Event 1 - The Gene Didn't Get the Memo

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Dr. Navon and I posing for a picture

On Friday April 13, 2018, I attended my first event that was called "The Gene Didn't Get the Memo" which was conducted by Dr. Daniel Navon about the social genome. Dr. Navon is an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego. His research focused on the sociology of science and knowledge, along with social theory and medical sociology. His lecture focused on how new conditions are being discovered because of alteration in genetic mutations. In the beginning, he mostly just talked about science and genetic mutations and how that involved around his presentation. I felt a little puzzled because I didn't see how he could make the connection with science and how it could connect with the arts. I found the science portion in the beginning to be pretty interesting due to having taken past classes that have had to do with genetics and mutations. Dr. Navon mentioned how mutations are becoming more easily found, which results in mutations not being able to be classified after it gets to that certain point.



The title slide from Dr. Navon's presentation

Dr. Navon connected how our blogs in the past week related back to his presentation. I was able to see how art and literature are related back to science because in society they expect everything to correlate to each other. Like a lot of the traits and syndromes that are within range are being used for symptoms of genetic disorder. The name of the lecture made a lot more sense later on because he kept referring to genes and how the start and start codons can cause more mutations depending how long or short the mutations will be. I was able to make a connection with my career as a nurse because as a nurse we will have to assist patients who may have disorders from gene mutations and have to attend to them in a different way. I was able to find a great passion and connection with Dr. Navon and how it will tie into my career.

One of Dr. Navon's presentation slides





I can definitely say that this presentation has made me more knowledgeable about the topic of genetics and about how this relates to more than just science. Science, art, and literature are very closely related compared to what most people think. I believe it will help me be able to discuss with other non-science majors and it could be something that I now will be able to relate to them. I look forward to learning more interesting topics in the events to come.








Navon, Daniel PhD. “The gene didn’t get the memo”. The Social Genome Knowledge & Politics in a Postgenomic Society, 13 April 2018, La Kretz Garden Pavilion, room 1101, Los Angeles, CA. Presentation


Vesna, Victoria. “Mathematics.” Lecture. CoLE DESMA 9. Web. <https://cole.uconline.edu/~UCLA-201209-12F-DESMA-9-1#l=Week-2-Assignment/id4287887>.


Vesna, Victoria. "Toward a third culture: being in between." Leonardo 34


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