Gene Yang

All things alive are made of cells. We humans have way too many to count. All the cells cluster and act together in the way so that we can function normally. Thanks to Agre and MacKinnon we now have more knowledge over molecular machines such ass channels, gates, and valves. The fact that water could go through the cell wall has always been a known thing, however, how the pores looked under function had been unknown. That is, until 1990 when Agre became the first to discover one. Chemical…

Gattaca is a film about conquering the human gene via genetic manipulation and how this technology cannot eradicate the problems of human nature. This assumes that to manipulate human genetics is justifiable and that human nature is a flaw. This film is about human nature triumphing over a society in which perfect DNA is the only measure of success. There are many examples of scientific advances in Gattaca. The main advance is genetic engineering and the ability to extract potential diseases of…

A plethora of internal and external variables combine to create individual personalities, behaviors and psychopathologies supposedly unique to every human being. The argument of genetic makeup versus environmental influences, however, has researchers working to determine what really shapes us. Some say genotypes control how people think, feel and behave. Others believe it is the environment alone that is responsible for molding humans into who they are. There is much unknown in this field, but…

Viruses are infective agents that are unable to support themselves and rely on other hosts for survival. Although they are not a living thing, viruses are able to infect humans, plants, bacterias etc. Depending on the type of virus, they target a specific organ or type of cells and inject their DNA or RNA in the cell to reorganize the genetic material of the cell. The cell then follows the new DNA instruction and produces more viral viruses. The adenoviridae, better known as adenoviruses, are a…

or insufficient enough, from birth restricts a person to a career not requiring an education, such as a cleaner. Creation of a new form of prejudice produces the idea of having greater or second-rate genes. The character, Vincent Freeman, contests his fate of being an “invalid” by purchasing the gene identity of Jerome Morrow, who has been genetically engineered to be “valid”. This movie can be viewed in different ways. A ‘perfectionist’s’ type of person may see this…

Trisomy is a cell that has three copies of one chromosome instead of having the normal two copies. Trisomy 21 is known as the congenital disorder Down syndrome. This occurs when each cell has three copies of chromosome twenty one rather than having a pair. Commonly, Down syndrome is caused by nondisjunction. Nondisjunction is "an error in which homologous chromosomes or sister chromatids fail to separate normally during meiosis or mitosis" (Huether,McCance pp.42). Scientists have discovered…

In some populations, alleles can be lost due to random events. Genetic drift reduces allele frequencies in smaller population, therefore, decrease genetic variation. It can eliminate alleles at a faster rate in smaller population until they become fixed in the population. On the other hand, alleles in a large population rarely become fixed by genetic drift. This indicates that genetic drift has a greater effect on a smaller population by getting rid of alleles at a faster rate. Genetic variation…

Title: Exploring the Factors Affecting Post-Wound Hair Regeneration in Mice. Hypothesis: We hypothesize that in mice large wound size increases the number of hair follicle because large wound will activate the Wnt pathway that is necessary for hair follicle regeneration in wounds. Independent variables being tested: The wound size of the mice. Dependent variables being tested: The number of hair follicle. Experimental Design: This experiment will be designed to determine if large wound size,…

This is because the targeted polymorphisms are more frequently found in Caucasians and African Americans. There might be other polymorphisms for the same gene that are more frequent in the people of Asian descent. - Another limitation is that since we are only testing for targeted polymorphisms, we cannot capture all the genetic variation for that gene in the…

He deduced that genes come in pairs and are inherited as distinct units, one from each parent. Mendel tracked the segregation of parental genes and their appearance in the offspring as dominant or recessive traits. He recognized the mathematical patterns of inheritance from one generation to the next. Mendel’s Laws of Heredity stated that each inherited trait is defined by a gene pair, genes for different traits are sorted separately so that the inheritance…