning.

Gene Genie #22

 
This is the 22nd edition of Gene Genie and the second time it has been hosted on Sandwalk. The beautiful logo was created by Ricardo at My Biotech Life.

The purpose of this carnival is to highlight the genetics of one particular species, Homo sapiens. All of the accepted submissions concern humans. Quite often this means looking at how our genes influence our behavior and many of this week's submissions certainly fit that category.

Tali Shapiro at Helium - Where Knowledge Rules asks whether biology or environment have the stronger influence on gender identity. The posting discusses an usual, and ultimately tragic, case of gender switching [Size
Matters].

Is love in your genes? That's the question Christian Bachmann of Med Journal Watch asks [Love is in the genes when it comes to style].

It's not only love that's in your genes. There's more and more evidence linking all sorts of altruistic behavior to certain genes. Razib posts on the main Gene Exprsssion website. The candidate gene in this case is AVPR1a a polymorphism tied to variation in altruism.

Over on Living the Scientific Life GrrlScientist took note of the fact that a personalized genetics company published a claim that Jim Watson's genome was 1/16th African [Ebony, Meet Irony]. This result has been questioned on other blogs. For example, John Hawks of john hawks weblog wonders if it's a good idea for a private company to engage in this sort of cheap shot [Will the Watson "gotcha" moment bring down public genomics?].

Were you breastfed? Are you smart? Did you know that there might be a correlation between being breastfed as an infant and your IQ as an adult? Caroline Wright of phgfoundation discusses a recent paper on this subject [Correlation between IQ and breastfeeding moderated by genetics].

The confusion about the relative influence of genes and environment has a semantic component. Coturnix at A Blog Around the Clock asks Has the word "gene" outlived its usefulness?.

Did you know that your response to social stress might be determined by a single nucleotide change in your BDNF gene? Check out what John Fossella has to say in rs6265 (A) is my bodyguard. John runs the blog Biomarker driven mental health 2.0, which is dedicated to supporting consumer-driven personalized medicine.

Meanhwhile, the interest in personalized genetic testing prompted a CBC television show about [The DNA Genealogy Scam], which I blogged about on Sandwalk]. Later on I wondered whether science bloggers shouldn't be more cautious about promoting private testing services [23andMe - More Hype from Genetic Testing Services].

George Church is also a bit skeptical about some aspects of personalized genomics [George Church on Personal Genomics]. The posting is on Epidemix.

Bertalan Meskó weighs in with an opinion on ScienceRoll [Personalized Genetics: Back to the Personal Genome Project ].

Maybe we should all be worried since You Can Now Buy a Genetic Test at Rite-Aid.

One of the problems with personalized genetic testing is that it might reveal something you don't want to know. Matt Mealiffe of DNA and You asks Who's your daddy?.

What if you learn that you have a pre-disposition to cancer, or something worse? Does the information from one of these genetic testing companies prompt life altering changes? PredictER Blog wonders whether people really take these tests seriously [To Blog or To Jog? Genetic Tests and "Life-Changing" Decisions].

DNA direct is a genetic testing and educational services company. It has a blog called DNA Direct Talk and they've submitted an article that addresses the competition between their company and the new companies that have just started up [Opinions on 23andMe, deCODEme, Navigenics: Personal Genomics Services]. The posting was written by Lisa E. Lee, director of content at DNA Direct,

If you are interested in submitting a DNA sample to one of these companies then Hsien-Hsien Lei (Eye on DNA) has some advice for you [How to Prepare Yourself for a Genetic Test].

Gene therapy is when patients with genetic problems are cured by inserting a good copy of the defective gene. There have been several successes, but also some failures. Shelley Batts discusses one of the failures, noting that Gene Therapy Patient Wasn't Killed By the Therapy. Shelley blogs at Retrospectacle.

Speaking of gene therapy, can anything be done about hereditary blindness? Ruth has the story on The Biotech Weblog. She reports on clinical trials that are currently underway [Gene therapy for Hereditary Blindness on Phase I Clinical Trials].

Over on Gene Expression Razib brings up the OAC2 gene, once again. The question is how much do alleles of this gene contribute to eye color and skin color? [OCA2, blue eyes and skin color].

The sickle cell allele of the &beta:-globin gene is another favorite that's been discussed many times in Gene Genie submissions. The latest contribution is by Yann Klimentidis over on Yann Klimentidis' Weblog. The question is when was the sickle cell allele introduced into East Africa? [The sickle cell gene's recent introgression into East Africa]

BRCA1 is another popular gene. Mutations in this gene have been linked to many cancers but the biochemistry hasn't been worked out in most cases. A posting on Genetics & Health looks at one of the latest studies [50% BRCA 1 genes have PTEN mutations]. Elaine Warburton posted the summary.

Steve Murphy has a rather graphic description of Toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN). This disease may be associated with alleles at the HLA locus and this raises questions about the results of genetic tests [Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis and Pharmacogenomics]. The article is on Gene Sherpas, another blog devoted to personalized genetics.

How many diseases can be cured by gene therapy? In order to answer that question you have to know how many genes we have. Most of you know that the number of known genes in our genome has been dropping steadily since the first drafts of the sequence were published. But do you know how far they've dropped? Keith Robison does and he's posted an article about it on OMICS! OMICS!. You might be surprised to hear what the latest number is [The Incredible Shrinking Human Genome].

Other heath-related articles look at the influence of infection and environment on human health. For example, FitBuff.com asks What is MRSA? Symptoms and Prevention. I hope I won't be giving too much away if I reveal that MSA is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Some of us are interested in human evolution and that's fair game on Gene Genie. Greg Laden at Greg Laden's Blog discusses the results in a recent PLoS Genetics paper in Origin of Native America. These latest results suggest a single migration at some indeterminate date that's likely to be more than 10,000 years ago. You can bet this isn't the end of the controversy. Read Greg's summary and comments.

A recent paper in PNAS has stimulated a lot of blogging. Greg Laden submits his view of the peper at [Study Suggests Increased Rate of Human Adaptive Evolution]. My own submissions began with questions about the study at [Are Humans Evolving Faster?] and [Accelerated Human Evolution] and continued with more questions that provoked a discussion with the primary author of the study (John Hawks, see comments) [Is Evolution Linked to Environmental Change?]

The next edition of Gene Genie will be published at ScienceRoll. You can submit articles at Blog Carnival: Gene Genie.

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Extending evolutionary theory? - Denis Noble

I will be attending the Royal Society Meeting on New trends in evolutionary biology: biological, philosophical and social science perspectives. I'll post each of the abstracts and ask for your help in deciding what question to pose to the speakers. Here's the abstract for Denis Noble's talk on Evolution viewed from medicine and physiology.

Medicine and physiology are multi-level disciplines. So is physics. From physics we learn that ordered properties at high levels co-exist with randomness at lower levels. Molecules in organisms must obey the same principles. Stochasticity at low levels does not therefore exclude order at higher levels. Organisms enlist stochasticity in their development of functional behaviour, through restraints exerted by higher over lower levels. The physics of organisms must therefore interact with their genomes to produce the phenotype1,2. Reverse engineering from physiological models is then required to understand genotype-phenotype relations3. There is no privileged level of causality4, nor privileged level of selection5. Evolution involves interaction between several processes at multiple levels, as Charles Darwin also believed5,6. Without understanding these interactions, gene-centred approaches will continue to produce disappointing results in healthcare7,8, including trans-generational disease risks.

I have heard Denis Noble speak and I've read some of his papers [Physiologists fall for the Third Way; A physiologist thinks about evolution]. Denis Noble is a physiologist who worked on hearts and circulation in complex mammals (humans). He's very annoyed at biochemists and molecular biologists for getting so much attention (and money) over the past few decades. He has constructed in his mind a false image of evolution. He thinks it's entirely adaptationist and gene-centric and that's what he rails against. He doesn't like Richard Dawkins. He's a prominent member of The Third Way.

You can see for yourself by watching a video of a talk he gave a few years ago.


I agree completely with Jerry Coyne's analysis of this talk [Famous physiologist embarrasses himself by claiming that the modern theory of evolution is in tatters]. Jerry says ....

I’m writing this post in a bit of anger, as Noble’s attacks on the modern synthesis are both poorly informed and clearly motivated by his ambition to make physiology a central part of evolutionary biology. Although he’s an FRS and famous, he wants more: he wants his field to be central to evolution. But such misguided hubris is not the way science is supposed to be done. And physiology is already important in evolutionary biology. It’s the reason why we look at the effects of a gene substitution, for example, not as a simple one-gene-produces-one-trait issue, but as a the gene’s overall effect on reproductive output through its effects ramifying through the complexities of development. Noble says that evolutionists are guilty of this “one-gene-one-trait” error, but he’s just wrong: I don’t know a single person in my field who holds this simplistic view.

None of the arguments that Noble makes are new: they’re virtual tropes among those people, like James Shapiro and Lynn Margulis, who embarked, at the end of their careers, on a misguided crusade to topple the modern theory of evolution.

However famous Noble may be in physiology, he’s a blundering tyro when it comes to evolutionary biology. He might try discussing his ideas with other evolutionists and listening to their responses. He obviously hasn’t done that, and yet travels the world trading on his expertise in physiology to show that the edifice of modern evolutionary biology is rotten. And he writes papers to that effect, including the dreadful piece referenced below.

But what’s really rotten is Noble’s knowledge of the field and his claim that virtually every assumption of neo-Darwinian evolution is wrong. In fact, his arguments are so rotten that they stink like old herring.

They’re not even wrong.

I'm not going to ask any questions after this talk. I'll report back on how many people seem to agree with him.

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Little Richie Dawkins

One thing that draws me to the ID movement is that it has the polite and understated ethic that science is supposed to have -- but does not have when the subject is evolution.

Stephen A. BatzerHere's a video that was posted today on Uncommon Descent by Salvador Cordova. Before watching it, read my post on: Why are Darwinists do uncivil?. It links to an IDiot post by Stephen A. Batzer where he complains about "Darwinists" being uncivil.

Here's one of the points that Batzer makes ...

Thought leaders in the Darwinian movement, such as Dawkins, Prothero, Shermer and so on, inculcate and advocate incivility by their own example. Look at the way biologist James Shapiro and philosopher Jerry Fodor have been treated. It's ugly.

The video was produced by Mike Booth. Decide for yourself if the evolution side of the debate behaves like the IDiots. (Apologies to Richard Dawkins for propagating this nonsense but people need to see the depths to which the Intelligent Design Community can sink.)


UPDATE: Denyse O'Leary has responded to this post [Huh? Actually, we thought Little Richie (Dawkins) was a special creation, just for us…]. She says, "Moran thinks it originated in the ID community. Unclear why because it’s really not about our usual questions and concerns." Actually I don't know anything about Mike Booth or whether he is a support of Intelligent Design Creationism. I looked, but I couldn't find anything. What I do know is that IDiots like Denyse O'Leary post the obnoxious video on their websites. O'Learly also says this about the video, "It’s also not a lot nastier than the old showman himself." I think I'll let intelligent people decide for themselves who is nastier. I'm glad that Denyse O'Leary at least acknowledges that the video she posted was nasty.

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2009 Canada Gairdner Awards

 
The 2009 Canada Gairdner Award recipients were announced last week. Each awardee gets $100,000 (CDN). The winners are ...

Richard Losick: "for the discovery of mechanisms that define cell polarity and asymmetric cell division, processes key in cell differentiation and in the generation of cell diversity"

Kazutoshi Mori: "for the dissection and elucidation of a key pathway in the unfolded protein response which regulates protein folding in the cell"

Nubia Muñoz: "for her epidemiological studies that defined the essential role of the human papilloma virus in the etiology of cervical cancer on a global level which led to the development of successful prophylactic vaccines"

David Sackett: "for his leadership in the fields of clinical epidemiology and evidence-based medicine, which have had major impacts internationally in applied clinical research and in the practice of medicine"

Lucy Shapiro: "for the discovery of mechanisms that define cell polarity and asymmetric cell division, processes key in cell differentiation and in the generation of cell diversity"

Peter Walter: "for the dissection and elucidation of a key pathway in the unfolded protein response which regulates protein folding in the cell"

Shinya Yamanaka: "for his demonstration that the key transcription factors which specify pluripotency may become reprogrammed somatic cells to pluripotent stem cells"

The awards will be presented next October at the University of Toronto. Since this is the 50th anniversary of the Gairdner Awards there will be quite a gathering. You should plan on being here.

This year The Gairdner Foundation is celebrating its 50th Anniversary in spectacular fashion.

Between March and November we will hold 7 major international symposia across the country, in Vancouver, Edmonton, Ottawa, Toronto (York), Sherbrooke, Montreal and Halifax (see under Events). The finale will occur in Toronto, where we will host 50 past Gairdner recipients, including 22 Nobel Laureates, from Oct 28-30. This will be by far the largest gathering of the world's top scientists ever held in Canada. We will also introduce the 2009 Canada Gairdner Award recipients.

Canada Gairdner Laureates will participate in lectures, panel discussions, public forums, interviews and informal talks with academics, researchers, biotech and pharma companies, government leaders, graduate and postgraduate students, high school students, the media and interested members of the general public. With the exception of the social events, all the programs will be free and open to anyone who wants to share in the excitement of leading edge biomedical science.

The 50th Anniversary will be a spectacular culmination of everything The Gairdner Foundation has achieved in becoming Canada's premier international prize, and one of the top three biomedical prizes in the world. It will be a vehicle to raise awareness of the fascinating world of biomedical science and its importance to lives.

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Carl Zimmer at Chautauqua

 
Carl Zimmer gave a talk in the Hall of Philosophy on Tuesday afternoon. The photo isn't very good because I forgot my camera and had to use my cell phone.

Carl posted his talk on The Loom [Darwin, Linnaeus, and One Sleepy Guy]. He said many important things about Darwin and evolutionary biology. As a matter of fact, of all the speakers who talked about evolutionary biology, Carl was one of only two speakers who got the basics correct.¹

Here's what he said in the first minute ...

We are now descending into a frenzy of Darwin celebrations, and you’re not going to escape it until the end of 2009. We’ve got his 200th birthday in February, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species in November. The spotlight is going to be on Darwin, and Darwin alone.

I think this is a mistake. Darwin deserves celebrating, but that doesn’t mean we should fall prey to a cult of personality. Darwin did not invent biology. Darwin did not even find most of the evidence that he used to back up his theory of evolution. And he certainly did not discover all there was to know about evolution. Biologists have discovered many new things about evolution since his time. In some cases, they’ve challenged some of his most important arguments. And that’s fine. That’s the great strength of science.

This reflects one of the main themes in the two courses that I taught at Chautauqua; namely, that Darwin was the greatest scientist who ever lived but we have moved far beyond what Darwin knew in 1859.

The other important point is that we risk over-emphasizing Darwin during the celebrations next year. According to Stephen Jay Gould, this is what happened in 1959 during the 100th anniversary celebrations. The result was a hardening of the Modern Synthesis and the rise of adaptationism.² I'm so glad Carl made this point. I think we all have to be careful judging by what I saw during the rest of the week and what I witnessed at a celebration of Darwin here in Toronto [Darwinism at the ROM]. Please, let's try and keep things in perspective. Whenever we praise Darwin we should also mention that modern evolutionary biology has incorporated his important contributions but added much more.

Later that night I met Carl for a few beers (three for me and decaf coffee wine for him). We had a wonderful three hours discussing evolution with Beth Shapiro and her husband—an informed engineer! Turns out, Carl is not quite as nice as he appears on his blog. In person, he actually has firm opinions about some of things he avoids discussing on The Loom.

Please don't tell him I said that. And whatever you do, don't tell him that I actually agree with some of the things he said.

We also talked about writing trade books. He convinced me that I should give it a try even though it's not nearly as rewarding³ as writing a textbook.

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1. The other one was Genie Scott.

2. The original Modern Synthesis of the 1940's was pluralistic.

3. Financially.

Jonathan Wells Sends His Regrets

Paulmc visited Uncommon Descent in order to defend junk DNA [Here’s Jonathan Wells on destroying Darwinism – and responding to attacks on his character and motives]. Now Wells has responded to several of paulmc's points [Jonathan Wells on Darwinism, Science, and Junk DNA].

We'll get to those issues in another post but right now I want to take note of something Wells said at the end of his article.

Oh, one last thing: “paulmc” referred to an online review of my book by University of Toronto professor Larry Moran—a review that “paulmc” called both extensive and thorough. Well, saturation bombing is extensive and thorough, too. Although “paulmc” admitted to not having read more than the Preface to The Myth of Junk DNA, I have read Mr. Moran’s review, which is so driven by confused thinking and malicious misrepresentations of my work—not to mention personal insults—that addressing it would be like trying to reason with a lynch mob.

I can understand why Wells might decline to post a comment on Sandwalk. Many of us know what it's like to try and argue with the readers of the intelligent design blogs. Wells would meet the same reception here that we get over there.

But that doesn't preclude Wells from posting on Uncommon Descent or Evolution News & Views. If he really believes that my review of his book is an example of "confused thinking and malicious misrepresentations of my work"¹ then why not back up such a statement with a thoughtful response on a friendly blog? Evolution News & Views would be ideal since comments are banned.

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1. Wells has accused other scientists of misrepresentation. It's a common theme in The Myth of Junk DNA and in Icons of Evolution. I quoted this passage in Junk & Jonathan: Part 13—Chapter 10.

Coyne and Avise are professors of genetics at major universities, so they cannot claim ignorance of the genomic evidence without thereby admitting negligence or incompetence. In fact, one of Coyne's colleagues at the University of Chicago is James Shapiro, co-author of the 2005 article cited in Chapter 6 that listed over 80 known functions for non-protein-coding repetitive DNA. [The other author is Richard (von) Sternberg ... LAM] But if Coyne and Avise were not ignorant of the evidence, then they misrepresented it—and they continue to do so. Like Dawkins, Shermer and Kitcher they have forfeited any claim they might have to be speaking for science.

I can understand why Wells is reluctant to defend such statements. It's because they are indefensible.