Chapter 17: Science, the Environment, and Society - Inquisitive Questions

What benefits do proponents of GMO food crops claim for them?

They can be more nutritious. They stay fresh longer. They are more resistant to pests and diseases. They produce higher yields.

The last part of this animation describes how genetic testing could lead to problems that would not otherwise have arisen. Place the events in order to describe how this might happen.

Genetic testing of an individual reveals a predisposition to depression The individual is placed on preventative antidepressant medication The patient suffers from known side effects, which includes insomnia and weight gain To end the side effects, the patient is placed on a new, unproven medication

Which lessons can be drawn from the example of Angelina Jolie's medical decision and Edward Saunders's discovery of the effects of weather on stock prices?

Government must allow for the social response to facts it makes laws about. Whether cause A has effect B can depend on social circumstances.

What is typically true of produce—say, fresh fruit—that is labeled "certified organic"?

It is non-GMO It is grown without synthetic pesticides.

Which items represent documented present-day effects of global warming?

Melting of the ice cap at the North Pole. Spread of diseases to places where they had not previously occurred.

Why did the fatalities produced by Chicago's 1995 heat wave occur mainly among the elderly, the poor, and African Americans?

Members of these populations were socially isolated

How did the National Science Foundation influence research in hurricanes following Hurricane Katrina in 2005?

The NSF funded small grants on the causes and effects of hurricanes

Identify each statement about Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar's study of Jonas Salk's lab as correct or incorrect.

1. The researchers treated scientists as they would any other "tribe." 2. The researchers examined how scientific facts were established.

Which questions would be part of the sociology of science?

1. how scientific fraud is uncovered 2. how scientists engage in scientific research make their decisions 3. how the public responds to claims by scientists

What are some causes of concern about the use of DNA testing in a criminological context?

1. involuntary disclosure of family genetics to government authorities 2. the one-directional impact of DNA evidence 3. effects related to socioeconomic status

For which reason or reasons are Americans generally more accepting of GMO foods than most Europeans?

Americans are more religious on average and thus more disposed to believe that human beings have a God-given right to alter nature

Boundary work is work done to maintain the borders between different branches of science and between science and non-science. Which items are examples of boundary work?

A philosopher argues that intelligent design is not a scientifically testable theory. Two biologists argue about whether viruses should be considered living or nonliving

Why does certified organic food tend to come from megafarms and other large, corporate food producers rather than small-scale operations that serve a local clientele?

Small farmers tend to have a harder time affording USDA certification

If all women followed the example Angelina Jolie set in 2013, what would a mutated BRCA1 gene be a predictor for?

a greater likelihood of undergoing a preventative mastectomy

Which concerns are raised by the prospect of widespread genetic testing of human beings?

concerns of stigmatization, privacy, and social stratification

What, according to scientist Vandana Shiva, were some negative consequences for developing nations of the green revolution that occurred in the second half of the twentieth century?

depletion of soil nutrients loss of crop biodiversity greater burden on the available water supply

Conley suggests that "the availability of organic products may add to health stratification by income." If this happens, which factors will most likely be involved?

Organic products are more expensive than non-organic. Organic products may be healthier than non-organic products. Organic products tend to be preferred by more-educated consumers.

In 1993, economics researcher Edward Saunders found that stock prices on the New York Stock exchange were slightly higher when the weather outside the trading floor was sunny than when then weather was cloudy or rainy. What happened next? Place the events in order.

Sanders published his findings Stock price forecasters incorporated Saunder's findings into their predictive models Stock traders sought to make money by buying on cloudy or rainy days and selling on sunny days The buying and selling behavior of traders drove the bad-weather prices up and the fair-weather prices down The phenomenon Saunders had documented disappeared

The green revolution, which began around -, exported advanced food production techniques from the U.S. and - to developing nations like Mexico and -. The continent of - was a late beneficiary, partly because the first wave of high-yield crops required - agriculture, while the second wave could be grown using -agriculture.

The green revolution, which began around 1950, exported advanced food production techniques from the U.S. and Japan to developing nations like Mexico and India. The continent of Africa was a late beneficiary, partly because the first wave of high-yield crops required irrigation-based agriculture, while the second wave could be grown using rain-fed agriculture

In the middle portion of this interview with Dalton Conley, sociologist Alondra Nelson describes the origins of African Ancestry, a company that markets genetic genealogy testing to black families. In which context were the scientific techniques used by African Ancestry first developed?

genetic testing on remains exhumed from a historic burial ground

One possible explanation for the evolutionary survival of homosexuality is antagonistic pleiotropy. What would that mean, as applied to homosexuality?

one gene both promotes overall fertility and leads to some percentage of offspring being homosexual

What term is used by Thomas Kuhn to describe a conceptual framework for doing "normal science," as Kuhn calls it?

paradigm

In the film Gattaca, which major concern about genetics does the film explore?

problems that would result from the genetic screening of children at birth

What, besides increased agricultural productivity, were the benefits for developing nations of the green revolution that took place in the second half of the twentieth century?

promoted gender equality, increased value of formal schooling, slowed population growth

What are the main trends of the global green revolution that occurred in the second half of the twentieth century?

the introduction of high-yield crops in developing nations improvements in agricultural techniques and technologies

In this video, sociologist John Evans describes for Dalton Conley the evolution of people's thinking about genetic engineering. In the 1990s, Evans says, questions about how to manage genetic engineering were being discussed by bioethicists and philosophers. Who had largely dropped out of the discussion, according to Evans?

theologians