Right to Know, The
Professor of Law and Medicine Alex Capron talks about the conflict between an individual's interest in keeping sensitive information private, and the interest others may have--some of it legitimate, some of it not--in gaining access to that informat...
Gene Therapy (Part Two)
Professor of Law and Medicine Alex Capron talks about the danger in assuming that if we know an individual's genetic blueprint, we know the individual. He reminds us that, as important as genetic structure may be, ultimately the individual is the pr...
Gene Therapy (Part One)
Professor of Law and Medicine Alex Capron talks about the importance of not discriminating against those who have been diagnosed with a genetic predisposition that may or may not develop into the illness or condition for which the predisposition exi...
Newborn Hearing Screening
Dr. Ed McCabe, Chief of the Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA, talks about a screening process that can identify children who have genetic deafness before they leave the newborn nursery.
Genetics and Sexuality (Part Three)
Dean Hamer, Director of the Gene Structure and Regulation Unit at the National Cancer Institute, talks about the impact of a gene that, "...alters the dopamine in the brain, which then has an indirect effect on sexuality through personality."
Genetics and Sexuality (Part Two)
Dean Hamer, Director of the Gene Structure and Regulation Unit at the National Cancer Institute, talks about the partner diversity or monogamy aspect of sexuality. Dr. Hamer points out that, besides individual differences, there are also differences...
Sexual Orientation and Genetics (Part One)
Dean Hamer, Director of the Gene Structure and Regulation Unit at the National Cancer Institute, talks about the possibility that there is a genetic component to sexual orientation. Dr. Hamer also discusses some differences between men and women in ...
Language and Human Nature
Linguist, author and university professor Noam Chomsky explains that all languages share certain common principles, which he notes are picked up "reflexively, quickly, essentially without error by children and, it must be...because the principles ar...
Genetic and Bipolar Illness
Professor of psychiatry and author Kay Redfield Jamison explains that an individual who has one parent with bipolar illness has a one in fifteen chance of having bipolar illness. The odds go up enormously if both parents have bipolar illness. "If yo...
Newborn Screening
Dr. Ed McCabe, Chief of the Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA, talks about the state of newborn screening in the United States. He notes that, at the time of his interview, all states screened for PKU (phenylketonuria) and hypothyroidism. Dr. McCab...