The Microsoft Innovative Teachers Forum recognises teachers who use ICT (information Communication technology) in interesting and engaging ways. Cheryl Douglas, Programme Director of the Teaching Biology Project, was one of the South African winners who attended the Pan-African Innovative Teachers Forum held in September in Mauritius.  Cheryl won the collaboration section for her project ‘Teaching for the Future: make learners aware of global issues with an emphasis on sustainability’ and will now attend the worldwide finals to be held in Brazil in November. The Teaching Biology Project website contains content on evolutionary biology developed by Cheryl and the website offers opportunities for teachers who have attended the Teaching Biology Project conferences to access resources and collaborate with colleagues as Cheryl uses the same principles on this site as she did in her winning project.

Am I Victorian to argue that the characteristics of Caster Semenya’s sex-determining genetics are surely not a subject for public discussion? It is private information and it should stay that way. The public has no right to such highly personal information. Genetic privacy should be protected in law.

Genes are assemblies of chemical letters called deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA that send signals to proteins to make the biological apparatuses of all living things. It has been only five years that the science community has been able to look at all of the millions of chemical letters that constitute the human genome.

Medical geneticists are able to read our genomes for disease propensity and increasingly have access to biomedical technologies that may have therapeutic applications to suit the individual’s condition. Genome genetics or genomics is therefore a frontier science and the issue of genetic privacy a relatively recent concept in the field of bio-ethics.

"I keep telling you guys my aim is to become a legend," said Usain Bolt, after smashing the world 200 metres record and becoming the first man to hold the 100 and 200 metres sprints in both the Olympics and the Athletics World Championships.

Competition at international sporting events is fierce and the pursuit of an edge, sometimes measured in hundredths of a second, leads some to cheat.  Steroid abuse aims to increase the strength, speed and endurance of what is natural.  But the androgens created by the body are not set to any standard.  Some people do genuinely produce more than others.  Figuring out what is normal and what is not is difficult.

And, sometimes, something else is going on.