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Exploring Ethics
 the science and ethics forum
An ongoing series of free, public events jointly sponsored by the Ethics Center and the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center. Go to the full schedule of events at the Fleet.

Smart Drugs: How smart are they?
listen to a pre-forum interview with Maureen Cavanaugh and her guests George Koob and Tricia Bertram Gallant, "Can Drugs Make You Smarter?", KPBS These Days, Mar.31, 2009.

Date: April 1, 2009, 5:30 - 7 p.m.
Location: Reuben H. Fleet Science Center
Organizers: Mike Kalichman, Lawrence Hinman, & Stuart Henry, The Ethics Center
Jeffrey Kirsch, Lynne Kennedy, & Amanda Lincoln, Reuben H. Fleet Science Center
Program:
Wouldn’t it be great if we could take a pill to learn faster, remember better, or think more clearly?  Scientists have already developed drugs that can help people with cognitive deficits, so it isn’t a great leap to imagine those same pills being used to help someone to be “better than normal.”  In fact, one recent survey found that approximately 1 of 4 college students had used some at least one of these prescription medications to improve their studying.  The future is here.  Or is it?
This Exploring Ethics program will allow us to examine both the science and ethics of drugs designed to help people be "better than normal" in terms of intelligence, learning ability, and memory.  Uses of these drugs raise many questions, including:
  • What does it mean to be smart or smarter?
  • How, if at all, might it be possible to use a pharmacological intervention to increase learning ability or intelligence?
  • What is likely and what is unlikely in such endeavors?
  • If these drugs don’t work as well as many people believe, or if the risks of use are high, then what are the obligations of scientists, policymakers, and others?
  • What are the challenges and the meaning of a situation in which such putative enhancements would be available to some but not all?
  • What does it say about our society if we are constantly looking for ways to be someone who is different than we are?
Join us and our panel of experts for a discussion of the role of smart drugs in our society today.

The panelists include:
  • George Koob, The Scripps Research Institute
  • Veronica Galvan, University of San Diego
  • Joan McRobbie, San Diego Unified School District
  • Mark Trotter, Minister, First United Methodist Church, retired
     Moderator: Michael Kalichman, Co-Director, Ethics Center
Contact: Ethics Center
San Diego Science Festival (SDSF) The 2009 San Diego Science Festival (SDSF) is the first and largest celebration of its kind on the West Coast. Celebrating this year's theme, "The Science of You," the Festival will provide 500+ free and entertaining science outreach activities to Greater San Diego County throughout the month of March. Programs include on-site activities at local schools, once-in-a-lifetime field trips, and science workshops at local businesses and research facilities suitable for all ages. The Festival concludes with Expo Day, a day-long celebration in Balboa Park on Saturday April 4, 2009. On Expo Day, science takes over the museums, cultural centers, and the central corridor of Balboa Park with over 300 hands-on activities, demonstrations, experiments, contests, and performances. San Diego Science Festival is a collaboration of over 100 leading science organizations and is facilitated by BioBridge, a program of UC San Diego. For more information, please visit the official SDSF website: www.sdsciencefestival.com.