Technology allows us to better understand the differences between people and provide them with personal data, but do we always know which differences to look for and what they mean?
Professor Sewart Feuerstein of Columbia University discusses in the forum section on page 19 the question "What does science seek to discover?" And raises above a miracle the great importance in science of the very act of asking questions - the immeasurably greater importance of providing the answers.
In this issue we present one of the great questions of the life sciences and medicine: why are we different from each other? What is the source of the individual differences that exist even in identical twins? For years there has been a fierce debate on the question of whether this stems from the genes we inherit from our parents or from the environment. Today, almost everyone agrees that the answer is a combination of things, and more than that, sometimes the environment affects genetics itself.
Anyone who carefully read our last issues, and will also read this issue in front of you, will find some fascinating clues that will, in our opinion, revolutionize the world of medicine. Not only are the genes of each of us slightly different from each other, but even in the first stages of fetal development the environment begins to change them, either through epigenetic changes (on which we expanded the discussion in the previous issue) or through mobile elements that actively change the genome structure of each One of us, especially in brain areas such as the hippocampus, and create additional differences between people (page 22). In this context, Professor Yitzhak Farnes describes in his section "Brainwashing" (page 16) how abuse and stressful conditions in childhood irreversibly change the structure of the hippocampus and negatively affect the course of life of the victims of abuse.
How will we be affected by the accumulated knowledge about the causes of differences between people? One of the main effects is the development of "personalized medicine" which is supposed to give each person the medical treatment that suits them. Doctors will be able to look at our genetic, epigenetic, metabolic and even microbiome set-up (page 9) and give us a personalized diagnosis and treatment. Such developments fit in with the growing trend of real-time continuous monitoring of our health status, as reported by Dr. Daniel Kraft, a lecturer at the Singularity University, at the first Singularity conference in Israel, held in March of this year in Tel Aviv.
But is there only good in this? Isn't the medicalization of life becoming excessive today? Are we not exaggerating in analyzing the composition of our food down to the molecular level (usually without understanding the subject in depth, without relying on reliable studies and with biases from interested parties)? Already today it is possible to order our personal genetic sequence online at a reasonable price and turn to all kinds of experts for advice - after all, if we know in advance we can "certainly" prevent future patients.
The article "The great debate about prostate cancer" (page 36) demonstrates how in many cases the excess of information may actually be harmful. An early diagnosis of prostate cancer, claims an American task force that examined the issue, causes thousands of men to undergo unnecessary difficult treatments. In previous issues, we showed similar findings regarding mammography scans for the early detection of breast cancer. It seems that in this matter as well, as in many other fields, technology is ahead of the wise and considered application, especially because there are still many unanswered questions. The era of personalized medicine may be upon us in terms of test methods, but there is no certainty that we have the appropriate theoretical tools to analyze the results.
And the solution? There is no other way but to continue the scientific research, answer the questions, and raise many new questions. This is a tremendous challenge - and we join the recommendation of the Nobel laureate, Professor Dan Shechtman, who in the interview we conducted with him (page 14) recommended to anyone looking for a challenge and interest to study science and technology. "Science is very suitable for people who like to play," says Shechtman. "This is the ultimate game for adults." And Professor Fierstein joins him and writes: "...Science [is] a series of elegant puzzles, and puzzles within puzzles. And who doesn't like puzzles?" And the interview with Joanna Eisenberg (page 65) demonstrates this well.
And we will finish by mentioning another area where a trend of personalization is beginning to develop, and that is education. There are researchers and developers in the field of education and education, who claim and hope that education will also become personal (as it was before the industrial revolution), because we are different in our ways of learning, in our intelligence, in the strengths and interests of each and every one of us. It is assumed that this will be economically viable if scientific R&D and technological inventiveness allow it.
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"Childhood abuse or stress irreversibly changes the hippocampus" .... how depressing ...
serious
You said "Identity is just an aspiration for something that doesn't exist."
I would say "everything is identical only to itself"
Just like that, a philosophical thought for the night time
Sabdarmish Yehuda
(the only one that is the same as Sabdarmish Yehuda)
That is, everything that is material, in the universe, is constantly changing, and there are no two bodies or particles between which there is an identity.
And the effects on matter on energy are both from the internal external environment and non-constant discontinuous.
If man is matter and energy then everything is clear. And not only is there no identity between twins, but each of them is not the self-imposed self that they were a second, an hour, a year ago. And no two parts were or will be identical in the body of each of them, not even cells.
And this is still without reference to the millions of our natural partners in us, viruses, bacteria and more. They are also different, change and affect every part of our bodies.
Identity is just an aspiration for something that doesn't exist.