post assignment--short (!) and to be done before class Monday

Hi everyone:

Hope you had a good break. Here's a blog post assignment, to be done before class tomorrow, to get your brain juices flowing:

In _The Family That Couldn't Sleep_, we learn about how prion diseases can have short- and long-ranging stakes (predicting one couple's likelihood of conceiving a child with FFI or protecting the health of the UK over decades). We also learn that the puzzles presented by prion diseases have both concrete and abstract stakes (such as curing a disease and theories of contagion). As it turns out, prion diseases also touch on many realms of personal and public life, economics, politics and nutrition; they also raise questions about a government's responsibility to protect its citizens' health and about the faith we place in our food industry and scientists.

Can you think of another issue, currently or recently on people's minds, that reaches into so many different realms and at so many different ranges? Explain, in about 250 words.