Microbiology: Virus Passes Acid Test for Entering Cells Drug Therapy: Failure of HIV Therapy Pits Researchers vs. Drug Maker Research Safety: New Post Adds Vigor to Biological Safety Research Resources: Mass Spectrometry Moves to the Quad Primary Care: World Health Problems Are Diagnosed at the Community Level Molecule Flips Master Switch for Growth of Nerve Cell Axons NIH Panel Outlines Optimal Longterm Treatment for PKU Drug Use Up Among College Students Patterns Found in Gene Transcription Response to DNA Damage HMS and HSPH Faculty Elected to the IOM New HMS Program in Clinical Science Grants Master of Medical Sciences Degree Orkin Is First Holder of Nathan Chair In Memoriam New Associate Dean of Educational Technology Honors and Advances Grad Student Science Series Hits Mark with Adults in Local Community Front Page

FORUM Grad Student Science Series Hits Mark With Adults in Local Community One of the best basic definitions of the word gene that I've heard from someone not trained in science came from a group of Dorchester eighth-graders who toured my thesis laboratory last summer. They said that genes were "things you inherit from your mom and dad that make you look like you." One of them even blurted out "DNA!" Their explanation is, by my estimates, a succinct and elegant summary of the extent of knowledge many Americans have of genetics. However, we are approaching an age when science and technology pervade our daily lives more than ever. Soon a rudimentary understanding of subjects such as genetics may not be sufficient for Americans to make decisions involving health care, political candidates, and other important concerns. I believe that the public needs and deserves access to information about the science underlying many of the issues that confront us. The question is, whose responsibility is it to be that source? The answer? Mine. And yours too, if you are a scientist. The public pays us, via federal research grants, to come up with the fantastic new technologies such as cloning, genetically modified organisms, and gene therapy that enhance our lives and our world. We therefore have an obligation to help people understand these phenomena so we can all make educated decisions about how to fit them into society. About a year ago this sense of obligation began to nag me. I hoped to quell it by finding some sort of community science education group that I could serve as a volunteer. All such groups that I found were aimed at teaching science to children. While this is, of course, a noble goal, I kept searching for a program that would explain science to adults. I never found one. I think the programs I found typify what many in the scientific community see as the solution to the national dearth of scientific literacy: get them while they're young. But I am bothered by the flip side of that approach —that for adults, it's just too late. They wouldn't understand. Pliable minds exist only in the young. With this I simply do not agree. This is why I started Science in the News, an educational science seminar series aimed at teaching people some of the basic biology behind many of the hot scientific topics they encounter in the media—topics like cloning, antibiotic resistance, gene therapy, the human genome project, and genetically modified food. Once the idea for the program hatched, I enlisted the help of my fellow graduate students. And I got responses from more than 20 people who have become extremely committed to this project. The Program Is Born We registered about 90 people for our eight-seminar program, running on the Quad every Wednesday evening from Sept. 27 through Nov. 15. The participants are teachers, media professionals, warehouse employees, artists, doctors, deli supervisors, social workers, and retirees. Before the first seminar began I was more nervous than if I were defending my dissertation. Would the people enjoy the seminar? Would they understand it? Would they come back next week? Our topics for that first meeting were the human genome project and genetic testing, two complex subjects that could each make up a whole course. The three presenters who gave the first lectures, however, somehow managed to cram a semester's worth of material into two engaging hours while answering a barrage of stimulating and unexpected questions: "How do all organisms make DNA for every single one of their cells when they all eat such different foods?" "How do mutations cause disease?" "How can an amoeba fit all that DNA into just one cell?" They were fantastic questions that revealed a voracious curiosity for any information we could deliver. In designing my own portion of the seminar on antibiotic resistance, I worried about keeping the audience's interest during my parade of slides. Once I started my talk, however, I beheld rows of eager faces. When I began this project it was, in my mind, an experiment. Those of us who put so much effort into it had no idea—while we were blanketing Boston with cheap publicity and practicing our lectures for each other—whether anyone would care to attend or listen. But I would like to think now that the level of interest and number of people we have attracted for this program are enough to suggest to the rest of the scientific community that just because people have graduated from high school, they have not necessarily lost the desire to learn. So we must be prepared to follow technological advances with an explanation. —Elizabeth Hick is a second-year graduate student in genetics in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program.