Annotated Bibliography Essay

Nolan Erckert 4/19/14

University Biology Genetics Annotated Bibliography

Baron-Cohen, Simon. “Autism and the Technical Mind.” Scientific America Nov.-Dec. 2012: 72-75. Print.

The author of the article writes about several studies his colleague and him performed, including a study on nearly 2,000 families in the U.K. This study, about the link between autism and the father of an autistic child being an engineer, showed that 12.5% of fathers of autistic children were engineers compared with the 5% of fathers of non-autistic children. This might indicate that engineers might carry a small amount of the autism gene but not enough to be shown in their own bodies, but when passed down to their children and mixed with someone else who was related to an engineer and may also carry some small amount of the autism gene, they might pass on enough of the autism gene to show in their child. They conducted another study were they looked at the effect of testosterone on people being autistic and found that not only were more men autistic than girls, but girls that were autistic were more masculine than usual. They would show “tomboyism” in toy-choice, and they had an elevated rate of polycystic ovary syndrome. I find this to be interesting because it means that if someone I know is not autistic but is in a technical-minded field and is married to someone in a technical-minded field, then I know that they’re chances of having an autistic child is substantially increased, and if I marry a technical-minded person then my kids have a higher chance of autism as well.

Kratz, Rene and Donna Siegfried. “How Sexual Reproduction Creates Genetic Variation.” Biology for

Dummies. 2nd ed. 2010. Print.

In this section of the book, the author(...

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...s to disease. I feel that with this knowledge, people will be more open to people who look or feel out of place and help them to feel not lonely.

Yeager, Ashley. "Gene Therapy with Electrical Pulses Spurs Nerve Growth." Science News. N.p., 23 Apr. 2014. Web.

25 Apr. 2014.

This article talks about how the electrical current from a cochlear implant helped guide corrective genetic material into the inner ear cells of deaf guinea pigs and stimulated nerve regeneration. The treatment improved the animals’ hearing sensitivity and range. The gene therapy technique, which does not use viruses that could induce immune reactions, may be able to improve the hearing of people with cochlear implants in the near future. It may also have applications in deep brain stimulation. I find this interesting because it could mean we are on the way to finding a cure to deafness.