Part V by Susan Holt Coordinating Mentor New York State Biology Mentor Network

Scientific Literacy - Applications

Scientific literacy means more than being able to design and conduct experiments. You must also be able to understand how scientific research affects your life and your decisions. Consider each of these mini-cases and indicate what you think should be done in each situation. Be prepared to share your answers with your classmates.

1. A researcher working for an herbal medicine company conducts an experiment on 10 middle-aged men. He tells them that he is testing an herbal medication that scientists think will make people feel more energetic. He instructs them to take one herbal medicine tablet a day for one week. After a week he asks them if they feel more energetic. He reports that 9 out of 10 people feel more energetic after taking the medication.
    
   Would you buy this medication? Explain why or why not.
    
2. A college professor noticed that the men and women in her class usually formed male-only or female-only groups. She wondered if pheromones would encourage gender mixed groups. Without explaining what she was doing, she asked the women in the class if they would like to try a free sample of a new perfume. She did not tell them that the perfume contained a pheromone that attracted members of the opposite sex.
    
   Do you think this is appropriate? Explain why or why not.
    
3. Scientists have discovered a medicine that they feel has the potential to cure a deadly form of childhood cancer. They need to test the medicine to be sure that it is safe and effective.
    
   Should they test this medicine on animals before they begin tests on humans? Explain why or why not.
    
4. Parkinson's disease is a progressive neurological disease that gradually destroys a person's control of voluntary movements. Scientists have tested a treatment for Parkinson's disease in monkeys who showed disease symptoms. They drilled holes in the skulls of two randomly selected groups of monkeys. The experimental group had fetal tissue injected into their brains. The control group had distilled water injected into their brains. The treatment was 80% effective in treating the symptoms of the disease in monkeys. You have recently been diagnosed as having Parkinson's disease. Researchers have asked you to participate in their clinical trials to test the fetal tissue transplant treatment.
    
   Would you agree to become a subject in these clinical trials? Explain why or why not.
    
5. Scientists are conducting a long-term (3-year) double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial on a chemotherapy they hope will cure prostate cancer. They want to determine if the chemotherapy is safe and effective. They randomly assign patients to be members of the experimental or control group. After six months they found that early treatment with the chemotherapy results in a 90% cure rate with no dangerous side effects.
    
   Should they offer the medicine to people in the control group now or continue the research as planned? Explain why or why not.
    
6. Testing and FDA approval are not required for natural herbal medications such as Ginkgo biloba, St. John's wort, and ginseng.
    
   Do you think people should use medicines that don't have FDA approval? Explain why or why not.
    
7. During World War II, unethical scientists did research on the effects of radiation on humans. They used people in concentration camps as their experimental group—exposing them to dangerous does of radiation. The results of these experiments have recently been discovered.
    
   Should this information be released? Explain why or why not.