Action Speaks returns for 2012 with an expanded season of 8 shows! It all kicks off tomorrow night at 5:30 pm, 115 Empire Street in Providence.

OCT 3 // 1980 Diamond v. Chakrabarty
The Supreme Court case that helped put a ‘for sale’ sign on our genes.

Ananda Chakrabarty, a Professor at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago. While working at the Research & Development Center at General Electric Company, he was awarded the ‘Scientist of the Year’ award in 1975 by Industrial Research Organization of the United States. This work led to the development of a genetically-manipulated microorganism that was the subject matter of a landmark decision from the Supreme Court of the United States that genetically engineered life forms are patentable.

David Bollier, an author, activist, blogger and independent scholar with a primary focus on the commons as a new paradigm of economics, politics and culture. He has pursued this work for more than ten years, as a founding editor of Onthecommons.org (2002-2010), and co-founder
and principal of the Commons Strategies Group, an international consulting project that works with global policy activists.

Glenn Cohen, an Assistant Professor at Harvard Law School and Co-Director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. Prof. Cohen is one of the world’s leading experts on the intersection of bioethics (sometimes also called “medical ethics”) and the law, as well as health law.