Biophysical Society Newsletter | September 2017

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BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER 6 SEPTEMBER 2017
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,
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
Abstract Deadline: April 2, 2018
Early Registration Deadline: May 1, 2018 018santacruz
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