Biophysical Society Newsletter | September 2017

6

2017

BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER

SEPTEMBER

Turkey Bans Evolution Teachings Turkey’s head of the curriculum board, Alpaslan Durmas , recently banned the teaching of Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution from the public high school curriculum. The rationale: students are too young to study such a controversial and complicated subject. 1 This is the same rationale used by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) — the country’s main research- funding agency — to reject a funding application for a summer workshop on quantitative evolutionary biology. 2 In protest to the ban and rejection of evolution, Egitim Sen, Turkey’s main teacher’s union, will be challenging the ban in court. 1 No evolution in Turkish Schools. (2017, June 30). Science , 356(6345), 1314-1315. 2 Bohannon, John. Turkish Scientists See New Evidence of Government's Anti-Evolution Bias. (2017, July 26). Science , http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2013/07/turkish-scientists-see-new-evidence-governments-anti-evolution-bias

2018 Biophysical Society Thematic Meetings

Genome Biophysics: Integrating Genomics and Biophysics to Understand Structural and Functional Aspects of Genomes Santa Cruz, California | August 19–24, 2018 Genomic tools are becoming essential in molecular and personalized medicine by virtue of their capacity to analyze diversity within the human genome. Whereas genomic variability at the sequence level is manifestly involved in health and diseases of organisms, little is known about the roles that such variability plays in the physical organization of ge- nomes. The theme of this meeting is an exploration of the long-overdue application of biophysical methods in genom- ics, emphasizing structural and functional aspects of genome and transcriptome dynamics. Topic areas include extremophile genomes, highly compact genomes, extrachromosomal circular DNAs, circular and micro RNAs, DNA viruses and viroids, and other nucleic-acid and chromatin structures having potential roles in ge- nome regulation.

Organizing Committee: Sarah Harris , University of Leeds, United Kingdom Stephen Levene, University of Texas at Dallas, USA

Julia Salzman , Stanford University, USA Massa Shoura , Stanford University, USA

Abstract Deadline: April 2, 2018 Early Registration Deadline: May 1, 2018

www.biophysics.org/ 2018santacruz