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Andi the Genetically Modified Rhesus Monkey
October can be a month of festivity. Usually birthdays are revered and holidays are celebrated. In the October of 2000, however, an unusual birthday was commemorated. In that month, “Andi,” a transgenic animal, was born. The reason why his birth should be regarded with great esteem is not only that he was a genetically modified rhesus monkey, but that he is the first. The news was monumental for several reasons; namely, Andi is a close genetic cousin to humans. The experiment was a lengthy one and the outcome is a product well worth the effort on behalf of the scientific and global community. The experiment is a beneficial one, for an understatement is to deem it one of frivolity. Andi’s genesis marks a new chapter in the history of the planet. The key part in this chapter is the ability of humans to manipulate creation. The issue now is whether Andi is a great destructive force or a conglomeration of human intelligence. In the near future, the world will eventually feel the brunt of an explosion catalyzed by genetic manipulation and Andi is part of a lit fuse.
“Andi” is a backward acronym for “inserted DNA” that describes the method used by scientists at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center (ORPRC) in Beaverton. The lead scientists Gerald P. Schatten and Anthony W.S. Chan, along with their team, placed copies of the green fluorescent protein (GFP), found in jellyfish, in specialized viri: retroviri. Their main goal was to create a monkey with a new gene introduced in a laboratory, thus a transgenic monkey. The significance of the GFP gene was to provide quick, detectable, and vivid evidence of whether the experiment was successful. These “replication-defe...
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...oach such a topic. Humans are on the verge of something looming in the distance and must wait for it to slowly engulf their livelihood.
Bibliography:
Chan, Anthony. “Transgenic Monkeys Produced by Retroviral Gene Transfer into Mature Oocytes” Science. Vol. 291 (2001): p.309-312
“First Ever Genetically Modified Monkey Created”
Reuters Health 2
http://news.lycos.com/headlin.../article.asp?docid=RTHEALTH-MONKEY&date=2001011
“First Genetically Modified Primate Could Help Human Disease Research”
CNN
http://cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/01/11/modified.monkey.ap./index.html
“Scientists Create First Genetically Altered Monkey”
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49318-2001Jan11.html
“Scientists Genetically Engineer a Monkey”
Reuters Health 1
http://news.lycos.com/hea.../article.asp?docid=RTSCIENCE-MONKEY-DC&date=2001011
The Scopes Trial, formally known as The State of Tennessee vs. Scopes but given the nickname “The Monkey Trial”, has been credited as starting the popular legal dispute between evolution and creationism in the court, and its impact in the 20’s was immeasurable.
The evolution of man is constantly in question. While we are reasonably sure that modern humans and primates are both related to the same common ancestor, there is constant debate over what initially caused the two species to split into early hominids and apes. According to some, our longest and most popular theory on the division of man and ape is profoundly wrong. However, those same individuals usually offer an equally controversial theory as a substitute, one that is almost impossible to scientifically test or prove. Both the Savanna Theory and the Aquatic Ape Theory offer solutions to how and why humans evolved into bipedal toolmakers. But with enough questioning, each loses its accountability to rhetorical science.
Michael Ruse, The Darwinian Revolution, pub. 1979 by The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
Before Dolly the cloned sheep made news headlines, the same researchers had only the year before raised seven other sheep from oocytes whose nuclei had been replaced with nuclei from either fetal or embryonic tissue.1 This created a minor stir as this is the "first report to [their] knowledge, of live mammalian offspring following nuclear transfer from an established cell line."1 The implications of this is that they have provided techniques to analyze and modify gene functions in sheep (By providing clones of the same sheep).1 The key to their success is the "serum starvation" that the donor cell undergoes, to force the donor cell into a 'quiescent' state, so that it is not replicating its DNA or dividing. This possibly makes the nucleus more susceptible to re-programming by the recipient egg cell.
We all have curious questions and speculations about what is going to happen on Earth in the next few centuries. We all wonder what is going to be affected and how much of it is going to be affected by the rising speed of global warming. In this book, “The Long Emergency,” by James Howard Kunstler, he discusses what he thinks about “what is happening, what will happen, or what is likely to happen,” rather than what he wishes would happen in the future. He discusses his extreme concerns about the “modern” way of living, in which it may result in a depression for the economy. Kunstler negatively exaggerates many factors that can lead to what many people may usually think to be the “end of the world,” or an apocalypse. The book is mainly centered on the struggles of the cheap-oil age ending, and rebuilding our society with other energy sources for a sustainable way of living. After each argument, it seems that the foundation Kunstler constantly refers back to is that cheap oil is running out.
Technological advancement drives human society to change as it itself expands through research into the unknown. Often, new ideas exhibit a threat to the ancient fundamentals of society, leading to a protest of many remarkable innovations. In the study of biology, theorists have begun to propose change at a microscopic level, which will have a profound effect on society: genetically modifying the human species. Gregory Stock addresses the future of this concept in his book, Redesigning Humans. Using metaphor to enhance the journey into the future, substance to present the immense possibilities biological modification will introduce, and appeal to pathos to create fear and excitement, Stock argues that the rebirth of humanity is certain and the world should accept the change.
Cloning is a recent innovative technique the National Institute of Health defines as a process employed to produce genetically identical copies of a biological entity. Depending on the purpose for the clone, human health or even human life can be improved or designed respectively. “Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is the most common cloning technique. SCNT involves putting the nucleus of a body cell into an egg from which the nucleus has been removed."^1 From this technique, an embryonic cell is activated to produce an animal that is genetically identical to the donor. Today, human cloning still remains as a vision, but because of the success of Dolly, the lamb, researchers are becoming more confident in the ability to produce a genuine
More than seven billion people currently live in this world, and the number continues to increase.The human race has become like a mindless horde, it leaves nothing behind andconsumes everything in its path. Since the end of the Black Death in the fourteenth century,the human population has been growing steadily and it has been exploding since the 1950's.The resources are rapidly becoming depleted. There is massive environmental pollution that is increasing the global temperature and the sea levels are rapidly rising. In short the resources are rapidly getting depleted. In a similar way to the survivors in the zombie films, the human race feels helpless to stop this(Robson, 2013).
Lopez, Gerald Gabriel. "Gene Therapy: the Scientific vs. the Societal" The Resource. Jan. 1998. 10 Apr. 2001. .
Ever since the successful birth of Dolly on July 5, 1996, the scientific community as well as the public have been engulfed in the idea of reproductive cloning, its benefits, and its potential threats. This well-publicized event was a giant steppingstone in understanding and using the techniques of gene cloning and reproductive cloning. By using a technique known as Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer, scientists at the Roslin Institute removed the nucleus from an oocyte (unfertilized egg), and then fused this newly enucleated cell with a donor cell (with complete nucleus). This new embryo was then implanted into the womb of a surrogate mother ewe. In total, out of 277 fused cells, 29 successfully developed into embryos, while only one of these resulted in a successful live birth (a total success rate of 0.4%) (Wong, 202). Dolly was the first living mammal to be cloned by this fast and accurate process of somatic cell nuclear transfer, but was by no means the first animal to be cloned. The first...
... of climate change. Time is running short for the world to take action to preserve the equilibrium that maintains our atmosphere conducive to nurturing all life on earth.
Although humans have altered the genomes of species for thousands of years through artificial selection and other non-scientific means, the field of genetic engineering as we now know it did not begin until 1944 when DNA was first identified as the carrier of genetic information by Oswald Avery Colin McLeod and Maclyn McCarty (Stem Cell Research). In the following decades two more important discoveries occurred, first the 1953 discovery of the structure of DNA, by Watson and Crick, and next the 1973 discovery by Cohen and Boyer of a recombinant DNA technique which allowed the successful transfer of DNA into another organism. A year later Rudolf Jaenisch created the world’s first transgenic animal by introducing foreign DNA into a mouse embryo, an experiment that would set the stage for modern genetic engineering (Stem Cell Research). The commercialization of genetic engineering began largely in 1976 wh...
Scientists are messing with nature in the process of human genetic engineering. There is a
Lynas, Mark. "We Must Stop Trying to Engineer Nature." Genetic Engineering, edited by Noël Merino, Greenhaven Press, 2013. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context,
The natural sciences aim to propel our world into the future with new technology and ideas while going back to the beginning to begin to understand our world. How can we progress if we do not understand where we came from? This is why scientists want to perform various experiments on animals and humans alike. Experiments of this kind have been altered, slowed down, or completely brought to a halt as a result of morality's involvement. Scientists are able to place tracking agents in developing human embryos i...