A Helix-Shaped Maze Genetic engineering is a concept that induces terrifying reactions in many people. Visions of disgusting and inhuman mutations tend to flash across the minds of those adamantly against any form of bioengineering. Genetic engineering is a science that is used to manually add DNA into an organism. The world has practiced forms of genetic modification for centuries from the simple to the extreme. Humans turned wolves into common household pets with a technique called selective breeding. Similarly, farmers turned an inedible weed into corn over years of careful and subtle manipulations. Now, science is changing drastically every day as new technologies are discovered. In one lifetime, we have seen a sheep cloned, different …show more content…
Scientists will be able to repopulate devastated ecosystems caused by humans. For example, a consequence of climate change resulted in predictions that estimate 15-40% of currently living species will be extinct by 2050. (Thomas, Roemer, Donlan, Dickson, Matocq, and Malaney). In his article, “The Mammoth Cometh,” Nathaniel Rich reports on the efforts of a group of scientists to bring back the extinct passenger pigeon as an attempt to diversify our current ecosystem. The entire de-extinction project relies on genetic engineering. If the team succeeds, then a whole world of new possibilities will open up. We would be able to bring back extinct species that our ecosystem may need to keep nature in balance. However, this projects seems more like a science fiction novel. The process of de-extinction is lengthy and unreliable and is not a stable option to help the environment. On the other hand, genetic engineering methods have the possibility of saving endangered species instead of bringing animals back from the dead. The article “Ecology: Gene tweaking for conservation” talks about the possibilities of a technique called facilitated adaptation, a process of giving an endangered species adaptive genetics that would aid in its survival. We could instead take a group of animals that have a diminished natural habitat, insert genes that could help them withstand the cold better, run faster, or have a more diverse diet to be able to successfully relocate to a thriving ecosystem. This new research not only helps endangered species and struggling ecosystems, it helps us better understand each species and what they need to
It was cold, dark, and he had no idea what was going on all he can remember partially of his name. He had started hearing conspicuous noises. He then looked at the sides of the chained wall. He saw this terrifying creature, then jolted back as soon as he saw it. Everything had just stopped and the top of the room opened up. This guy had then jumped down and brought him up and said, “Day one greenie.” As soon as he got up he started to run. But after 5-10 seconds he then fell. The guy who brought him up told him, “As long as you’re here you’ll never run again.”
Who doesn’t love a poor chuddy kid that justs wants to have fun. In the Maze Runner Chuck fits this role perfectly. I think that Chuck’s death is a major turning point for Thomas and the entire series. In this chapter I will discuss Chuck, his loyalty and death. First Chuck is an unfortunate serotype: The chubby kid who is lonely and sometimes left out.
Hey you, Yeah… YOU! Would you want to live in a society where you live in a box for your entire life, and mean absolutely nothing to the just about anyone? For science right? NOPE! Obviously, Societies fall as a result of a corrupt government, Failing Social Structure, and Sickness. It is due to these factors that many great societies such as Greece, Rome, and the society depicted in the book Maze Runner fall.
Genetic engineering will pose a threat to the life of humans. This is because the human body is very complicated and any tampering with the complex network of 22,000 genes can have unexpected and harmful consequences. Genetic engineering will also increase the unjust social class division and would only advantage the elite and the rich people in the society. Genetic engineering in “Designer Babies” will not give people the ability to choose what they want to pursue in their life. Therefore, genetic engineering should be banned so that its potential ruinous effects can be prevented. It is wrong in every aspect and should be declared illegal for the betterment of humanity in the near
In Jorge Luis Borges' "Garden of Forking Paths", we find the protagonist as a Chinese English professor Yu Tsun who is a spy for the German army, obviously chased by his enemy, Richard Madden who is an Irishman at the service of the English army. At first glance, Yu Tsun may seem to be a "loyal" member of the German army but he manifests a characteristic throughout the story as being the oppressed member of the army. It seems that Yu Tsun shows a "desperate desire of the oppressed to be accepted by its oppressors." Yu Tsun doesn't care about Germany which imposed upon him the objection of being a spy. He even refers to the chief as a sick and hateful man and that he only needs to prove to him that a "yellow man" could save his armies. It's ironic because it clearly shows that Yu Tsun is oppressed because of his race (Yellow=Chinese) and yet he still serves the one oppressing him and even seeks its approval. He seems to be struggling in a Labyrinth of oppression, forever lost within its walls. This is just one of the Labyrinths that Yu Tsun is engaged/ trapped in. The story speaks about a certain Labyrinth, that which is related to Tsui Pen, a book which is composed of different chapters that seem to be diverging from a single path which also creates its own diverging paths. This particular part in the story challenges/ questions the common notion of time as being a linear process and instead raises a possibility of history branching out in an endless number of diverse directions at each spot in time; every space-time node as the midpoint of a system of branching or forking paths, an ever-recurring moment/place of selection with profound effects on and links to everything else. The book represents a Labyrinth of time "where all possible outcomes occur; each one is the point of departure for other forkings which sometimes converge" ( 22). Also, before going inside Albert's house, Yu Tsun got lost in the garden, which seemed like a maze. This is the result of his pondering over his ancestor's Labyrinth; Getting caught in this maze allowed the reader to reflect over a different perspective about real life. This maze represented the numerous paths that a person can travel and all of the outcomes from these paths. Thus, I can infer that the imagination is one of the representations of the Labyrinth.
Through millions of years of evolution, well-balanced habitats have co-evolved to provide for the wide variety of species and their needs. Trees have adapted to weeds, weeds have adapted to the predation from herbivores, and so on up the food chain. Similar scenarios are seen throughout the world. Through the process of natural selection, specific species or broad species families will go extinct. However, these occurrences have largely been due to the natural flow and evolution of time. It wasn’t until recently that dominant species, such as humans, have taken the course of nature into their own hands.
Instead of changing things to better the future, learning from the past and moving forward people believe they can just fix the problems with technology. The film, From Billions to None: The Passenger Pigeon’s Flight to extinction, touches on the de-extinction movement. De-extinction is a controversial concept that seeks to recreate a previously extinct species by using remnants of that species’ DNA, which could potentially increase genetic variability of species. This method is being studied with some success for passenger pigeons at a small scale and is potentially a path to learning more about the bird, or a path to the first bird in history to go extinct twice. The wisdom of learning from failure and mistakes is unquestionable. Yet it is extraordinarily rare. This gap is not due to a lack of eagerness to learning, but many to not know where to begin and have different versions of helping the earth be sustained and renewed. There are a vast amount of people genuinely interested in wanting to help and learn from past wrongs to improve future performance of ecosystems and nature’s web. We must know about the changes happening in the environment and make a conscious effort to not follow in the foots steps of our predecessors of taking for granted the wild environment and to begin a new path to live in harmony with the rest of the
Genetic engineering has been around for many years and is widely used all over the planet. Many people don’t realize that genetic engineering is part of their daily lives and diet. Today, almost 70 percent of processed foods from a grocery store were genetically engineered. Genetic engineering can be in plants, foods, animals, and even humans. Although debates about genetic engineering still exist, many people have accepted due to the health benefits of gene therapy. The lack of knowledge has always tricked people because they only focused on the negative perspective of genetic engineering and not the positive perspective. In this paper, I will be talking about how Genetic engineering is connected to Brave New World, how the history of genetic engineering impacts the world, how genetic engineering works, how people opinions are influenced, how the side effects can be devastating, how the genetic engineering can be beneficial for the society and also how the ethical issues affect people’s perspective.
Long-term survival of a species depends on its ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions (Murphy, 1994). Genetic diversity within a species, which has taken 3.5 billion years to evolve, makes adaptations to these changing environments possible. Unfortunately, the rate of extinction of genetically diverse organisms is rapidly increasing, thus reducing this needed biodiversity, largely due to the human impacts of development and expansion. What was an average of one extinction per year before is now one extinction per hour and extinct species numbers are expected to reach approximately one million by the year 2000 (WWW site, Bio 65). As a result governmental and societal action must be taken immediately!
Science and technology are rapidly advancing everyday; in some ways for the better, and in some, for worse. One extremely controversial advance is genetic engineering. As this technology has high potential to do great things, I believe the power genetic engineering is growing out of control. Although society wants to see this concept used to fight disease and illness, enhance people 's lives, and make agriculture more sustainable, there needs to be a point where a line is drawn.
In spite of the overwhelming amount of negative speculation, the practice of de-extinction might potentially produce some positive ramifications. According to Stewart Brand, a writer for National Geographic, humans should bring back extinct species “to preserve biodiversity, to restore diminished ecosystems...and to undo harm that humans have caused in the past.” If humans were to tamper with nature and bring back an extinct animal, desolate ecosystems which previously thrived, such as deserted islands, could be partially restored through their
Human Genetic Engineering: Designing the Future As the rate of advancements in technology and science continue to grow, ideas that were once viewed as science fiction are now becoming reality. As we collectively advance as a society, ethical dilemmas arise pertaining to scientific advancement, specifically concerning the controversial topic of genetic engineering in humans.
Various plant and animal species depend on each other for what each offers and these diverse species ensures natural sustainability for all life forms. A healthy and solid biodiversity can recover itself from a variety of disasters. It is estimated that the current species extinction rate is between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than it would naturally be. Therefore, there is an urgent need, not only to manage and conserve the biotic wealth, but also restore the degraded ecosystems. c) Captivity breeding species can again be reintroduced into the wild.
Thousands of species have become extinct over the last four decades as a result of changes in land use and as a result of global warming. Whether or not the millions of species can adapt and evolve to climate changes is debatable. As this brief overview will report, the human species is not adapting well to the changes. It must be remembered that increases in the levels of carbon dioxide are certainly responsible for the risk many species face, but so is the way land is used, e.g., rain forest destruction. There is a feedback loop wherein plant life and the climate are interdependent. Each affects the other. When forests are cut down, temperatures in that area will rise. Rising temperatures cause other plant life requiring cooler temperatures To die off.
Scientists and the general population favor genetic engineering because of the effects it has for the future generation; the advanced technology has helped our society to freely perform any improvements. Genetic engineering is currently an effective yet dangerous way to make this statement tangible. Though it may sound easy and harmless to change one’s genetic code, the conflicts do not only involve the scientific possibilities but also the human morals and ethics. When the scientists first used mice to practice this experiment, they “improved learning and memory” but showed an “increased sensitivity to pain.” The experiment has proven that while the result are favorable, there is a low percentage of success rate. Therefore, scientists have concluded that the resources they currently own will not allow an approval from the society to continually code new genes. While coding a new set of genes for people may be a benefitting idea, some people oppose this idea.