Genetics Essay Example For Students

Genetics Essay GeneticsI interviewed Alicia Smith who attends the University of California at San Diego. I opened up the interview with a simple question asking her how she felt about the legality of the new rage in genetics: cloning. She said she thought that it is an extremely intriguing process but it should not be legal. I also asked her about how she felt on the subject of bringing back the dinosaurs. She said that even if we could come up with the dinosaur DNA, we wouldnt have the mediums to produce an actual dinosaur. In a recent movie titled Jurassic Park, their theory on bringing back dinosaurs was to use the blood from a misquito, that was preserved in hardened amber. She said it was a good idea but wouldnt work because there wouldnt be enough blood in the misquito to extract enough to get the DNA code. She had some very good thoughts on the subject of cloning humans. I asked her she thought that if we were to clone a human, would the clone act and think exactly the same as the original? She said No, for several reasons, the first being the fact that a good majority of personality and ability is impacted and created by the living environment therefore a clones personality and abilities will undoubtedly differ greatly from the original due to the different environment in which the clone will grow. The second major reason a clone would differ from the original concerns the complexity of genetics. One property of genetics is called incomplete penetrance. In basic terms it means that genes randomly can be ignored by the body. For example a certain percentage of people with the allele for a disease of incomplete penetrance will be normal (IE: not affected by the disease). Therefore, though a clone and its original have identical alleles, they may not both be affected by the same ones. Also, because females have two X chromosomes, by a process known as dosage compensation. An X chromosome in each cell is, in effect, turned off. Because this is a random process, it will be different in the clone than the original resulting indifferent traits. Genetics Essay achieved its first foothold on the secrets of natures evolutionary process when an Austrian monk named Gregor Mendel developed the first laws of heredity. Using these laws, scientists studied the characteristics of organisms for most of the next one hundred years following Mendels discovery. These early studies concluded that each organism has two sets of character determinants, or genes (Stableford 16). For instance, in regards to eye color, a child could receive one set of genes from his father that were encoded one blue, and the other brown. The same child could also receive two brown genes from his mother. The conclusion for this inheritance would be the child has a three in four chance of having brown eyes, and a one in three chance of having blue eyes (Stableford 16). Genes are transmitted through chromosomes which reside in the nucleus of every living organisms cells. Each chromosome is made up of fine strands of deoxyribonucleic acids, or DNA. The information carried on the DNA determines the cells function within the organism. Sex cells are the only cells that contain a complete DNA map of the organism, therefore, the structure of a DNA molecule or combination of DNA molecules determines the shape, form, and function of the organisms offspring (Lewin 1). DNA discovery is attributed to the research of three scientists, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, and James Dewey Watson in 1951. They were all later accredited with the Nobel Price in physiology and medicine in 1962 (Lewin 1). The new science of genetic engineering aims to take a dramatic short cut in the slow process of evolution (Stableford 25). In essence, scientists aim to remove one gene from an organisms DNA, and place it into the DNA of another organism. This would create a new DNA strand, full of new encoded instructions; a strand that would have taken Mother Nature millions of years of natural selection to develop. Isolating and removing a desired gene from a DNA strand involves many different tools. DNA can be broken up by exposing it to ultra-high-frequency sound waves, but this is an extremely inaccurate way of isolating a desirable DNA section (Stableford 26). A more accurate way of DNA splicing is the use of restriction enzymes, which are produced by various species of bacteria (Clarke 1). Business Ethics Essay I know that much of what Im writing is stuff that you already know, but Im doing it to make us both think about it more. Right now Michael is doing very well. He is just starting to have his share of problems. He is just beginning to waddle a bit and fall quite a lot. He also seems a bit awkward when walking around. And I hate to see when he is having difficulty rising from a standing or .