Foreword: Welcome to Project BioLogical

“The future has arrived. It’s just not evenly distributed yet,” sci-fi author William Gibson says on air. His words are timely: new anti-aging cell therapies are gifted to first world countries, while entire regions struggle to combat and contain waterborne illnesses that much of the world have forgotten since the turn of the century. And even as medical research continues at breakneck speed, millions around the world still lack access to basic medicines. These disheartening comparisons are only some examples of the large accessibility gulf facing the sciences today. Science and society are perpetually catalysing one another’s development, but also forcing one another into conflict and paradox. When a clash of interests arise, who do we prioritise? When new medicines are created, how do we gauge the dangers and benefits of them?

The real answer is that there is no objective answer. What is important, however, is to understand the principles upon which we can begin to evaluate these scenarios.

Welcome to Project BioLogical. Here, we break down the newest developments in the biological sciences, ranging from the environment to biochemistry and medicine. Want to stay up to date with fresh research in easily-understandable language, learn the principles and ethics underpinning the life science and medical industries, and figure out how to apply this knowledge in your daily lives? Or maybe you’re a student looking for teaching materials to help you get through the A-levels and olympiads. In that case, we’re the blog for you.

Biology is what we believe to be one of the sciences that is most intimate to the human heart (no pun intended). We may not appreciate the intricacies of gravitational fields or think about cis-trans isomerism on a daily basis, but when we do it is often in the context of what it does to our bodies, bringing the microscopic to the macroscopic. After all, it took the debate about cis and trans fats to bring enantiomerism to the public eye.

When it comes to what happens to our bodies, we care. Pollutants, novel drugs and treatment methods are things that the average person worries about. We get anxious when we notice our loved ones growing old and think about how to care for them in their golden years as the body and mind deteriorates, and when we see mutated pathogens erupting into epidemics over the news and wonder how our own societies will respond if they reach us again, the same way the Covid-19 pandemic impacted us.

We worry, too, about the environment. The media often feeds us eye-catchingly terrifying stories about wildfires, ecological catastrophes born out of poaching, dumping or some other human neglect, and yet also hopeful stories of new species being discovered or research on microorganisms that allow us to approach industrial processes with a new and greener lens.

But the problem is often that we struggle to understand just how to put all the pieces together to know how exactly the latest scientific news will impact us in our daily lives. That is where Project BioLogical steps in.

Science in a vacuum is without purpose; science built into our way of life becomes meaningful. With Project BioLogical, we don’t just approach content, we approach content along with the ethical, social and economic implications they carry.

In the United States, for instance, changes have been made to laws regarding drugs and abortion raising a great deal of controversy. So have bans worldwide on various other procedures such as euthanasia. While no one can give an explanation for these procedures’ moral soundness that will satisfy everyone, we can understand the fundamental points of conflict that underpin such debates. The medical principles of autonomy and consent, beneficence and maleficence (helping and harming people) as well as justice are interpreted differently by different people, even if we have various ways of trying to interpret them1. Do we weigh the benefit to the mother or the harm to the unborn baby more in the case of abortion? How can we be certain that the benefit to a patient asking for euthanasia is enough to say that killing them is justified?

Such problems have been raging ever since the dawn of scientific practice dealing with life, for it is in such science that we face the question of whose lives we are putting at stake. Often it is people, whether we are investigating the environment or medicinal sciences. Even in ancient Greece, humanity was questioning how to make decisions on problems like the privacy of patients, or the use of procedures to induce death and abortion. This was how the Hippocratic Oath was born, one of the most famous medical texts to ever have been written2.

Here, we present all of this for you in friendly, digestible chunks. Issue 1 is coming soon, and you will find a wide variety of topics to cover, from how DNA can be folded like origami to the science behind the latest Nobel prize in chemistry. We’ve even got our study buddies section, coming up soon, where you can access materials to help you out if you’re a student looking to prepare for exams. Hopefully, you’ll find a column for you right away.

Subscribe to Project BioLogical today, and we’ll see you soon in Issue 1!

References:

1. Varkey, B. (2020). Principles of clinical ethics and their application to practice. Medical principles and practice : international journal of the Kuwait University, Health Science Centre. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7923912/

2. North, M. (2002). Greek Medicine. History of Medicine Division: National Library of Medicine