Ethical Dimension of Genetic Research

Listening to audio books is something I missed quite a bit when I was in Beijing. I have been hooked on "reading" books since late 1990's. My good friend JN heard of my interest in mythology and loaned me a deck of tapes, "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" by Joseph Campbell. I enjoyed listening to this book while driving to and from work. I did not read anything further by Joseph Campbell. But, I ventured into local libraries to start my audio book journey. I still remember that the first one I picked was "Robinson Crusoe." That was one of the few translated non-textbooks I read. I read very little for enjoyment when I was young. The number of books I actually finished reading in English is small. I can remember one, "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck. Three or four years into this new new hobby, I kept a record of the books I "read", and even gave them a score from 1 to 10. I have to thank JN for leading me into a life of reading and enrichment.

The most recent book I finished is Michael Crichton's "Next", a book about genetic research, corporate greed and legal intervention. He is probably most famous for "Jurassic Park", because it was turned into a successful series of movies. It surprised me to learn that this prolific author, Dr. Crichton, died of lymphoma in 2008. There are two interesting characters/animals in the novel, a transgenic chimp, Dave, and a transgenic African grey parrot, Gerard. This is fictional, but it is not too far from what we might run into these new breeds in the future. We need to consider the ethical and moral responsibilities of our actions.

"Next" is overall a good book with a bit too much on the side plots, and thus it is hard to focus on the main plot. The odd part is that the audio CD ended with an interview with the author. Dr. Crichton actually felt very strongly about the ethical dimension of the genetic research and its ramifications for our future. Indeed, I was happy to have that extra segment on the CD. It let me know that the book is not just a novel to him. I took a refresher class in Chemistry 1A at West Valley community college in 2001 and another class in human genetics at the height of human genome news and the cloned Dolly the Sheep. It was and still is exciting to see molecular biology making such progress, but it requires us to ponder the ethical and moral issues of genetic research.
After I came back to the States in April, I read "Christ the Lord: the Road to Cana," by Ann Rice; "Treasure Island," by Robert Louis Stevenson; "Saving fish from drowning," by Amy Tan; and "Next". I am now in the middle of "Op-Center - State of Siege," by Tom Clancy. Listening to a thriller while driving is questionable. I was so involved in the book and I had no recollection of going through the toll both with my FasTrak sticker.

Shanghai was mentioned several times in the book as a heaven for generic research and gene therapy. Is this really true? For lack of any ethical concerns and social responsibilities in the regulations? I have to ask my good friend in Nanjing who is leading a genetic research institute there. Nanjing is about 100 miles from Shanghai.

English with an American Corporate Accent - 017

This is another collection from recent meetings and trips. It works best if you can find a native English speaker with exposure to corporate America to elaborate on the finer points that I cannot cover well here.

* I don't know whether Joe has really drawn the line in the sand or not. [I don't know whether Joe has really made the clear-cut decision or not.]
* I'll talk to Joe first, and then I'll circle back to you. [I'll talk to Joe first, then I'll come back to you.]
* At this point, I don't want to change horses. [At this point, I don't want to change directions.]
* When it comes to supporting that product, they basically don't check out. [When it comes to supporting that product, they basically cannot fulfill what they have promised.]
* I hear you. Let me pow-wow with my team next week to get the product requirements you need. [I hear you. Let me have a meeting with my team next week to get the product requirements you need.]
* At the end of day, it all comes down to whether we'll commit to support that product or not. [After all the discussions and meetings, it all comes down to whether we'll commit to support that product or not.]
* Anyone need to take a bio break? [Anyone need to take a restroom break?]
* I have to punt on this one question, let me get back to you on that next week. [I have to skip on this one question, let me get back to you on that next week.]
* The desire of the testing is to go full battery. [The desire of the testing is go for a full set of tests.]
* There are other features added to that wad of code changes in addition to the one we really need. [There are other features added to that collection of code changes in addition to the one we really need.]
* According to the POR, that feature is not included in this release. [According to the plan of record, that feature is not included in this release.]
* Where do they stand in the pecking order? [What is their ranking order in the decision-making process?]
* They don't know what to do. They are in a holding pattern and waiting for marching orders. [They don't know what to do. They are waiting for commands on what to do next.]

July 2010 Taipei Stint

I stopped over in Taipei, Taiwan, on my way back to San Francisco in a recent business trip to Beijing.
I grew up in this metropolitan city until I graduated from college. Then I went "abroad" to study, which led eventually to my emigration to the United States. I remember that when the economy started to take off in Taiwan forty years ago, the traffic was a mess and people were crowding up everywhere with no waiting lines or signs of civility anywhere.

Things are different now. I was impressed by the Taipei subways a few years back when I attended the IDF conference. This time I took a few snapshots during this short visit.

To the left are photos of waiting lines for Taipei subways. Waiting lines are marked to avoid the out-going passengers. These two were the "before and after" pictures with people waiting for subway train to arrive.



Now, what ushered in the civility and good manners? Is chaos a necessary step on its way to civility? What are the necessary conditions to lead to this path? There are many places in the world today that have not gotten out of their chaos in recent memory. Why are they stuck?

Subway station signs now are in the PinYin romanization system instead of in the traditional Wade-Giles system used in the island. My name "Tzongyu Lee" would have been "Zongyu Li" in the new schema of things. But just as "Taipei" and "Tsinghua University" do not get converted to "Taibei" and "Qinghua University", my name is not going to change. The Pin-Yin system is only 50 years old, while the Wade-Giles has 150 years of history. Established names are not going to change for the sake of change and uniformity. Subway train announcements were in Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese, English and sometimes even Hakka Chinese is heard.

Taipei scooters are popular. They offer something motorized and fast, and they are easy to park and can squeeze through the traffic.

There are many foreigners and laborers from abroad including overseas Chinese returning from North America. Foreigners are so common and often go unnoticed. Some of my friends told me that they enjoy this atmosphere of anonymity, and do not have to worry about being cheated one way or the other.


I took the opportunity to visit Danshui (Tamsui) via subway after I took care of some personal business.
Danshui is situated at the mouth of the Danshui River on the northwestern side of Taipei. I bought the ferry ticket pack to Bali (across the river) first, to Fisherman's Wharf next, and back to the old town for 120 Taiwan Dollars ($4 USD).


To the left is the Bali ferry terminal with Mount Goddess of GuanYin (Goddess of Mercy) in the background. I rented a bike for a short round-trip 6 miles ride to visit the ShiSanHang (Thirteen-Shops) Archeological Museum.
The distance is not far, but the scorching heat with stifling humidity was hard to bear.


The museum is right next to a waste water treatment plant. The plant is actually housed in 6 giant jars. I thought they were the ThirteenShop Archeological Musuem at first because of their artistic design ;-)








The museum was designed with Italy's leaning tower of Pisa in mind, from the look of its main building. It has some interesting artifacts and history. The material dated way back, much earlier than 1600's Dutch Formosa, which was quite interesting to me.















My last stop was the Danshui Fisherman's Wharf, which offered a nice boardwalk and a relaxing atmosphere. It was quite commercialized, though.










I learned to stay indoors next day because of the heat. I ended up finding a nice exhibition on the "Legends of Heroes - the Heritage of the Three Kingdoms Era" in Taipei's National Museum of History. This turned out to be a surprisingly nice visit. It had a good collection of paintings, crafts, artifacts, stone rubbings, and so on from many different museums in China.
I happen to be listening to the story-telling version of the MP3 "The Romance of Three Kingdoms" on and off during my travels in the last year or so. It was really a treat to me to see this exhibit in one place, with some level of analysis between history and legends.

Colonel Sanders is very popular in China

I had a 2-week business trip in the second half of July and could not help but write about this KFC phenomenon.

KFC is a yuppie place in China. It carries status and often is a favorite place for young people to meet. You can search on "KFC in China" and find many interesting write-ups and observations of this incredibly vibrant fast-food chain, which is uninteresting in the United States.
A book with this as the title can be found at Amazon.com.

To the left is a snapshot of the ordering line in Beijing's WangFuJing shopping district in late July 2010. The hustle and bustle is an envious for any business.
















Colonel Sanders and his sepia pictures of the young and old times are familiar scenes in many of the KFC restaurants in China. I can only remember seeing one such display in the United States.


















KFC is innovative in its product lines for the China operations. In addition to the traditional Kentucky fried chicken, nuggets, and fish burger, it offers traditional Chinese breakfast like rice porridge and fried double-twisted dough. There are other new ideas and inventions in drinks and burger/bread packaging, and ingredients. Small, popcorn-shaped fried chicken nuggets packaged in a popcorn container is one of the new inventions I like.


KFC does a great marketing job, including this Beijing subway line 2 advertisement in the connecting pathways.