A precocious playmate One of my close friends growing up used a lot of big words. My vocabulary was decent, but with her I was often outpaced. I distinctly remember one time in third or fourth grade when I was at her house playing and she dropped one of her vocab words. I wish I Read More…
Author: sarahcn
The Necessity of “Procedural Ethics”
It was months ago, and I’m still haunted by the phrase. I was on a call for work, where a group of biomedical researchers was discussing ethical issues in engaging sensitive and vulnerable populations in genomic research. (An aside: why is this such an important and timely topic? In genomics, there is a well-warranted Read More…
The decline in editorial function, from newsrooms to genomes
Conspiracy theories have always been bad, but are they getting worse—more pervasive, more outlandish, more polarizing? I recently heard the authors of the new book “A Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy” interviewed on John Lovett’s podcast. One enabler of the “new conspiracism,” according to the authors, is Read More…
Coronavirus, scientific expertise, and knowledge infrastructures
Coronavirus news is dominating our mental and physical airwaves – I for one have eyes glued to virologists’ Twitter feeds and am constantly refreshing the Seattle Times daily updates. Scrolling through tweets the other night (I have self-diagnosed “Scrolliosis”), I saw a fascinating exchange in the comments. My favorite computational biologist, since that’s a thing Read More…
Year in review for third-party interpretation tools
As 2019 comes to a close and I reach the year anniversary of completing my dissertation research on the topic, it felt appropriate to do a mini year in review for third-party genetic interpretation tools. There’s been a whirlwind of activity in this area, perhaps no surprise due to the of entanglement of third-party tools Read More…
My experience with identity theft and the case for adaptive governance
The saying goes that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but when it comes to identity theft — this could not be further from the truth. I dealt with a mild smattering of identity theft in the spring of 2018 and then, more recently, with a veritable deluge of it. Bank accounts I didn’t Read More…
Data ethics: risk- versus respect-based concerns
Personal data. We walk around emitting little streams of it, from our browsing history and smartphone apps to our credit card purchases. Most of the time we don’t even think about it — it’s become as a natural and invisible a process as shedding skin cells. Meanwhile, various entities are out there hoovering up all Read More…
When “good enough” is great
My tolerance for imperfection is perhaps most apparent in the kitchen. My friends and family joke about my laxness with recipes and lack of respect for key ingredients — most recently, when I persevered in making a chili without any chili powder. (Surely, paprika with some cayenne would do the trick?) The end product often Read More…
Genetic “Mesearch”
Personal genomics Personal, consumer genomics has exploded in the past decade, and shows no signs of slowing. Yet there is an inherent tension in attempts to translate the findings of genetic research, which is done in large groups of people, into insights for individuals. I.e., the research question, “Does this genetic variant, or set of Read More…
A Room of One’s Own
Virginia Woolf spoke of needing a “room of one’s own” in which to write. Her remarks were partly in response to a culture where intellectual work was not seen as women’s work, where women were given neither the physical nor abstract spaces in which to pursue their own thoughts. Thankfully, today these issues are less Read More…