XXII. BIOCHEMICKÝ ZJAZD - Jesseniova lekárska fakulta

Lectures
WHEN MOre IS LESS: a DILEMMa of a BIOMEDICal EDUCaTOr
Ľubomír Tomáška
Department of Genetics, Comenius University, Bratislava
The exponential growth of data due to a dramatic increase in the number of active
researchers as well as development of advanced and powerful technologies results in
a general, yet difficult question related to science education: How and what to teach the
future generation of biomedical scientists? Whereas 30 years ago the classical textbooks
covered essentially the whole fields by means of their presentation in a form of highly
readable and entertaining recapitulation of major discoveries, the modern textbooks, due
to their factual nature, do not provide the reader with an opportunity to „participate“ in
the exciting experiments. It seems logical that in 1976 the key experiment in molecular
genetics describing the fine structure of a gene [1] is elaborated on 15 pages [2], while
the most recent edition of the same textbook barely mentions its main message [3]. The
changes of textbooks in both the richness of their content and style should reflect the
content of undergraduate curricula. Or should they, really? Should the student have an
overview of everything considered important by the major textbooks and thus naturally
gain a shallow and superficial knowledge? Or should we employ key, yet technologically
outdated experiments to catalyze creative thinking risking that the student will not have
comprehensive information about the state-of-the-art in the corresponding discipline?
We need to look for means to dissect this dilemma and think about the changes in the
curricula [4] and ultimately in re-definition of goals of higher biomedical education [5].
[1] Benzer, S. (1955). Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 41: 344-354.
[2] Watson, J.D. (1976). Molecular biology of the gene. 3 rd Edition, W.A. Benjamin.
[3] Watson, J.D. et al. (2008). Molecular biology of the gene. 6 th Edition, CSHL Press.
[4] http://www.asbmb.org/CareersAndEducation.aspx?id=432
[5] Connelly. T. et al. (2008). A new biology for the 21 st century. The NAS Press.
102 XXII. Biochemistry Congress, Martin