I would have wanted to know a little bit more about uncertainty. Professor Goodman did ask a couple of times about it, for CRISPR and in general for genes, but I specifically wanted to know more about how they quantified uncertainty. The answer we got was more along the lines of "uncertainty exists and we do try to quantify and think of it." So maybe a follow-up to say: "Do you have any specific examples of how you quantify uncertainty for genetics?
https://www.labxchange.org/library/pathway/lx-pathway:0b417a9e-6227-44a8-a887-dbfdf44e37e3/items/lx-pb:0b417a9e-6227-44a8-a887-dbfdf44e37e3:lx_simulation:f6d09171?source=%2Flibrary%2Fclusters%2Flx-cluster%3AModernPrediction
Hi Zev!
Thank you for your thoughtful questions! I was also interested in learning more specifics about how we can quantify uncertainty. It might have been interesting to also ask George Church to share examples of how we can quantify uncertainty in a range of fields. Further, I wonder how different fields quantify uncertainty differently and whether they accept different levels of uncertainty. For example, I would think that fields that people have studied longer, such as physical science, might have a lower level of uncertainty than fields that use new technologies, such as using computers to conduct 3D imaging in genetics.
Emily
Thanks @Zev Minsky-Primus and @Emily Axelsen — I too would love to know more about the uncertainty associated with so many important life-science studies... and so would the people who make those studies. In many cases, it turns out that quantifying the uncertainty is so hard that it’s either estimated quite inaccurately, or not even discussed. Kudos to life scientists (and all scientists) who try hard to be clear about what they do and don’t “know,” and how well they do/don’t know it.