Classical genetics

What is a designer baby? It can be defined as a baby whose genetic makeup has been chosen to eliminate a certain defect or to ensure that a specific inheritable factor is present. Designer babies can be somewhat of a debatable topic because although it can help discover genetic disorders in embryos it also leaves the option for the parents to “design their own child” by modification and selecting specific physical and mental characteristics. There are many diverse pros and cons just like in any…

Genetically modified grains have good things about them, but they also have bad things. These modified grains give farmers and the environment help. For the farmers it is cheaper to grow and it's more reliable for harvest. For the environment there is no soil erosion, but there is a new gene coming into the environment. These modified grains like corn, wheat, rice, and soy have stronger colors and have better life on the shelf. The genetically modified grains are better for farming, but some…

Nurture debate is a pair of opposing viewpoints, concerned with the extent to which particular aspects of behaviour are either inherited (genetics) or acquired (characteristics). It is known that a particular combination of our genes are inherited from our parents. For example, the colour of our eyes, hair and pigmentation of the skin are all part of our genetic makeup, determined from our parents. This is the nature side of the debate, arguing that the coding of our genes determines different…

Gene Therapy and Genetic Engineering in Human Beings We, as human beings, all start off the same way. A lucky sperm meets an egg and forms the beginning of a whole new life. From that very moment it is predetermined in our DNA that we will have a certain color of hair, be of a certain height, and what color that our eyes will be. Then, approximately nine months later we are welcomed into the world carrying with us every trait that our DNA tells us to have. People will come in to see the miracle…

13. Our advantage in the “survive and reproduce race” is that we are intelligent. We know that we want to reproduce and survive. We learn mechanisms or tactics to protect ourselves and survive. An example of this is antibiotics. The author describes the battle between bacteria and antibiotics as an “Arm race” because whenever new antibiotics are introduced or discovered bacteria always develop resistance to it. An example is penicillin when it first came out in 1928, it worked great but 22 years…

World Book Student defines genetic engineering as “techniques that alter the genes (hereditary material) or combination of genes in an organism… Beginning in the 1970’s, scientists developed ways to reintroduce individual genes into cells or into plants, animals, or other organisms” (Rubenstein, 2015). Genetic engineering is a controversial subject not only in science but also in popular culture. Some research, such as stem cell research, has led to serious questions concerning ethics. Other…

Introducing Nutrigenomics Genetics is the study of genes, which are molecules that are passed from parents to offspring. They are responsible for making the proteins in our bodies, and determining how similar or different we are from one another. “The topic of nutrigenomics is a branch of nutritional genomics, and is the study of the effects of foods and food constituents on gene expression”(Wikipedia). It studies specifically on the functional interactions of food, and its components with the…

the role of genetics in an individual’s personality and behavior. I thought it suffice to assume that the little girl must’ve learned multiple languages from her family, which made me think in the simplest terms: “What else do we inherit from our parents?” Dan Hurley’s article was the first stimulus article that brought up the topic of genetics and other factors that contribute…

1. DNA Structure and Function DNA is the type of organic compound that stores the genetic information in a living organism. DNA is made up of two strands of nucleotides, which include a phosphate group, five carbon sugar, and a nitrogenous base. Each individual strand in held together by strong covalent bonds (a bond formed as a result of the distribution of electrons between atoms). The two strands are then joined to each other by hydrogen bonds between complementary bases. There are four…

There are different forms and views of genetic engineering along with some pros and cons about the use of genetic engineering. The importance of genetic engineering is to find ways to make things better and to explore new things. Genetic engineering is basically tampering with the arrangement of amino acids in dna to change it or make something new. Interesting fact is that eighty percent of dna in a human body is unknown. The pros of genetic engineering are the agricultural growth and…