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Provocative Questions
Science can help us understand many issues, but cannot solve all of them. In this Hall of Human Life activity, you will investigate and make decisions about important scientific policy questions that affect not just ourselves, but our entire communities. You will be provided with scientific evidence about all aspects of the issue. Then, use your personal experiences underlying social values to come to a decision. Explore our current and past provocative questions below.
Sports where players have an increased likelihood of getting hit in the head by a ball or another player are called high concussion risk sports. They include football, soccer, ice hockey, and lacrosse. A concussion occurs when a blow to the head causes the brain to move inside the skull. It can cause damage to blood vessels and nerves. Should sports with high concussion risk be banned for youth 14 years and under?
Distracted driving causes over 1,000 injuries and nine fatalities every day in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Some systems respond when they detect distraction by alerting the driver or taking control of the vehicle. Should cars be required to include driver monitoring technology?
Mosquitoes can carry serious diseases, including the Zika virus, malaria, dengue fever, and West Nile virus. To stop the spread of these diseases, scientists can modify the genes of mosquitoes to engineer males that cannot reproduce, females that cannot fly, or adults that pass on virus-resistant genes to offspring. Should genetically modified mosquitoes be used to control disease?
There is an ongoing revolution in the world of personal genomics. The cost of decoding a genome is rapidly decreasing, and our knowledge of the information contained in those genes is rapidly increasing. As genome sequencing becomes more and more accessible, we are faced with new decisions. Should parents know the genome of their future or newborn child?