Editing the Biosphere: The Challenges of CRISPRing Non-Humans
MEETING FOR THE WEEK OF JANUARY 9, 2023
This Meeting at a Glance:
Program: Editing the Biosphere: The Challenges of CRISPRing Non-Humans
Speaker: Hank Greely
Is this your first time to visit us? If so, welcome to our weekly online meeting! To complete our meeting, please continue reading from here to the bottom of this page. Each Monday our week’s meeting is posted early in the morning, U.S. Pacific Time. These meetings are designed so that you can read and watch what we post anytime during the week. The entire meeting takes about 60 minutes to complete, with the video conference recording of the program being the bulk of the time. Note that you can easily read this meeting with your favorite device, so feel free to take our meeting on the go with you. Please also make sure to complete the attendance form at the bottom and leave a comment. Enjoy!
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Message from our President
Dear members and friends,
Happy New Year to you all! How were your holiday celebrations? Are you back into the swing of things or still taking it slowly?
During this break, I have been reflecting on all that we have accomplished since the start of the Rotary year. Our club has seen significant change and expansion in the past six months. Among some of the highlights, we invigorated our membership and engagement efforts ⎯ We inducted four new members and had one of our long-serving members, Phil Dean, awarded the Paul Harris Fellow recognition. In addition, we hosted FANTASTICALLY FUN club socials, including the Italy-themed online social and the annual Holiday party.
I am also pleased to share that our social media presence has grown, and we're exploring new strategies to reach our target audience and drive traffic to our website and programs.
Our objective to disseminate healthcare information and increase awareness was backed by some of our fantastic programs, which were carefully arranged by our Programs Committee. And speaking of healthcare, I'd like to request your assistance in inviting healthcare experts to speak to our club. Our goal is to establish a virtual community where healthcare experts, club members, and general program viewers can talk to one another about how to best address health needs. The spread of the coronavirus has accelerated the adoption of digital health, a term that encompasses a wide range of technologies and services, such as those used in telemedicine and teleconsultation. Being a technologically savvy club has its benefits, so why not put those skills to use by assisting in closing the gap between healthcare knowledge and innovation?
Finally, the Mini e-Grants project is back, and I couldn't be happier to share the news with you. This initiative has been laboriously developed by our club's Rotary Foundation Committee, and is now accessible to all club members. For those who are new to our Club, this program grants USD $1,000 to club members who want to do community service projects with a partner organization (who also needs to contribute at least USD$1,000). In the last few years, we've seen people from all around the globe produce some amazing results! This is a great opportunity to do service in your community or in any community around the world!
In 2023, we have the opportunity to rededicate ourselves to Rotary and to our fellow club members. Join our initiatives, and please don't forget to invite a friend (or two, three...or more) to one of our programs or social event this year so that we can all spread the word about what a wonderful organization Rotary is.
If you're reading this and you are not already a member, I hope you'll consider making a new year's resolution to "do good" by joining our Rotary family in 2023. When it comes to making an international impact, serving with passion, and bonding with people from all over the globe, trust me…we are the best!
Please accept my sincere gratitude for your membership in our club. Again, I hope this new year brings you all the best in health and happiness.
Yours in Rotary Service,
Angelica Marotta, PhD
President 2022-2023 Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley
Rotary International District 5170
WEEKLY FUNNY WITH SHAGS
We believe laughter is an important part of life, and we should all make time to laugh a little. This segment of our meeting is meant to tickle you just enough. These funnies are curated by member Steven "Shags" Shagrin!
Crossing the Border
An elderly couple was crossing the Canadian border to go to their winter recluse in Florida. At the crossing they were stopped by an over- zealous border guard, on his first day at work. He commenced to ask the couple a battery of questions.
The husband, on behalf of his almost deaf wife, answered the barrage of queries.
Officer: "Where are you going?"
Husband: "We're on vacation and going to Florida."
Wife: "What did he say? What did he say?"
Husband: "He wants to know where we're going."
Officer: "How long will you be gone?"
Husband: "About one month."
Wife: "What did he say? What did he say?"
Husband: "He wants to know how long we'll be gone."
Officer: "Where are you from?"
Husband: "We're from Toronto, Ontario."
Officer: "Toronto, huh. I was there once. Nice city. Had the worst romantic experience in my life."
Wife: "What did he say? What did he say?"
Husband: "He says he knows you!"
INSPIRATION
Every week we share a short video highlighting innovation, education, entrepreneurship, or whatever we think might inspire you to see the world in new ways.
This video is a stop-motion piece called "Stand" - think the noun, not the verb. Exactly how cypress has to be cut, I can't tell you, but it's fascinating to watch.
LEARN SOMETHING NEW
Secret Self Defense Gadgets That Will Keep You Safe Everytime
It's a crazy world out there and you can't be too careful. People have been killed for pocket change. Stay safe, friends!
SERVICE REPORT
Tell us about service you’ve done recently in your community.
Click here to fill out The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley Service Survey
HAPPY DOLLARS: Do Good by Sharing Something Good
Each week we ask our members to share stories with the club and toss in a few dollars to support our efforts. The primary goal of this section is to provide a fun way of getting to know each fellow members and guests, while giving back to a good cause.
Happy dollars is an opportunity to share something positive that has happened in your life whether it is personal or business. Think of it as your opportunity to brag a little, but also put a little bit into a karma jar. The money donated through happy dollars is put to charitable use, and the message that you leave for happy dollars will be posted in our online meeting the following week for the entire week for folks to see! (Pending that it’s appropriate!)
Here are the happy dollars contributions from last week!
This section is usually updated in the early hours of Saturday, so contributions made over the weekend may not be listed here.
PROGRAM: Editing the Biosphere: The Challenges of CRISPRing Non-Humans
SPEAKER: Hank Greely
Every week we bring to you a new program on innovation, entrepreneurship, and education, and how those contribute to service to others.
The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley seeks to explore perspectives on service from across the world. The views of the speakers in our programs are their own, and unless stated otherwise, are not necessarily reflective of the views of our eClub nor Rotary International.
If you have an idea for a cool speaker, please feel free to reach out to them directly or submit THIS FORM so our Program Committee can contact them!
With the advent of CRISPR ("Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats"), genome editing has become substantially cheaper, faster, and easier, across all species. CRISPR is being used in tens of thousands of labs, in myriad high school classrooms, and by "biohacking" amateurs. Humans will be risk averse about editing ourselves, but much less constrained about editing other species. We will rewrite the DNA of the world's biosphere, for reasons good, bad, and frivolous. And our current regulatory system is nowhere near prepared to handle this. This talk will explore the challenges - and opportunities - this technology will bring.
Our speaker, Henry T. (Hank) Greely, is the Deane F. and Kate Edelman Johnson Professor of Law; Professor, by courtesy, of Genetics; and Director of the Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford University. He specializes in ethical, legal, and social issues arising from the biosciences, particularly genetics, neuroscience, stem cell research, and assisted reproduction. He is a founder and a past President of the International Neuroethics Society; chairs the California Advisory Committee on Human Stem Cell Research; and chairs the Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues Committee of the Earth BioGenome Project. He is the author of The End Of Sex and The Future of Human Reproduction (Harv. Univ. Press 2016) and CRISPR People: The Science And Ethics Of Editing Humans (MIT Press 2021).
Greely graduated from Stanford in 1974 and Yale Law School in 1977. He clerked for Judge John Minor Wisdom of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and Justice Potter Stewart, then served in the Departments of Defense and Energy in the Carter Administration. He was a litigator at the Los Angeles firm of Tuttle & Taylor before joining the Stanford faculty in 1985.
Members and guests, please welcome Hank Greely!
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UPCOMING PROGRAM RECORDING SCHEDULE
All of our guest speakers and programs are recorded live online over Zoom video conference. We welcome members and guests to join us in one of these upcoming recordings. Recordings are approximately 30 minutes long and are subject to change without notice.
Our online video conference room link for these recordings is always http://zoom.siliconvalleyrotary.com/. You are welcome to join us! Please note the timezone listed for all recordings is US Pacific Time (San Francisco, California, USA).
If you can’t join the live recording, please send your questions for an upcoming speaker to programs@siliconvalleyrotary.com.
THE ATTENDANCE SURVEY
Thanks for reading and watching this week’s meeting. You have two last things to do before you’re done.
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