One of the books I read this semester was Double Helix. This book was about genetic diseases and genetic engineering. It was a very good book and I would suggest it to anyone even if they aren’t interested in genetics.
Genetic engineering (GE) or genetic modification (GM) is essentially these three things. Adding traits from another organism to produce a certain trait or protein, rearrange or take out DNA to eliminate genetic diseases, or turn on DNA that is already present but inactive.
The definition given by Merriam-Webster's Medical Desk Dictionary for genetic engineering is: Function: noun: the group of applied techniques of genetics and biotechnology used to cut up and join together genetic material and especially DNA from one or more species of organism and to introduce the result into an organism in order to change one or more of its characteristics —genetically engineered adjective —genetic engineer noun
Some organizations such as Green Peace and Union of Concerned Scientists oppose genetic engineering. The reasons for this is that corn that might be genetically engineered to produce some kind of medical ingredient night pollinate corn of the main food supply and contaminate it. This however would not hurt the corn pollinated just the corn planted from the seeds.
Then there are people who don’t know what they are talking about and are idiots for lack of a better word. These people are un educated on the subject and think they know what they are talking about. To the educated world we all see them for what they are (clueless), but when they start preaching to uneducated people we get into trouble. Look at this web site. Here is a preview of it. "Genetic engineering is the altering of a plant (or organism) by sewing part of another plant onto it----thus changing the first plant’s DNA, or gene blueprint" , "What are you gonna do when you’ve been eating the same brand of carrots for five weeks and your right ear overnight swells twice the size of your other ear" , "if I cross a redwood tree with a sunflower, I might get a reddish, wooden, five-hundred-foot-tall sunflower.", "Think of the potential if we crossed DNA from Michael Jackson to that of a trout. You’d get a small, weird, lighter-skinned opportunistic fish that jumps around a lot"These people give the others that are against it a bad name and it ends up making both of them look stupid. One sewing plants together in hope of combining DNA doesn’t work. Two I highly doubt you right ear will become larger than the other from eating GE carrots. The carrot is exactly the same as any other carrot except a gene might be turned on that makes it store more nutrients. Third the redwood sunflower thing just wouldn’t work, and even if it was possible, which it is not, why would you want to make a Michael Jackson fish.
Ok, now that I got that out of my system I think im better.
We also have the people for GE. This has done many good things for us. Some examples are that we inserted the human insulin gene into bacteria, this allows us to harvest pure human insulin for diabetics. It has also improved the food production industry. Now we can GE corn to make it sweeter, produce more kernels, and grow in a shorter time.
Before you make up your mind on how you feel about stuff like this please educate your self. I also think we should have better trust in our scientists. They studied this stuff and do it for a living. How would you like some guy or bum of the street telling you to do your job and what the consequence of your work might be. Just think about it.
If you actualy took time to read this thank you, I would like to hear what you have to say.
Genetic engineering (GE) or genetic modification (GM) is essentially these three things. Adding traits from another organism to produce a certain trait or protein, rearrange or take out DNA to eliminate genetic diseases, or turn on DNA that is already present but inactive.
The definition given by Merriam-Webster's Medical Desk Dictionary for genetic engineering is: Function: noun: the group of applied techniques of genetics and biotechnology used to cut up and join together genetic material and especially DNA from one or more species of organism and to introduce the result into an organism in order to change one or more of its characteristics —genetically engineered adjective —genetic engineer noun
Some organizations such as Green Peace and Union of Concerned Scientists oppose genetic engineering. The reasons for this is that corn that might be genetically engineered to produce some kind of medical ingredient night pollinate corn of the main food supply and contaminate it. This however would not hurt the corn pollinated just the corn planted from the seeds.
Then there are people who don’t know what they are talking about and are idiots for lack of a better word. These people are un educated on the subject and think they know what they are talking about. To the educated world we all see them for what they are (clueless), but when they start preaching to uneducated people we get into trouble. Look at this web site. Here is a preview of it. "Genetic engineering is the altering of a plant (or organism) by sewing part of another plant onto it----thus changing the first plant’s DNA, or gene blueprint" , "What are you gonna do when you’ve been eating the same brand of carrots for five weeks and your right ear overnight swells twice the size of your other ear" , "if I cross a redwood tree with a sunflower, I might get a reddish, wooden, five-hundred-foot-tall sunflower.", "Think of the potential if we crossed DNA from Michael Jackson to that of a trout. You’d get a small, weird, lighter-skinned opportunistic fish that jumps around a lot"These people give the others that are against it a bad name and it ends up making both of them look stupid. One sewing plants together in hope of combining DNA doesn’t work. Two I highly doubt you right ear will become larger than the other from eating GE carrots. The carrot is exactly the same as any other carrot except a gene might be turned on that makes it store more nutrients. Third the redwood sunflower thing just wouldn’t work, and even if it was possible, which it is not, why would you want to make a Michael Jackson fish.
Ok, now that I got that out of my system I think im better.
We also have the people for GE. This has done many good things for us. Some examples are that we inserted the human insulin gene into bacteria, this allows us to harvest pure human insulin for diabetics. It has also improved the food production industry. Now we can GE corn to make it sweeter, produce more kernels, and grow in a shorter time.
Before you make up your mind on how you feel about stuff like this please educate your self. I also think we should have better trust in our scientists. They studied this stuff and do it for a living. How would you like some guy or bum of the street telling you to do your job and what the consequence of your work might be. Just think about it.
If you actualy took time to read this thank you, I would like to hear what you have to say.
1 comment:
I think that genetic engineering is a good thing, to a certain extent. If we're experimenting to try and find a cure for cancer or cystic fibrosis or something, fine. But if we're messing with the genes of corn or rice or whatever, I think that is a bit extreme. The reason I feel this way is because we shouldn't need to be enhancing rice with iron or whatever in the first place. If we have to infuse certain genes in food to make it grow faster, what is that saying about the quality of our soil? The earth is being polluted and messed with, and that screws up our environment and the way things work. So if we put more laws into action restricting pollution, then maybe we wouldn't have to mess with the genes of corn.
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