Sunday, February 13, 2005
VoS - Voice of the Shuttle We resources on S&T and humanities / social sciences
Thursday, February 10, 2005
SAGE Publications - British Social Attitudes - attitudes to genomics
quoting from a summary of chapter 6 by Patrick Sturgis, Helen Cooper, Chris Fife-Schaw and Richard Shepherd
"People are gradually getting more accepting of genetic technology, whether in relation to modifying foods or developing medical applications.
•Opposition to GM foods has plummeted since 1999. Then, over half (52 per cent) thought that GM foods should be banned, even if prices suffered as a result; now less than a third (29 per cent) agree. ...not been a surge in support for GM foods; people are simply now more ambivalent than they once were. Indeed around a third of the population is neither for nor against GM foods.
• A majority of the British public approve of human genetic intervention when there is a clear medical benefit. Eight in ten (81 per cent) think that genetic therapy aimed at reducing a person’s chances of getting breast cancer should be allowed. Two thirds (66 per cent) think it should be permissible for parents to use a pre-natal genetic test to decide whether to have a child with a serious mental or physical disability. A similar proportion (63 per cent) think pre-natal genetic testing should be allowed in order to find out whether a child might have tissues that genetically match those of a seriously ill sibling. But there is very little support for pre-natal testing in order to find out the sex of a child; only 9 per cent think this is acceptable.
• There is considerable public support for databases that store genetic information, although this depends upon the uses to which this would be put. Over eight in ten (86 per cent) support databases to help improve understanding of illness and disease or to identify people who have committed serious crimes (85 per cent). " (slightly edited only
quoting from a summary of chapter 6 by Patrick Sturgis, Helen Cooper, Chris Fife-Schaw and Richard Shepherd
"People are gradually getting more accepting of genetic technology, whether in relation to modifying foods or developing medical applications.
•Opposition to GM foods has plummeted since 1999. Then, over half (52 per cent) thought that GM foods should be banned, even if prices suffered as a result; now less than a third (29 per cent) agree. ...not been a surge in support for GM foods; people are simply now more ambivalent than they once were. Indeed around a third of the population is neither for nor against GM foods.
• A majority of the British public approve of human genetic intervention when there is a clear medical benefit. Eight in ten (81 per cent) think that genetic therapy aimed at reducing a person’s chances of getting breast cancer should be allowed. Two thirds (66 per cent) think it should be permissible for parents to use a pre-natal genetic test to decide whether to have a child with a serious mental or physical disability. A similar proportion (63 per cent) think pre-natal genetic testing should be allowed in order to find out whether a child might have tissues that genetically match those of a seriously ill sibling. But there is very little support for pre-natal testing in order to find out the sex of a child; only 9 per cent think this is acceptable.
• There is considerable public support for databases that store genetic information, although this depends upon the uses to which this would be put. Over eight in ten (86 per cent) support databases to help improve understanding of illness and disease or to identify people who have committed serious crimes (85 per cent). " (slightly edited only
Monday, February 07, 2005
Pippa Norris several excellent papers on Pippa's site - especially relevant are papers on secularisation, and political websites.
Saturday, February 05, 2005
Internet statistics refdesk.com - Internet Usage Snapshot: Data sources on internet activity stats etc.
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Ilkka Tuomi: PERSONAL INFORMATION Some great articles by Ilka Tuomi here.
Carlota Perez - CARLOTAPEREZ.ORG Carlota's home page - features several downloads including her classic on technological revolutions.
