Judging Science: Making Judges Scientifically Literate; Eating Like An Animal; Listener Mail

Science Talk

Scientific American

Science

4.2 • 644 Ratings

🗓️ 4 October 2006

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Court cases increasingly deal with complex science and technical issues. And the last time some judges were in a science classroom was before Watson and Crick published the structure of DNA (or at least before the beginning of the Human Genome Project). We'll talk about bringing judges up to science speed with Franklin Zweig and Robert Bell, the chief judge of the Court of Appeals of Maryland. Zweig is the president and Bell is chairman of the board of directors of the Advanced Science and Technology Adjudication Resource, an organization devoted to training judges in science (and the product of a Congressional mandate accompanying the Human Genome Project). Then, in the Ask A Scientist segment, the Wildlife Conservation Society's Paul Calle responds to a listener query about how some animals seemingly eat just about anything without any dire consequences. And we'll take a quick trip through a batch of other questions submitted by listeners. Websites related to this episode include www.einshac.org; www.wcs.org; www.sciam.com/news; blog.sciam.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is presented by eBay.
0:03.7	Rob, everyone loves a deal and a bargain from time to time, don't they? Absolutely, mate. And you know where you can grab a great deal? Talk to me. Where? The eBay app. Yes, you are correct. You didn't need to talk to me. I already knew it. I love eBay. When you're buying, you can discover loads of hidden gems. there's so many items where you think I would have never found that anywhere else.
0:23.7	Then when you're buying, you can discover loads of hidden gems. There's so many items where you think I would have never found that anywhere else. Then when you're selling, it's so simple and most
0:25.9	importantly, free. It's free, Rob. When it's this easy to sell for free and there's great deals
0:31.6	on things you love. You can't help but say when it's eBay. It excludes vehicles and business
0:35.9	sellers.
0:44.2	Welcome to Science Talk, the weekly podcast of Scientific American. For the seven days starting October 4th, I'm Steve Murksky. This week on the podcast, Science and the Law. Starting on
0:50.2	October, judges and lawyers from around the country will attend
0:54.4	four days of science training, getting up to speed on some important current issues in biology,
0:59.7	bioengineering, and medicine.
1:01.5	The sessions are organized by a group called the Advanced Science and Technology Adjudication
1:06.2	Resource, or ASTAR.
1:08.4	Franklin Zweig is ASTAR's president, and Robert Bell, the chief judge of the Court of Appeals of
1:13.5	Maryland, is one of Astar's directors.
1:15.8	The three of us recently shared a conference call.
1:18.3	We'll also talk about eating like an animal in the Ask a Scientist segment, plus we'll share
1:23.1	some listener mail.
1:24.4	First up, Franklin Zweig and Chief Judge Robert Bell.
1:28.7	Gentlemen, thank you very much for being here.
1:30.9	Thanks for having me. Thanks, Steve. This is an unusual opportunity to join science and law.
1:37.3	Dr. Zweig, tell me about ASTAR. What is it? What's the purpose of it? And give me a little of the
1:42.2	history. I know there's some kind of relationship to the Human Genome Project.
	...

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