Subscription 790/year or 195/quarter

Prejudice and ignorance in New Times

Kjetil Korslund's review of my book is a catalog of the worst prejudices and clichés against biomedicine, writes author Bjørn Vassnes.




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

COMMENT by Bjørn Vassness:

Ny Tid is indeed the newspaper of the party most hostile to knowledge in the Storting, but I still didn't think it was possible to use state support for as much stupidity and dishonesty as the newspaper's employee Korslund performs in his article «The wonderful new world of biology». But the article is perhaps a good picture of the science phobia and old-fashionedness that characterizes SV at the moment.

The article is a catalog of the worst prejudices and clichés against biomedicine. The title is taken from Huxley, subtitles such as "The Boys from Brazil", "Tabloid bio-ethics", "Disinformation to the public", "The gene for this and the gene for that" and "St. Darwin still popular", are actually illustrative of the author's level of knowledge and argumentation.

Korslund writes a lot about the media mostly presenting simplified and "misrepresented" "good news" from biomedical research – but gives no examples, apart from one. And this, to be sure, is wrong: He writes that "in the late 1960s, a possible connection between the XYY chromosome and criminal behavior was widely reported all over the world. This theory was already falsified at the beginning of the 1970s, but not many people know about this".

First, XYY is not one chromosome, but a combination of three, and not least: two copies of the "male" chromosome Y. There is usually only one of this in men, and the extra chromosome causes problems for some. It is expected that en out of a thousand men have this combination. What Korslund refers to is an article from 1965 that showed men with the XYY combination were overrepresented in the Scottish prison studied (seven out of 197 inmates, which is far more than one in a thousand). This has never been "falsified", as Korslund claims. What has been debated, however, is whether this overrepresentation is due to a higher level of aggression or other factors, such as lower intelligence (which XXY carriers often, but not always, have).

Korslund's only "witness of the truth" on how "uncritical" research journalism is, is another American book from 1987, in which the author "shows" that such journalism "is often uncritical". Again without giving examples. Otherwise, note the use of the word "shows", as in the case of natural science research journalism is a sign of uncriticalness!

Most of Korslund's "criticism" is aimed at something that no biologists or medics claim: That there should be one gene for everything possible: the "gay gene", the "obesity gene", the "breast cancer gene", etc. In connection with Icelandic deCode, he tells us something "new": "The problem is that most common diseases are multifactorial. A particular gene variant need not be more than one among many relevant factors behind a disease picture.' Something that everyone who works in medical genetics realized decades ago is freely used as proof of how foolish they are!

That one gene alone cannot explain, for example, schizophrenia, does not mean that gene research is useless, as Korslund seems to argue. It will be the same as saying that there is no point in learning anything about how the car engine works, because there can be so many things that go wrong anyway. Connections between gene variants and diseases – including those with lifestyle as a contributing cause – will be one of the most important tools for the medicine of the future. Korslund believes that genetic testing for serious diseases will be a "total waste", and thus reveals that he himself is a genetic determinist: "If you have the genes for a disease, there is still nothing to do". But it is precisely those who know that they are predisposed to a disease who benefit from this knowledge: there are few diseases for which it is not possible to reduce the risk. This is precisely what will become the medicine of the future: That you can prevent and fight diseases in a more targeted way, because you have knowledge of your own genetic disposition. But the fact that he has no knowledge of any of the most important aspects of today's biomedicine does not prevent Korslund from condemning it.

Korslund ends with a strange tribute to the totalitarian philosopher Plato, who he believes "maintains style", while the speed of circulation of scientific "truths" is getting faster and faster. With this, he shows both that he has not understood how scientific knowledge building takes place, as well as a naive belief in the "truths" of philosophy. The reason why Plato, with his elitist opinions about slaves, women and the "berm", among other things, still "holds the style", is that philosophy and the human sciences precisely do not have the mechanisms for self-criticism and renewal that the natural sciences have. No natural scientist claims that they manage the Truth, but the critical, collective knowledge building that has characterized the natural sciences since Galileo has nevertheless given us a lot of knowledge we can trust. Even Korslund probably flies now and then. And he is certainly not going to refuse help from biomedicine on the day he needs it.

That the article is ignorant is as far as expected from Ny Tid. More unexpected is the dishonesty: Korslund tries to cast doubt on the thoroughness of my book by writing that "the book has neither a bibliography nor an index" – and "forgets" to mention that it has full source references, which is probably the most important thing. There is not much point in a bibliography in a field where there are almost no books (this is the first in Norwegian and one of the first in the world). At least not in a popular science book, and perhaps this is what Korslund means when when he writes it is "somewhat vulgar" – again without giving a single example. It's so much easier to just spread characteristics.

Bjørn Vassnes, author of The Renewable Human – stem cells and the search for eternal life.



Follow editor Truls Lie on X(twitter) or Telegram

- self-advertisement -

Recent Comments:

Siste artikler

Lies, luxury and endless war

CORRUPTION: Alexis Bloom's gripping exposé of the web of lies that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has apparently woven to avoid corruption charges shows how one man's fear of prison has led to war and instability in the Middle East. It's about a man whose ego has grown to the point where he sees himself as a kind of King David figure leading the Jewish people to salvation.

Thousands are considered 'fifth columnists'

SURVEILLANCE: In September 1973, the commander, grenadiers and privates of one of the Norwegian Armed Forces squadrons in Northern Norway were handed five different documents by the camp's security officer. The papers were marked "Internal note" and included, among other things, a list of 17 different organizations and 3 magazines that allegedly contained potential 'fifth columnists'. The Women's Front, the Cultural Front, the Vietnam Solidarity Committee, the Student Union Front, the Palestine Committee, the Campaign for Norway Out of NATO, the Traffic Action and 'A Place to Be' are among the organizations mentioned.

Working for peace

GAZA: The conflict in Gaza is horrific for all innocent people. But what enables an Israeli family to muster the political will and pressure to have their daughter released within two months, while thousands of Palestinians who were arrested and imprisoned without charge or trial during the war remain voiceless?

The postmodern and houses of worship

ARCHITECTURE: Sacred Modernity contains 139 images of modern churches. One could perhaps say that the book reflects the barren and displaced soul of humanity, the new society of stunned strangers…

Is liberal democracy dead?

POWER:Today's autocratic regimes have turned what was once a domestic policy into a foreign policy doctrine. Autocracy Inc. is brilliant and terrifying from Anne Applebaum.

Female cartoonists

POLITICAL SATIRE: We watch the TV series that analyzes the courage of press cartoonists and the relevance of their work in the democratic struggle and in the defense of the rights of individuals and especially women.

Seeds are politics and big business

FOOD: The main theme of this film is the hybridization of seeds, using the tomato plant as an example. The point of hybridizing seeds is increased yield and increased profits. The companies behind it are Bayer (Monsanto), Corteva (formerly DuPont) and Syngenta.

When propaganda took over the schools

RUSSIA: How a small-town teaching assistant became a whistleblower about the grim reality of war propaganda.

I was completely out of the world

Essay: The author Hanne Ramsdal tells here what it means to be put out of action – and come back again. A concussion leads, among other things, to the brain not being able to dampen impressions and emotions.

Silently disciplining research

PRIORITIES: Many who question the legitimacy of the US wars seem to be pressured by research and media institutions. An example here is the Institute for Peace Research (PRIO), which has had researchers who have historically been critical of any war of aggression – who have hardly belonged to the close friends of nuclear weapons.

Is Spain a terrorist state?

SPAIN: The country receives sharp international criticism for the police and the Civil Guard's extensive use of torture, which is never prosecuted. Regime rebels are imprisoned for trifles. European accusations and objections are ignored.

Is there any reason to rejoice over the coronary vaccine?

COVID-19: There is no real skepticism from the public sector about the coronary vaccine – vaccination is recommended, and the people are positive about the vaccine. But is the embrace of the vaccine based on an informed decision or a blind hope for a normal everyday life?

The military commanders wanted to annihilate the Soviet Union and China, but Kennedy stood in the way

Military: We focus on American Strategic Military Thinking (SAC) from 1950 to the present. Will the economic war be supplemented by a biological war?

homesickness

Bjørnboe: In this essay, Jens Bjørneboe's eldest daughter reflects on a lesser – known psychological side of her father.

Arrested and put on smooth cell for Y block

Y-Block: Five protesters were led away yesterday, including Ellen de Vibe, former director of the Oslo Planning and Building Agency. At the same time, the Y interior ended up in containers.

A forgiven, refined and anointed basket boy

Pliers: The financial industry takes control of the Norwegian public.

Michael Moore's new film: Critical to alternative energy

EnvironmentFor many, green energy solutions are just a new way to make money, says director Jeff Gibbs.

The pandemic will create a new world order

Mike Davis: According to activist and historian Mike Davis, wild reservoirs, like bats, contain up to 400 types of coronavirus that are just waiting to spread to other animals and humans.

The shaman and the Norwegian engineer

cohesion: The expectation of a paradise free of modern progress became the opposite, but most of all, Newtopia is about two very different men who support and help each other when life is at its most brutal.

Skinless exposure

Anorexia: shameless uses Lene Marie Fossen's own tortured body as a canvas for grief, pain and longing in her series of self portraits – relevant both in the documentary self Portrait and in the exhibition Gatekeeper.