{"id":45557,"date":"2023-06-19T17:06:39","date_gmt":"2023-06-19T17:06:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/?p=45557"},"modified":"2023-06-19T17:06:40","modified_gmt":"2023-06-19T17:06:40","slug":"biology-politics-gain-of-function-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/biology-politics-gain-of-function-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Biology, politics: gain-of-function research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2>Self-tutoring about biology and politics: the tutor stumbles on something perhaps surprising.<\/h2>\n<p>\nI used to be a news consumer: I mainly watched CNN. By and large, the news made sense to me until the meltdown in &#8217;08. 2009-2010, nothing seemed to change anymore, so I watched the news less and less. It was an easier habit to break than I thought it would be. Family life was busy, anyway.<\/p>\n<p>\nNow, my kids are grown up and in college. Between yard work, car repair, general house chores, and other research, I&#8217;ve put my toe in the water once again: I do read the news sometimes. On Edge, I see headlines every time I open a new tab, so a few I do read.<\/p>\n<p>\nWhile the news seemed to make sense back in 2006 (for instance), it often doesn&#8217;t now. (This is just my point of view, of course.) I&#8217;ll save other examples perhaps for other posts. Today&#8217;s topic I stumbled upon is gain-of-function research, which reached my attention <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-ca\/news\/world\/rand-paul-rips-bill-gates-alleged-tie-to-gain-of-function-research-funding-the-biggest-danger-to-mankind\/ar-AA1cHL81?ocid=msedgntp&#038;cvid=a772826755d34c6db328e3f216de7fde&#038;ei=29\">thanks to Fox News and Senator Rand Paul.<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p>\nI didn&#8217;t know what gain-of-function research is, so had to look it up. Apparently, it&#8217;s research that leads disease-causing micro-organisms to evolve so they become more dangerous (more contagious, more virulent, etc). Theoretically, this is all done in confined, controlled conditions.<\/p>\n<p>\nRand Paul thinks funding of gain-of-function research should be curtailed &#8211; slashed, perhaps. To me, that&#8217;s not hard to understand. What&#8217;s perhaps more difficult to understand is that such research is going on.<\/p>\n<p>\nSource:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.news-medical.net\/health\/What-is-Gain-of-Function-Research.aspx\">news-medical.net<\/a><\/p>\nJack of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\">Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane,<\/a> Campbell River, BC.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Self-tutoring about biology and politics: the tutor stumbles on something perhaps surprising. I used to be a news consumer: I mainly watched CNN. By and large, the news made sense to me until the meltdown in &#8217;08. 2009-2010, nothing seemed &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/biology-politics-gain-of-function-research\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Biology, politics: gain-of-function research<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[219],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45557"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45565,"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45557\/revisions\/45565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}