Shopping for DNA testing in SoHo
The company Navigenics has opened a temporary store in the trendy and luxury brand-friendly SoHo neighborhood hoping to create awareness for their DNA analysis services, reports The New York Times. After parting with $2,500 and a bit of your saliva, you will get a full report on your risks of contracting one of 18 conditions such as cancer, heart attack or Alzheimer's. Navigenics is the latest company to jump into the new lucrative market of genetic testing for consumers.
This new business model is at the heart of TRACKED DOWN BY OUR GENES. The film shows how the scientific breakthrough of DNA mapping is allowing us to trace our ancestors’ footprints, and in a new age of genetic awareness, is generating hundreds of companies offering tests to determine ancestry, paternity, and hereditary diseases.
Labels: biology, ethics, health, science
Questionable New Trends in Tourism
On March 9th, 2008, an article in The New York Times titled "Slum Visits: Tourism or Voyeurism?" explored the new trend of "slum tours" in developing countries such as India, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico. This latest offer for adventurous tourists raises questions of voyeurism, exploitation and ethics. Tour operators, however, believe they can create awareness and change people's attitudes towards poverty through these visits. They also claim to be sensitive to the situation and give back to the communities financially through donations, by employing locals and fostering entrepreneurial activities such as the creation and sale of souvenirs.
CAN'T DO IT IN EUROPE portrays another tourism trend related to the desire for "more reality." The film follows a group of international tourists as they visit the mines in Potosi—the poorest city in the poorest nation in Latin America—where Bolivian miners work by hand, just as they did centuries ago, to extract silver from the earth.Labels: ethics, Latin America, poverty, tourism
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