In 2007, nineteen environmentalist rode 1300 km to reach Alberta’s imfamous tar sands, stopping along the way to ask communities how the tar sands have affected them.

To The Tar Sands is a documentary of their journey that was directed and produced by UBC School of Journalism student Jodie Martinson. It highlights some of the inherent contradictions in this massive mining project while remaining fair and balanced in its coverage.

I was at the UBC screening of To The Tar Sands on January 20 and recorded a podcast for the Thunderbird.

My aim was to give listeners a sense of the breadth of the film, and to show how one of the film’s main characters feels about the implications the tar sands have for all Canadians.

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The media is trumpeting the coming of a pre-natal test for autism.

Simon Baron-Cohen, developmental psychologist and author of the article on which all this hype is based, said that his research is about finding the cause of autism and is not motivated by developing a pre-natal test for autism.

Doesn’t one follow from the other? Regardless of Baron-Cohen’s research motivations, he has no control over the implications of his findings.

A story in Nature today looks at Baron-Cohen’s controversial ‘extreme male brain’ theory of autism, and highlights the opposition from the scientific community.

Another story in the Guardian questions the reliability and safety of such a test, if it were ever developed.

This touches on yesterday’s post about designer babies.

The tools to design are being crafted faster than anyone could imagine.

New research has linked high levels of testosterone in amniotic fluid, the liquid the bathes the fetus, to autism.

Sarah Boseley, health editor at the Guardian, said how it could be used as a pre-natal test for autism in an interview today.

It’s well worth 2:38 of your time. Boseley also squeezes in a few interesting subtleties that could be missed by such a test.

Designer babies have hit a new milestone—they can come breast cancer-free.

Well, not exactly.

A British baby girl has been born without the BRCA1 gene that is linked to breast cancer. That in itself is not special, however, the embryo she grew from was specially selected for because it didn’t have the defective BRCA1 gene.

Her story made headlines and raised concerns about designer babies. As always, people are asking (or are afraid to ask), what’s next? (more…)

Dr. Elizabeth Simpson is leading a project that is developing tools that will improve gene therapy and help treat brain disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

The Pleiades Promoter Project is based at the University of British Columbia’s Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics in Vancouver.

I had the chance to speak to Beth about the project. Have a listen or download the first Science Perspectives podcast:

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