What We’re Reading

“REFLECTIONS ON THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION’S (NSF) UNDERSTANDING THE RULES OF LIFE PROGRAM: PROCEEDINGS OF A WORKSHOP SERIES”

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

2023

https://doi.org/10.17226/27020

“One of NSF’s Big Ideas addresses what is perhaps the most significant gap in biological knowledge, which is our inability to predict an organism’s observable characteristics—its phenotype—from what is known about its genetic makeup and the nature of its environment. …That initiative, Understanding the Rules of Life (URoL), seeks to develop a predictive understanding of how key properties of living systems emerge from dynamic interactions operating on multiple levels, including genomic, epigenomic, metabolomic, organismal, and environmental.”

“DAVID WALLACE-WELLS: SUDDENLY, IT LOOKS LIKE WE’RE IN A GOLDEN AGE FOR MEDICINE”

New York Times Magazine

June 23, 2023

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/23/magazine/golden-age-medicine-biomedical-innovation.html

“Hype springs eternal in medicine, but lately the horizon of new possibility seems almost blindingly bright. ‘I’ve been running my research lab for almost 30 years,’ says Jennifer Doudna, a biochemist at the University of California, Berkeley. ‘And I can say that throughout that period of time, I’ve just never experienced what we’re seeing over just the last five years.’”

“STEFAN HARRER: ATTENTION IS NOT ALL YOU NEED: THE COMPLICATED CASE OF ETHICALLY USING LARGE LANGUAGE MODELS IN HEALTHCARE AND MEDICINE”

EBioMedicine

April 2023

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10025985/

“Large Language Models (LLMs) are a key component of generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications for creating new content including text, imagery, audio, code, and videos in response to textual instructions. Without human oversight, guidance and responsible design and operation, such generative AI applications will remain a party trick with substantial potential for creating and spreading misinformation or harmful and inaccurate content at unprecedented scale.”