Homework

Week 1 HW: Principles and Practices
Class Assignment First, describe a biological engineering application or tool you want to develop and why. Next, describe one or more governance/policy goals related to ensuring that this application or tool contributes to an “ethical” future, like ensuring non-malfeasance (preventing harm). Break big goals down into two or more specific sub-goals. Next, describe at least three different potential governance “actions” by considering the four aspects below (Purpose, Design, Assumptions, Risks of Failure & “Success”). Next, score (from 1-3 with, 1 as the best, or n/a) each of your governance actions against your rubric of policy goals. Last, drawing upon this scoring, describe which governance option, or combination of options, you would prioritize, and why. Outline any trade-offs you considered as well as assumptions and uncertainties. Week 2 Lecture Prep Homework Questions from Professor Jacobson: Nature’s machinery for copying DNA is called polymerase. What is the error rate of polymerase? How does this compare to the length of the human genome. How does biology deal with that discrepancy? A: The error rate of polymerase is 1:106. The human genome is approximately 3 billion base pairs long. DNA Polymerases have a proofreading mechanism, and remaining errors can also be fixed through mismatch repair after DNA synthesis.