Monday, May 7, 2012

Hard-Wired For Chocolate And Hybrid Cars?

TAG of the Week:


Hard-Wired For Chocolate And Hybrid Cars?

You now know that genetics plays a role in many aspects of your life. We’ve focused on disease as well as epigenetics. What if genes can decide your likes and dislikes? Do you still have the free will to make choices or do all our consumer choices come down to our genes?

Do any of the consumer styles seem to fit your style? And what can this information be used for?

As always, remember to think critically. This is from a journal article that is to be published. What are your thoughts on what the authors are trying to portray versus the data they actually present?


*Itamar Simonson and Aner Sela. "On the Heritability of Consumer Decision Making: An Exploratory Approach for Studying Genetic Effects on Judgment and Choice." Journal of Consumer Research: April 2011. A preprint of this article (to be officially published online soon) can be found at http://journals.uchicago.edu/jcr.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Genetically Modified Chickens: Don’t Pass on the Flu!

TAG of the Week:


Genetically Modified Chickens: Don’t Pass on the Flu!
“The secret of flu-proofing chicken flocks is an artificial gene that contains a snippet of genetic material from the H5N1 flu virus. This bit of RNA codes for polymerase, an enzyme flu viruses need to make more of themselves… better than a vaccine”
What are the potential hazards of this new method? (Scientist’s still don’t even know!) What could this mean for the future food industry? What other protocol, labeling, and requirements will need to follow such changes!?