At one time, golden rice was just a wild idea that Ingo Potrykus thought up. Optimally, golden rice would improve the lives of millions of the poorest people in the world. The rice would contain beta-carotene which is the building block for vitamin A. However, imagining golden rice was one thing and bringing it into existence was another. He struggled for years with his colleagues to deal with the finicky growing habits of the rice they transplanted to a greenhouse near the foot hills of the Swiss Alps. Potrykus and his colleagues became successful in the spring of 1999. By creating golden rice, Potrykus wanted to be sure it would reach malnourished children of the developing world; those for whom it was intended. He knew that would not be easy because of the fact that the golden grains also contained snippets of DNA borrowed from bacteria and daffodils. Being a product of genetical engineering, Potrykus's product was entangled in a web of hopes, fears, and political baggage.
Until now, genetically engineered crops were created to resist insect pests or to control the growth of weeds by using herbicides. However, in this circumstance the genetically engineered rice not only benefits the farmers who grow it, but primarily the consumers who eat it. These consumers include at least a million children who die every year because they are weakened by vitamin-A deficiency and an additional 350,000 people who go blind. In addition to this concern, there is another. It is prospected that by the year 2020, the demand for grain, both for human consumption and for animal feed, is projected to go up by nearly half, while the amount of farmable land will probably dwindle, thus introducing a whole new series of problems.
There is only a short four step process that enables one to produce golden rice. The genes that give golden rice is its ability to make beta-carotene in its endosperm come from daffodils and a bacterium called Erwinia uredovora. These genes, along with promoters (segments of DNA that activate genes), are inserted into plasmids that occur inside a species of bacterium known as Agrobacterium tumefaciens. These agrobacteria are then added to a Petri dish containing rice embryos. As they "infect" the embryos, they also transfer the genes that encode the instructions for making beta-carotene. The transgenic rice plants must now be crossed with ...
... middle of paper ...
...nly be a matter of time before we are choosing what our children will look like.
Works Cited
Curry, Andrew. "New Genes? Cool Beans!." U.S. News & World Report, 9/11/2000. Vol. 129 Issue 10.
Epstein, Ron. "Why You Should Be Concerned About Genetically Engineered Food." August 2000. <http://mercury.sfsu.deu/~rone/gedanger.html> (15 Nov 2000).
Fischer, Joannie. "Passing on Perfection: Successes, and more cautions for gene therapy." U.S. News & World Report, 10/02/2000, Vol. 129, Issue 13.
Pennis, Elizabeth and Normile, Dennis. "Golden Grains," Science Now, 4 Aug 2000, p3.
Pure Food Campaign, The. What's Wrong With Genetic Engineering? June 2000. <http://www.geocities.com/athens/1527/text.html> (15 Nov 2000).
Robinson, Bina. "Golden Gift." Technology Review. Sept/Oct 2000, vol.103, p. 17-20.
Russo, Enzo and David Cove. Genetic Engineering: Dreams and Nightmares. New York: W.H.Freeman, 1995.
Spotts, Peter. "The Unwitting Labs of Genetic Modification." Christian Science Monitor, 9/5/2000. Vol. 92 Issue 1989.
Tangley, Laura. "Engineering the Harvest." U.S. News & World Report. 3/13/2000, Vol. 128, Issue 10.
Have you ever seen an animal sitting in a cage all alone with nothing to do. Well, zoos are trying to change that fact. They will allow the animals to live in an environment that is like their home. Many people don't realize this, but zoo are keeping and breeding these animals because they would not survive in the wild alone. In the three passages, ¨The Stripes Will Survive,¨ ¨The Zood Go Wild from No More Dodos,¨ ¨Our Beautiful Macaws and Why They Need Enrichment.¨ All of these articles present one claim, that is that the role of zoos is no longer to keep animal, but to protect them.
George Orwell creates a dark, depressing and pessimistic world where the government has full control over the masses in the novel 1984. The protagonist, Winston, is low-level Party member who has grown to resent the society that he lives in. Orwell portrays him as a individual that begins to lose his sanity due to the constrictions of society. There are only two possible outcomes, either he becomes more effectively assimilated or he brings about the change he desires. Winston starts a journey towards his own self-destruction. His first defiant act is the diary where he writes “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER.” But he goes further by having an affair with Julia, another party member, renting a room over Mr. Carrington’s antique shop where Winston conducts this affair with Julia, and by following O’Brien who claims to have connections with the Brotherhood, the anti-Party movement led my Emmanuel Goldstein. Winston and Julia are both eventually arrested by the Thought Police when Mr. Carrington turns out to be a undercover officer. They both eventually betray each other when O’Brien conducts torture upon them at the Ministry of Love. Orwell conveys the limitations of the individual when it comes to doing something monumental like overthrowing the established hierarchy which is seen through the futility of Winston Smith’s actions that end with his failure instead of the end of Big Brother. Winston’s goal of liberating himself turns out to be hopeless when the people he trusted end up betraying him and how he was arbitrarily manipulated. It can be perceived that Winston was in fact concerned more about his own sanity and physical well-being because he gives into Big Brother after he is tortured and becomes content to live in the society he hated so much. Winston witnesses the weakness within the prole community because of their inability to understand the Party’s workings but he himself embodies weakness by sabotaging himself by associating with all the wrong people and by simply falling into the arms of Big Brother. Orwell created a world where there is no use but to assimilate from Winston’s perspective making his struggle utterly hopeless.
Genetically modified food’s, or GMOs, goal is to feed the world's malnourished and undernourished population. Exploring the positive side to GMOs paints a wondrous picture for our planet’s future, although careful steps must be taken to ensure that destruction of our ecosystems do not occur. When GMOs were first introduced into the consumer market they claimed that they would help eliminate the world’s food crisis by providing plants that produced more and were resistant to elemental impacts like droughts and bacterial contaminants, however, production isn’t the only cause for the world’s food crisis. Which is a cause for concern because the population on the earth is growing and our land and ways of agriculture will not be enough to feed everyone sufficiently. No simple solutions can be found or applied when there are so many lives involved. Those who are hungry and those who are over fed, alike, have to consider the consequences of Genetically Modified Organisms. Food should not be treated like a commodity it is a human necessity on the most basic of levels. When egos, hidden agendas, and personal gains are folded into people's food sources no one wins. As in many things of life, there is no true right way or wrong way to handle either of the arguments and so many factors are involved that a ‘simple’ solution is simply not an option.
There are different animals at a zoo like, giraffes, zebras, gorillas, crocodiles, birds, etc… The popularity of zoos are very high because so many people visit zoos everyday. Also certain seasons you can feed some of the different animals, like a giraffe.
If families and children come along to zoos as often as the figures say then ideas will be put in their heads that it’s okay for animals to be trapped in small cages and that they are only there for our entertainment and not our educational needs.
It’s always fun to go with your friends and family to see cute and exotic animals when you go to the zoo, right? You may think that they have the best life having people to give them things that want and to protect them, but some of them are actually suffering just for our amusement from being in that small enclosure all day and all night. Animals should not be put in zoos because they can develop many mental and physical health problems due to the absence of some natural necessities and they are not always treated as nice as you think.
They get fed appropriately and stay in a safe habitat (Bringing). Zoos act as a safe haven for those specific species who are hunted for their goods (Zoos). Similarly, animals who are usually in danger because of poachers will be one hundred times safer in a zoo (animals). Animals in captivity or a zoo do not have to worry about being attacked by predators (animals). Animals live longer in zoos or captivity because they are in hands of veterinarians who specialize in the study of animals and their health. As well as, the animals don’t have to go through a lack of food, diseases that spread from animal to animal, and natural disasters that happen throughout the world (animals). In a zoo animals can avoid bullying and social ostracism that happens out in the wild. An example is when a member of that species group cannot keep up with the others, so they are left behind and end up dying (member). Zoos do not only keep the animals safe and breed them to make their population grow but also, let scientist and veterinarians learn more about them to help the others in the wild (zoos). Zoos are making a huge difference in the world by saving many creatures who have been critically endangered. Estimated about 21% of mammals, 12% of birds, and 33% of amphibians species have been recovered from critical to scarcely endangered (Estimated). Additionally, a consortium of Australian zoos have been campaigning to label products that
Statistics show that animals simply live longer in captivity. If taken care of correctly, most of those animals are noticeably happier. Most of the time, animals are taken away from their natural habitat under certain and drastic circumstances, not just to entertain the public. Many animals that come into a Zoo are sick or have been abandoned. Zoos help to maintain consistency in animal life, they are not destroying it. There are many people who have destroyed an animal 's natural habitat, by cutting down trees and dirtying their water sources. Thus, making it extremely difficult for the animal to find food and causes them to starve. Animals train their young ones how to survive on their own and if the parent of the young animal is deceased or out of sight it will not survive. This is when the decision is made for humans to raise and take care of the animals that have been left behind.
One of the many disadvantages animals have is being locked in cages of zoos, is to enjoy the quality of freedom and independence. The animals can’t enjoy the satisfaction of catching their own prey, or the relief of living in their own natural habitat. Plus, the size of the zoo provides for the animals is too small, so the animals don’t get the proper exercise like they would in the wild. Studies have shown tigers and lions have around 18,000 times less space in zoos then they would in their natural habitat. In fact , Woburn Safari Parks was keeping its lion...
Zoos display fascinating animals from all over the world for human entertainment, research, conservation, and education. Many scientists conduct studies on animals in captivity that they may not have been able to in the wild. Zoos educate all the visitors that come; they let people know everything that they know about the animals on display. We do learn a lot from these animals, but not all of the animals in the zoo are behaving like they normally would in the wild. Larger animals, such as elephants and orcas (commonly known as killer whales), have trouble with being confined in such a small area. However, many smaller animals benefit from zoos because they provide protection from predators, natural disasters, and poachers. They also benefit from conservation efforts; the babies being born get all the care they could ever need. Some animal rights activists are concerned that the conservation efforts are limiting the gene pool of the species. They argue that the small number of animals able to breed in captivity limits biodiversity and leads to weaknesses in the species overall. Zoos are wonderful places to study and learn about animals, but we need to improve the living standards for animals that struggle with captivity.
In some zoos, there is not enough room for the animals to live in. The cages for the animals are smaller than they should be. It is clear, to a certain degree, that some zoos do not have the proper space or living conditions for certain animals, but maybe it is the best that can be done for them at that moment. It may even be a temporary holding spot until they are moved. No one actually knows what is going on with or in the zoo; unless you work there. Zoos take the animals out of their environment. The constant human presence only serves as a stressor to most animals. This interrupts what is known as their normal behavior. Those in containment usually live in a big cage but they do everything on their own and it keeps poachers and hunters out as
The principle of reincarnation or rebirth is in Higher Intellectual Worlds only in a latent form. ‘REINCARNATION’ IS a derivation from one of the Greatest Principles Governing ‘THE UNIVERSE’ – ‘THE PRINCIPLE OF WORK & REST’. It is like Day & Night Cycle on a Larger Scale. In fact, The Entire Universe is organized around PRINCIPLE of REPETITION.
Zoos create the correct habitat, and have many programs that help them, this is why zoos are a good thing for animals. Some people say that zoos are good for animals because the zookeepers take care of them very well. Though some people say that zoos are not good for animals because it is like being trapped in a cage. So, the next time you see an animal lying behind bars you might actually think of the positive things about animals in zoos. Zoo animals get good care by the zookeepers, they also get to have the right habitat that they were meant for, so they can survive a long period of
Zoo animals are usually kept in very cramped enclosures and do not behave like their wild counterparts. Polar bears, for example, are given about 10 metres of walking space whereas in their Arctic home they roam for many hundreds of kilometres. Similarly, primates, big cats and birds are often confined in cages where they lack exercise and stimulation. Many animals develop unnatural habits such as pacing back and forth or swaying from side to side.
These beings can vary from an elephant to a kiwi and that is the reason why zoos are so popular. People love visiting zoos because they get to witness animals and birds doing the things they would do in the wild. But in reality they are forced to live in a cage or some enclosed chamber for the rest of their