Why Genetics Appeal To Me

Throughout our lifetime we are in constant change, many of those changes are ones that you don’t notice. However permanent we set a change to ourselves, one thing we hardly notice change is our DNA. Just growing recently in popularity is genetic engineering , along with its immense potential which can do very much for us, in the future and today. However, with all the potential that genetic engineering carries many people have begun to resent what genetic engineering could become instead of focusing on the great capabilities, and what lies ahead of its bright future. Regardless of what others believe, Genetic engineering will renovate the way we do things today, genetic engineering is a tremendous step to accept, and without a doubt a step

Wischusen, William, Jolissaint, Ann, Reiland, Jane, and Pomarico, Steven. 2012. Biology 1208/1209: Biological Laboratories for Science Majors. Hayden McNeil, Plymouth,

I support the guidelines outlined by Kitcher for the use of genetic information because of their responsible and ethical nature. I believe that future generations will benefit as a direct consequence of these guidelines. I shall begin by defining eugenics as the study of human genetics to improve inherited characteristics of the human race by the means of controlled selective breeding.

The classic debated topic of Nature versus Nurture has been and will always be a quarrelsome subject in the scientific world. Meaning, the issue of the level to which environment and heredity sway behavior and development in a person. Nature can be defined as, behaviors due to heredity. This means the behaviors is based on the inherited makeup of an individual and is an influence of the growth and development of that individuals’ all through life. On the other hand nurture is causes of behaviors that are environmental. This Intel’s the influence is from the individual’s parents, siblings, family, friends and all other experiences that individual exposed to during life. However, these concept of ideas supports the inborn genetic framework,

exception of identical twins, DNA fingerprinting is a reliable method used to determine the parents of a given baby. DNA fingerprints can be derived from restriction

Reference: Belk, Colleen and Borden-Maier, Virginia. 2010. Biology: Science for Life. 4th Edition. Pearson. San Francisco, California., 195, 205,

Stanley N. Cohen is perhaps one the few men who have had to greatly influence America. Mr. Cohen is an American biochemist who alongside Herbert Boyer “…led to the development of methods to combine and transplant genes…”, the beginning of bio engineering, and would eventually become the first to create a genetically modified organism. This man and his team began the first GMOs in 1972 with bacteria. Cohen and Boyer found that DNA could be changed within bacteria using enzymes to “…counter invasion by viral organism…” that would harm bacteria. This demonstrated “…that these genes were active…” after insertion and could be passed on when bacteria replicated.

It is incredible to see how far genetic engineering has come. Humans, plants, and any living organism can now be manipulated. Scientists have found ways to change humans before they are even born. They can remove, add, or alter genes in the human genome. Making things possible that humans (even thirty years ago) would have never imagined. Richard Hayes claims in SuperSize Your Child? that genetic engineering needs to have limitations. That genetic engineering should be used for medical purposes, but not for “genetic modification that could open the door to high-tech eugenic engineering” (188). There is no doubt that genetic engineering can amount to great things, but without limits it could lead the human race into a future that no one

Inside each and every cell in your body is a strange chemical called deoxyribonucleic acid, better known as DNA. DNA is a double-helix structure that is made up of billions of nucleotides. They are adenosine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine, abbreviated A, T, C, and G, respectively. “The information content resides in those chemical bases arranged within the interior, where A always pairs with T, and C always pairs with G” (Collins 6). These base pairs are lined up in a pattern as rungs on the DNA “ladder”. A gene is a section of base pairs in the strand of DNA. The smallest genes span about a few hundred base pairs, and the largest

I would like to say thank you to Courtney Cochran, my lab instructor and to the UCSB Biology department for the time taken in order to ensure accurate results. Another round of thanks goes to Emile Laroche, my lab partner who aided me in data collection and procedure.

I will want to know about my personal genetics if I have some potential diseases for an early prevention to reduce any risk of developing of them. In my father side, my grandmother, two uncles and two cousins had died of stomach cancer. Since I was a child I suffered digestive disorder, for that, I have the fear to develop this kind of cancer. Knowing more about my personal genetic analysis allow me to take preventive measures to improve my well-being such as, what kind of medicaments or diet I can make.

The parade of genetically engineered marvels, during the past recent years, has been shocking: “Flavr-Savr” tomatoes that stay fresher longer; “giant salmon” that grow 37 times faster than the normal fish; “transgenic” pigs that are injected with human genes which causes them to produce milk with human protein that prevents blood clotting; and “supermice” injected with rat growth genes which makes them grow twice their normal size, are just a few.

The process of life has always intrigued me. From the abundance of technology being created every day to new cures battling new diseases, the world of biology is continually changing. I have always dreamt of being part of a field whose main purpose is to help others and to improve the world around us; to me that is Biotechnology. Biotechnology is the field for future innovations that benefits an individual, but also the society.

He reasoned that there were certain rules by which these characteristics were inherited. He guessed that each plant must possess some sort of unit that specified its characteristics. In fact, each must have two units, one from each parent plant. If the plant inherited two different units, then one would override the other. This was called the dominant unit, and the one that was overridden was called the recessive unit. Mendel's theories were not discovered till 1900, and it began the science called genetics , the study of a physical inheritance. From this name, Mendel's units were changed into genes.

Human genetic engineering should be banned because it harms the human race since we would be reducing our genetic diversity through this radical process. Human genetic engineering simply eliminates the “undesirable” traits and encourages specific “desirable” traits. With the endless possibilities of choosing what to eliminate, inevitably the “desirable” traits are picked and chosen on whim decisions such as blonde hair, blue eyes, a slender figure, and tall height (Act For Libraries). According to the British Medical Journal, this idea of designing a baby based on cosmetics is called unrealistic and arbitrary standards of perfection (Caplan). Unrealistic and arbitrary standards of perfection will create identical genomes among humans. Obviously, there would be a tremendous drop in genetic diversity as a result of this. Moreover, when defective genes are replaced with functional genes inevitably, there is a reduction of genetic diversity and causes the human population, as a whole, to be more susceptible to disease and virus (Patra). As shown by this, the “undesirable’ traits are annihilated and “desirable” or functional genes in this instance are promoted. Although scientists for genetic engineering will promote the “eradication of genetic disorders and diseases,” once they are diminished to the best of their ability there would still be a yearn to “perfect” the human race. Instead of annihilating disease we would also be annihilating cosmetic traits we don’t want to see in