4 - The Michigan Daily - Monday, July 3, 2000 Edited and managed by GEOFF GAGNON PETER CUNNIFFE students at thed Editor in Chief JOSH WICKERHAI University of Michigan o t Editorial Page Editors Unless otherwise notedunsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the 420 Maynard Street najority of the Daili 2 editorial board. All other articles. etters and Ann Arbor, M l 48109 cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of T Ie ichigan Daily Nffuch long-winded and inspirational promise of the Utopia under a harnessed preaching has been launched in recent - atom. Putting aside the possibilities of war weeks following the nearly complete map- and nuclear waste, they were largely ignorant ping of the human genome. The working of the death and destruction their discoveries draft, nearly 85 percent complete, presents (ri~ em n i~ m e s would bring. formidable challenges to nearly every level Genom e m appings implications Immense The dialogue on the Human Genome has of academic discipline, and promises to begun. Still several years from completion, touch every aspect of life. This new "code of The implications of genetic alteration, if mating the University's commitment in the the human race has enough time to reassess life" will inspire art, poetry, philosophy and carried to their fullest extent, mean the trans- $500 to $700 million dollar range when all its role in creating the genetic technologies science alike. But the real task and the real formation of the human species. Not only major components are in place. and modifications that will allow us to peer danger of opening and transforming the very will many otherwise incurable diseases be With such high stakes riding on the into the very essence of life. The continued being of humanity lies in maintaining this eliminated, but real genetic change will soon University's role in this research, as well as thrust of intellectuals, artists and scientists in veritable genetic gold mine as a distinctly be implemented as reality. The debate on the the promise of collectively transcending determining the benefits and consequences public enterprise with a long-sighted vision steps being taken toward altering what it what it means to be human through the use of understanding the machinery of life will of the future it promises to alter. means to be human cannot be allowed to fall of genetic technology, the cross disciplinary determine the direction humanity takes. Already, concerns have been raised solely in the hands of entities interested in nature of the Life Sciences Institute seems With the true promise and capacity of recently over miscalculations and rushed ini- fiscal gain. Without abreadth of vision, play- the best approach to understanding the genetics beginning to manifest itself, neu. tiatives to profit from patented genes. ing god with our own genetic material is an Human Genome in all its intricacy rules must not be created by scientists or Corporations involved in gene patenting, led undoubtedly dangerous enterprise. But perhaps the initiative does not go far businessmen alone. Concentrating the power to the brink of hubris by the promise of dol- The importance of initiatives such as the enough. To be truly cross disciplinary, the of the Genome Project solely in the hands of lar signs, came under fire for possible mis- Life Sciences Institute at the University - initiative must encompass philosophy, art corporate interests, government or military calculations and misidentification of genes an umbrella organization and $90 million and science cohesively. Tinkering with the programs or even the leadership of science is involved in the transmission of the AIDS research complex comprised of researchers machinery of life is not a task left solely in dangerous. There is no certain path on the virus. Promising a cure for AIDS and other in medicine, engineering, dentistry, public the hands of science and researchers. The genetic road to discovery, so onward we diseases via short-sighted profiteers endan- health and elsewhere - cannot be stressed parallels seen in science's role in the must climb, collectively, bringing to this gers the efforts to understand the workings enough. Another $200 million will be com- Manhattan Project cannot be ignored. The quest the depth of understanding carried of our genetic machinery with their focus on miffed to the project from the University's scientists involved in discovering how to from all disciplines in the pursuit of ou* profit margins. endowment, with President Bollinger esti- split atoms were guided by an almost naive genetically altered future. Life n ? Failing istory Water raises possibility and NASA's profile An ignorant society cannot remain free A lmost overshadowed by the news sur- rounding the human genume project last week was news of another momentous scientific discovery made on the planet Mars. High-resolution images captured by the Mars Global Surveyor revealed surface features suggesting the recent presence of water on the surface of Mars. While Mars' thin atmosphere prevents water from surviv- ing long on the surface, the photographs of channels cut into the Martian landscape sug- gest water could exist just below ground in some places and is seeping out occasionally. The discovery of water - the precursor- to all life as we know it - on Mars has sig- nificant implications. Many have argued that in all the unimaginable vastness of the uni- verse, there must be life elsewhere. Last week's discovery on Mars makes it a possi- bility that we could find at least rudimentary life forms on one of our closest planetary neighbors. And conclusive location of water on Mars also makes future human visits to the planet more plausible. This discovery highlights the important work being done by NASA. The agency's reputation has taken some hits of late through a series of avoidable errors including the loss of the Mars Polar Lander earlier this year because of a missing line of computer code. While this and other mistakes have caused some public and congressional doubt regarding the importance of the space pro- gram and the billions of dollars it consumes, the recent findings on Mars demonstrate that NASA is still doing important work and making significant scientific discoveries. NASA's recent history is marked by some impressive successes and some spectacular failures. The mistakes tend to draw the ire of congressional appropriators who use inci- dents such as the loss of the Mars Polar Lander to justify attempts to slash NASA's budget while its successes usually just buy the agency some time before the next round of threatened cutbacks. NASA clearly needs to improve its record and do more to avoid sloppy and costly human errors that not only waist money, but set back important scientific missions for years and sometimes kill them outright. Pressuring NASA to improve is perfectly understandable, but the continuous imperil- ing of its funding is the wrong way to do so. The exploration of space has lost much of its glamour and public interest over the years, but as recent discoveries - such as the likely presence of water on Mars - demonstrate, the agency continues to pro- duce some of the most astounding and important scientific discoveries in the world. Government funding of scientific research in a world that is increasingly dependent on research-based improvements in technology is already too low. Space exploration is appropriately one of the most highly U.S. government-funded science pro- grams and the resources do not currently exist for NASA's work to be done by private institutions. The benefits of space explo- ration and many other forms of scientific research are not as immediate as many would like, but the work being done at NASA and the nation's other research orga- nizations is steadily increasing our under- standing of our world and the entire uni- verse. The gathering of this priceless knowl- edge is a worthy undertaking that is neces- sary for our continued advancement and is deserving of our full support. G G fhoever controls the past controls. the future. Whoever controls the present controls the past." George Orwell's assessment of the importance of history to the world of the future appar- ently means little to many American col- lege students. According to a study released last week, nearly eighty percent of college seniors from 55 top universi- ties received failing grades on a high school-level American history exam. All of Orwell's dystopian visions aside, the implications of such widespread igno- rance on American history cannot be dis- missed without considering the conse- quences. More than a third of the students did not know the Constitution established the division of power in American govern- ment. Thirty-seven percent said Grant surrendered at Yorktown: But pop culture was no problem, with 99 percent of stu- dents able to identify Beavis and Butthead. While the study was based on a multi- ple choice standardized-style test which contained factoids that might escape a college student's memory (like the names of the Constitutional framers) the overar- ching conclusion is that the future leaders of this nation are leaving school without an adequate understanding of the histori- cal events that established our democracy. This report highlights a dangerous trend of ignorance that leaves our democracy without a stable foundation of knowledge about where it has been and where the future is taking it. The general trend of democratic igno- rance in American life seems compound- ed by the barrage of new information from the sciences, the media, advertising, popular culture and the values of corpo- rate and special interests that gum up th workings of the democratic process with floods of money. The ever more pervasive reach of meaningless pop culture references like Beavis and Butthead certainly con- tributed to the marginalization of our own democratic history and is in part respon- sible -for the ignorance of top college stu- dents made apparent by this study. Th rising tide of trivial information we inundated with makes us blind to more important issues and robs the past of its significance and efficacy. History's cru- cial role in maintaining a free society is an integral portion of free thought. Lest we learn from history, we are bound to repeat its errors. And to quote Thomas Jefferson, "If a nation expects to be igno- rant and free it expects what never was and never will be." The solution to providing a historic safeguard for our democracy is not easy or clear-cut. Finding a way to rectify the problem may lie in more structured and rigorous history requirements in our pub- lic and private universities. Or it may come from a revitalization of democracy that seems absolutely necessary as special interests continue to flood our system with money and corporations control the cul- tural systems that robs us of our herit and values. If the minds of the "leaders and best" from around the nation are not prepared with the necessary historic back- ground in facing challenges for democra- cy, then our freedoms will surely be lost.