Looking beyond the headlines, a major public lecture series will bring 10 internationally recognized experts to UC Davis to explore what modern biotechnology means to society.

The "Biotechnology, Policy and Society Lecture Series" will be held on eight selected Thursday evenings from mid-October through early March. The free lectures all will be presented at 7:30 p.m. in the Alpha Gamma Rho Hall of the Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center.

Biotechnology has attracted increasing public attention in recent years, stimulating public debate over the potential benefits and possible risks of these new technologies as applied in food and fiber production, medicine and manufacturing.

The lecture series is designed to present a broad range of current knowledge and thought on biotechnology and its social implications to members of the campus community and the general public. Speakers will address a variety of topics relevant to contemporary controversies.

"Intentionally or not, by adopting new technologies we make choices about the future," said John Hall, a UC Davis sociology professor and director of the campus's Center for History, Society, and Culture, which organized the series. "The lecture series is meant to provide a forum for public discussion of the issues, based on the best information available.

"We know that no single field or individual has all the answers, so we decided to bring 10 highly distinguished speakers from various fields to speak at UC Davis," added Hall. "It is our hope that people with diverse viewpoints will attend these lectures with open minds, and we'll all grow in the process."

Kicking off the series on Thursday, Oct. 12 will be two speakers, James Cook of Washington State University and Rebecca Goldburg of Environmental Defense.

Cook, a professor and plant disease expert at Washington State University, will talk about "Human and Environmental Benefits of Agricultural Biotechnology."

An elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, Cook holds an endowed chair in wheat research at Washington State and is a member of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Advisory Committee on Agricultural Biotechnology.

Rebecca Goldburg, who holds a doctorate in ecology from the University of Minnesota, represents Environmental Defense, a private organization dedicated to protecting the environment. She has been particularly active in public policy issues related to food production, including ecological and food-safety issues related to agricultural biotechnology.

She also is a member of USDA's agricultural biotechnology advisory committee as well as the department's National Organic Standards Board. She recently served on the National Academy of Science's committee on genetically modified pest-protected crops.

In addition to Goldberg and Cook, the following speakers will present talks as part of the ongoing lecture series:

• Nov. 2 - David Botstein, Genetics, Stanford University, "The Genome, Biotechnology and Cancer"
• Nov. 16 - Brian Wynne, Center for Science Studies, Lancaster University, United Kingdom, "Ambiguous Science and the Precautionary Principle Controversy in Agriculture: Towards Reflexive Risk Assessment?"
• Nov. 30 - Peter Kareiva, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, "Ecological Risks and GMOs: How Science, Government and Policy Makers Fail Us" and Arthur L. Reingold, Division of Public Health Biology & Epidemiology, UC Berkeley, "Can Epidemiologists Detect Adverse Effects of GMOs on Human Health?"
• Jan. 18 - Rebecca Nelson, International Potato Center, Lima, Peru, "Gene Flow and Information Flow: On Biotechnology and Sustainable Food Production in Poor Countries"
• Feb. 1 - Rebecca Eisenberg, School of Law, University of Michigan, " Is the Patent System Ready for the Genome?"
• Feb. 15 - Walter W. Powell, School of Education and Department of Sociology, Stanford University, "Universities as Creators and Retailers of Intellectual Property"
• March 1 - Richard Lewontin, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, "The Struggle Over Biotechnology, the Last Stage in a Cultural War."

Additional support for the lecture series was provided by the UC Davis Office of the Provost, the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, the Office of University Outreach and International Programs, and the Social Science Division of the College of Letters and Science.