Theory of Knowledge Exhibition - Biology

Dr. Bikash Patnaik

IA prompt 23: How important are material tools in the production or acquisition
of knowledge?

Optional Theme: Knowledge and Technology

Object 1: A mouse with a microbead injected into its eye to induce glaucoma:
YUANCHENG LU/SINCLAIR LAB

My first object that I have chosen is how researchers repaired what is otherwise irreversible
damage in the animals’ ocular neurons, by activating transcription factors ordinarily used to
generate induced pluripotent stem cells using advanced material tools in the production of
knowledge. Harvard Medical School geneticist David Sinclair and his colleagues aimed to reset the
biological clocks of a group of cells to see if they could rejuvenate injured and aging cells. They
looked to genes that encode transcription factors that de-differentiate cells. These so-called
Yamanaka factors, named after biologist Shinya Yamanaka, are widely used to generate induced
pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). In a 2016 Cell paper, a different group of scientists had activated
these transcription factors in mice with progeria, a condition that causes premature aging, and found
that the treatment alleviated symptoms and extended their lifespan by a matter of weeks. These
findings raised the possibility that Yamanaka factors could hold the key to counteract aging.
Understanding how technology intersected with systems will help us to comprehend how it
influences the technologies being built today, and the ways people will interact with them in the
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future. Technology plays a significant role in augmenting our senses and making more of the world
knowable. It can bring very small or very large objects into visibility, make very fast or very slow
processes perceptible, reveal invisible relations and render complex phenomena intelligible. In
extending our cognitive abilities, technology enlarges what we can know and transforms how we
can know it.

The advancements in technology, show casing the importance of materials and tools have
enabled us to gain access to a much wider range of knowledge. In a way, knowledge has also
become more "democratic". As seen previously, technology seems to enable the
democratization of knowledge. Knowledge is easily accessible. Less educated, non-expert and
non-elite groups of people can now find knowledge and information that was previously only
available to the few.

Object 2: Future of venom: From deadly bite to healing medicine:

My second object in my exhibition is of deadly snake bite venom leading to the production of healing
medicine. Although venom has been used in the past for curing pain, it has been a novel idea for
uses such as potential cancer treatment. Some planned strategies for treating cancer with venom is
trying to use tagged gold nanoparticles with snake venom with aid of materials and tools. Bhowmik
et al. (2014) found that the use of venom in this particular way increased the venom uptake by
tumor cells, leaving no side effects or damage to healthy cells. More and more research is being
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 conducted on the potential of venom for cancer treatment with advancement of technology in the
field of Biology which previously was unthinkable. Professor F. Markland from the University of
Southern California is leading the way in breast cancer research using copperhead snake venom.
He is investigating whether a protein found in this snake, called contortrostatin, is an effective
attacker to cancer cells which will prevent the rapid spread of cancer cells in patients. Advances in
the field of molecular biology continue to give researchers better ways to understand venoms and
their targets (i.e., tumor cells). This could mean that in the near future there could be something as
a simple spray created from snake venom to stop bleeding at accident scenes, and peptides
derived from the deadly mamba to stop heart failure.

While this progress is exciting, artificial intelligence using advanced materials and tools is not a
universal replacement for our investigations of the natural world, nor is it the only way to develop
cures for human diseases. At times, it may not be technically useful or even ethically sound. As we
continue to reap the benefits of this technology and increasingly incorporate it into our daily lives,
we must continue having conversations about the design, implementation, and ethics of innovations
in synthetic biology and technology; we stand on the precipice of a new age for science and
humanity. 

Object 3: Two petty theft arrests:Two Petty Theft Arrests

L OW   R I S K 3
VERNON PRATER

HIGH RISK 8
BRISHA BORDEN
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My third object is the use of a computer program algorithm to predict the likelihood of each
committing a future crime. Borden – who is black- was rated a high risk. Prater who is white – was
rated a low risk. 41-year-old Vernon Prater was picked up for shoplifting from a nearby Home
Depot. Prater was the more seasoned criminal. He had already been convicted of armed robbery for
which he served five years in prison. Broden had a record too, but it was for misdemeanors
committed when she was juvenile. Two years later, the computer algorithm got it exactly backward.
Borden has not been charged with any new crimes. Prater is serving an eight-year prison term for
subsequently breaking into a warehouse and stealing thousands of dollars’ worth of electronics.
Scores like this- known as risk assessments – are increasingly common in courtrooms across USA.
They are used to inform decisions about who can be set free at every stage of the criminal justice
system. In Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Virginia, Washington and
Wisconsin, the results of such assessments are given to judges during criminal sentencing.

Technology can both drive and hinder the equal access to knowledge. In addition to ethical
questions regarding fair and equal access to knowledge, new technology has given rise to
other important moral discussions. Some of these relate to data gathering and the notion of
objectivity. Others touch upon individual freedom and the use of algorithms to describe human
behaviour. Technology is sometimes used to understand human behaviour or to gather data
on human behaviour. On the one hand, this may seem harmless and even useful, because it
seems to remove a great deal of human bias. For example, if an AI "calculates", describes and
predicts behavioural traits, it may be better at this job than a human being. After all, AI
systems are fast and can process a much wider range of data than a human researcher.
However, technology may give us the illusion of objectivity. Once the original human input is
no longer visible, we tend to forget that it was once there.

Digital technologies see much more than physical appearance. They include behavioural insights
into our likes, uses of language and reactions, interactions and relationships. Consider, for instance,
the use of algorithms in criminal justice that calculate the likelihood an accused will reoffend (called
recidivism risk): this risk score feeds into other algorithms that suggest the length of the prison
sentence. The tragic irony is that longer prison sentences have been shown to increase the rates of
recidivism. And so, technology in the US prison system has been shown to discriminate along
ethnic and economic class lines. People of colour tend to receive a higher recidivism risk score,
which means they tend to be given longer prison sentences, which, due to the internalized
experience of prison, means they have fewer opportunities once released and contribute to higher
recidivism risk scores for others in their neighbourhood. This vicious feedback loop is one of many
that has resulted in the grossly disproportionate incarceration of black men in the United States.

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References:

Genetic reprogramming restores vision in mice: Study. (2020, December 6). The Scientist

Magazine®. https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/genetic-reprogramming-restores-

vision-in-mice-study-68232

Revolutionizing the future of the flu, cancer, snake bites, and more - Google search. (n.d.).

Google. https://www.google.com/search?q=Revolutionizing+the+future+of+the+flu,+cancer,

+snake+bites,

+and+more&rlz=1C1CHWL_enIN926IN926&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi

3vKPvssXuAhXPVisKHevJBTUQ_AUoAnoECAIQBA#imgrc=dzuSj_W09NXl1M

Future of venom: From deadly bite to healing medicine. (2017, February 1). Ecology for

Life. https://ecologyforlifeblog.wordpress.com/2017/02/01/future-of-venom-from-deadly-bite-

to-healing-medicine/

Machine bias. (2016, May 23). ProPublica. https://www.propublica.org/article/machine-bias-risk-

assessments-in-criminal-sentencing