by Today, science has a profound influence and almost control in the world due to its interconnectedness within our daily lives. We may think of science as a concrete thing, perhaps due to its such involvement, or rather even a basis in mathematics which itself is still grounded upon fundamentals that were pioneered very long ago and have gone through very little change. However, as we have read with these philosophers, science is not only a very fluid thing, but is commonly challenged by different societal views. According to Thomas Kuhn, scientific discovery is fueled by new and unknown phenomena, or anomalies, and new and radical ideals invented by scientists. These discoveries can, and usually do, violate the current rules of normal science. Recent events suggest that we are arguably in the midst of a Kuhnian scientific revolution.
Kuhn states that scientific discoveries are not “isolated events but extended episodes”. Thus, it is important to explain the process of which this new scientific advancement, that being the development of gene editing and CRISPR, came to be. CRISPR, or Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, is a tool that allows scientists to modify specific points of DNA and allows for an array of applications within the medical field. One such application is the manufacturing insulin through editing the genes of certain e coli and yeast bacteria. Previously, insulin was harvested and refined from cow and pig pancreases. However, these bacteria grow rapidly, and after their genes are modified in order to be expressed similar to human cells, they are able to produce insulin in much greater quantities for those individuals with diabetes.
Another application that is much more novel in its concept is Cancer treatments involving CRISPR. These treatments involve editing T-Cells of cancer patients so that their bodies can fight off the cancer themselves. If successful, which some of these treatments have been, this process could be the stepping stone for a world without the threat of cancer.
These discoveries, if taken too far, can threaten the current scientific code of ethics and regulations of the scientific and medical communities. The new discoveries in gene therapy have posed the question of where the line is in regards to what is the limit of this new process. Kuhn states that “normal science” finds no novelties when it is performed successfully, but that “radical new theories have again and again been invented by scientists” that challenge the current rules, ultimately signifying the shifting of the current paradigm. This new gene therapy was arguably taken “radicalized” a couple years ago when the Chinese scientist, He Jiankui, genetically modified twin girls and an undisclosed third baby to be resistant to H.I.V. He was subsequently imprisoned and fined for “deliberately violating the relevant national regulations of scientific and medical research and crossed the bottom line on scientific and medical ethics”. Regardless of if this scientist was ethically unjust in his actions, he has arguably fulfilled Kuhn’s definition of a paradigm shift by inventing a new radical theory that violates the current set of “rules” in which the current scientific community is bound by and invented a radical idea that could reshape the scientific world. As previously stated, scientific discoveries are often not single events but a series of them. This could mean that we have only seen one such event take place and that the paradigm has yet to be acknowledged by the scientific community as affected by He Jiankui’s actions. Due to his work being so new, so controversial, and widely rejected, it’s tough to say if it marks the beginning of a paradigm shift so we can only guess on the outcome. Nevertheless, his work of creating H.I.V. resistant people has violated the rules of the scientific and medical ethics, arguably to the extent at which it is the beginning of a new paradigm.
Work Cited
“Cutting-edge CRISPR gene editing appears safe in three ….” https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/cutting-edge-crispr-gene-editing-appears-safe-three-cancer-patients. Accessed 5 Sep. 2020.
“Chinese Scientist Who Genetically Edited Babies Gets 3 ….” 30 Dec. 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/30/business/china-scientist-genetic-baby-prison.html. Accessed 5 Sep. 2020.
Cell factories for insulin production. Nabih A Baeshen, Mohammed N Baeshen, Abdullah Sheikh, Roop S Bora, Mohamed Morsi M Ahmed, Hassan A I Ramadan, Kulvinder Singh Saini, Elrashdy M Redwan Microb Cell Fact. 2014; 13: 141. Published online 2014 Oct 2.
Image 1: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/367/6481/eaba7365