Recombinant DNA

Genetic engineering of designer babies is wrong not only because both unwanted traits and germline transmission of DNA can occur, but, lastly it is unpredictable and can cause an imbalance in the world. Once the genetically engineered enter into the world they can have a negative impact on the “regular people”. People cannot be sure how a baby that had cells manipulated and changed will act in society. There was a case where 30 genetically modified babies were born “healthy” after a series of…

This week’s readings have to do with race and genetics in correlation with biomedicine. In Troy Duster’s Race and Reification in Science, he talked about the ability to use genomic knowledge and apply it to the pharmaceutical field. Anne Fausto-Sterling’s The Bare Bones of Race talked about, the racial difference in bone density and uses and definitions of race in medicine. Joan H. Fujimura, Troy Duster, and Ramya Rajagopalan’s collective piece, Special Issue on race, Genomics, and Biomedicine,…

This experiment is a hypothetical representation, modelling the effects of colour mutations in “prey” and vision mutations in “predators”, and their role in natural selection. This means that different materials in this experiment represent real-life organisms and environments. The sand-coloured background represents a sand environment, while the green background represents a grass environment. The individual conducting the experiment is acting as the “predator” (bird) and the tweezers used by…

The four forces of evolution include mutation, gene flow, genetic drift, and natural selection. Mutation occurs when the base pairs in DNA change which leads to different codons being read during translation. Most mutations create codons for the same amino acid that the normal codon would have made but sometimes a different amino acid is made and that leads to changes in the organism's phenotype. Gene flow happens when two different populations come together and reproduce with each other. The…

It has been proven that yeast can grow on both YPD and SD plates. In this lab we cross several yeast strains through the process called replica plating. For this identification test only one dominant allele is required. One copy of each gene is essential to produce enough of each enzyme needed in order to make a histidine. Through the study of Saccharomyces cerevisiae we prove that by transferring yeast cells onto YPD and SD plates over a period of 24-72 hours in a thirty degrees Celsius…

Science and medicine go hand in hand, especially as it works with genes and DNA. Research and study of genetics has uncovered some underlying disorders that can now be treated because of science. Stem cells have been known to have multiple benefits when it comes to medicine. This research has not only generated treatments for health…

scientific knowledge and technological field. With this increasing knowledge the boundaries have become a thin line as the drive for discovery grows. In an alternate world such as GATTACA, technology dictates the lives of its citizens. From birth to death, DNA samples are taken that inform people of your entire history. With such an intrusive system the boundaries of science are called into question. Advancements today make it possible for such technology to exist however, ethical issues arise…

‘’Every child is a different kind of flower, and all together, they make this world a beautiful garden.’’- Unknown Some essential qualities come from a single gene, whereas others come from gene combinations. Everybody on earth has about 25,000 different genes, and because of this, there are so many outcomes that a person can consist of (What Is a Gene?). That’s what makes us all unique. Sometimes, in people’s genes, there are malfunctions. These malfunctions can cause all sorts of genetic…

The endospore is a quiescent and tough structure that is form by some gram-positive bacteria that allows them to survive in harsh and extreme environments. Because only some genera of bacteria produces the endospore, its identification is important in helping us identify some bacteria. 2. What type of eukaryotic cells did we observe and how were they different from the prokaryotes we have looked at? (Be sure to include ways they are different internally as well as any observable traits) The…

The concept of “blending” as championed by such scholars as Aristotle and Hippocrates states that any trait that an offspring receives is the average of both of its parents. This concept was widely believed until Mendel’s experiments. Incomplete dominance occurs when the heterozygous phenotype is an intermediate between both of the homozygous genotypes. This concept is demonstrated best through the inheritance of petal color in a snapdragon. In a heterozygote the phenotype would be pink, a mix…