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Importance of genetically modified organisms
Potential benefits of genetic engineering
Potential benefits of genetic engineering
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Recommended: Importance of genetically modified organisms
Genetically modified organisms are now common place in agriculture and medicine. Genetically modified organisms also known as GMO’s are organisms that have had genes from another organism implanted into them. Genetic modification has been in use in agriculture to make plants and animals better producers. In the last ten or so years GMOs have begun to develop other new and unusual uses outside of traditional agriculture. One useful thing being researched is creating goats engineered to produce spider silk.
Spider silk, specifically silk from the Gold Orb spider, is a very durable natural fiber. It is as strong as steel while being lighter and more flexible (1998 GM Gosline alt). This fiber, if it could be efficiently produced, could be used to produce everything from clothing to artificial tendons. However there are many factors that make spiders difficult to raise efficiently.
For a start spiders are very territorial and if not given enough space will kill any other spiders in the area (Miles O’Brien 5/10/10). The need for space makes habitats that would keep the spiders from killing each other were too expensive to make production cost efficient (Jeffery Turner 1/31/2014). Because of these difficulties the only know uses of natural spider silk have been in crafting cross hairs on pre-world war one time guns and a cloak made of golden spider silk which took four years and over 1 million spiders to create. In both of these projects the silk had to be harvested by hand from wild spiders (Haddly Legget 9/23/09). For these reasons scientist have turned to alternative ways to get spider silk.
In the late 1990s a biotechnology company called Nexia began research into creating a material they called “Bio-Steel”. Bio-steel was made to be ...
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...- the First Spider Goat Clones in Utah." Standard-Examiner. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.
Scientists Breed Goats That Produce Spider Silk." Scientists Breed Goats That Produce Spider Silk. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.
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O.Brien, Miles. "Research Areas." Nsf.gov. N.p., 03 May 2010. Web. 07 April 2014
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Fitzpatrick, Michael. "From Spiders, a Material to Rival Kevlar - Fortune Tech." Fortune Tech Technology Blogs News and Analysis from Fortune Magazine RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2014
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Carl Zimmer an evolution scientist wrote an article called” Bringing Them Back to Life”. In July 2003 a group of scientists brought back the bucardo to life. The bucardo is a wild goat that was found in the mountains of the Pyrenees. In 1989 it was found that there were only slightly over a dozen of the goats left. “Ten years later a single bucardo remained: a female nicknamed Celia.” (Zimmer, 445) Bucardos were officially extinct, however, Celia’s cells remained preserved in labs. For a few years a team of reproductive psychologists led by Jose Folch injected nuclei from Celia’s cells into goat eggs removed of their own DNA, they then implanted the eggs into surrogate mothers (Zimmer, 445) Over 57 implantations, only one was born. The clone was born with several problems and died quickly.
While working, there were people who would come from remote areas and watch her weave skillfully. On page 19, the text says, “If Athene herself were to come were to come down and compete with me, she could do no better than I.” Her bold action was challenging Athene, a goddess, to a weaving competition. Additionally, on page 19, “Arachne herself flushed red for a moment, for she had really believed that the goddess would hear her.” Arachne took an action that could possibly embarrass herself. During their competition, Arachne had designed “a pattern of which showed evil or unworthy actions of the gods, how they had deceived fair maidens, resorted to trickery, and appeared on earth from time to time in the form poor and humble people.” and Athene had designed “a border of twined branches of the olive, Athene’s favorite tree, while in the middle, figures began to appear. As they looked at the glowing colors, the spectators realized that Athene was weaving into her pattern a last warning to Arachne.” Athene had created that embroidery to warn Arachne, and Arachne made an embroidery to disgrace the goddess. Arachne’s bold action caused Athene to be angry and then turned Arachne into a spider. Arachne’s consequence for her bold action was her descendants and herself to turn into
A GMO is a plant or animal that has been genetically engineered with DNA from bacteria, viruses, or other plants and animals. Most of the combinations which are used could not possibly occur in nature on its own. The intention of the process is to create a new beneficial trait such as creating its own pesticide or make it immune to herbicides. This would allow the crop such as Bt co...
Throughout history, there have been hundreds of urban legends that have been told over and over again and have been passed down through generations. Over the years, there has also been much debate as to whether or not these legends are myths or if they actually have some truth to them. One legend in particular that there has been a debate on is The Spider Bite legend. This Legend has been told dating all the way back to the 1970’s and has had many variations of the story ever since. There has been extensive research throughout the years as to whether or not this legend is actually possible and although evidence has showed that this legend is most likely just a myth there have been stories in the news that have questioned the validity
Rahman, Anatol. "New Material Can Make Ultra-light And Better Bulletproof Armor." The Tech Journal RSS. 13 Nov. 2012. Web. 10 May 2014.
silk from spiders is not cost effective, so most research is focused on synthesis of spider silk
I first came across Spider Woman in the text of “The Way to Rainy Mountain” by N. Scott Momaday. He mentions Spider Woman over the course of several pages as a progressive continuation of the Kiowa Legend. (Picked up on Momaday 22) The story starts out by telling of a little girl who becomes the wife of the Sun. She and the Sun have a male child. When the woman becomes homesick she creates a rope which she uses to climb back down to the earth with the child on her back. She is killed by the Sun who is angered by her disobedience causing the child to fall to the earth. (Momaday 24) This is where the Spider Woman comes in.
When dinosaurs ruled the Earth spiders weaved their lives beneath them. When the dinosaurs became extinct spiders adapted and are still living with us today. Their only real enemy and threat to their existence is Man.
In this day and age, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) have become a topic of large interest in the media. GMOs are defined as an organism whose genetic structure has been altered by incorporating a gene that will express a desirable trait (Dresbach et al. al. 2013). Often times, these traits that are selected are either beneficial to the consumer or producer. Currently, GMOs are being created at a higher rate than ever before and are being used in the foods that we eat.
The tarantella has a very interesting history. Its name derives from a little southern town of Italy called Taranto. It was believed that if a spider called the tarantula bit the townspeople, the only way to survive its bite was to do a dance called the Tarantella. The locals believed this was the only cure. If the people bitten did not dance they would suffer severe pain, muscle spasms, vomiting; most eventually died.
This new invention had many better qualities and/or abilities than any other material in use already. Nylons are mostly known for their abilities to be dyed, to be unharmed by many kinds of household cleaning products or greases and oils, its rapid drying time, and above all, its silk-like appearance (The World Book). Nylons¡¯ tensile strength is greater than that of cottons, rayon, silk, and wool (Encarta). They also have characteristics that include elasticity, easy to clean,...
Arachnida is a subphylum of Arthropoda, consisting of over 100 000 species, many of them being parasites which can carry disease. They are found in all environments, and mostly have eight legs, which is a feature, together with the fact that they do not have wings or antennae, often used to distinguish them from the other subphyla, though there are exceptions. They include spiders, scorpions, ticks and mites. Their bodies are divided up into three parts: the cephalothorax, the opisthosoma and the thorax, and use a type of lung for gas exchange. Most Arachnids are carnivorous, and eat pre-digested insects and other small animals. They reproduce using internal reproduction usually lay eggs, except for the scorpion which bears living young. The word ‘Arachnid’ comes from the Greek word ‘Arachne’ meaning ‘spider’.
Vectran is 5 to 10 times stronger than steel. They have another rapidly emerging fiber called spider silk. The resulting spider silk is biosteel. A strand of biosteel can be up to 20 times stronger than a strand of steel. To have a hard body armor, you have to make it out of thick ceramic or metal plates.
Jha, Alok. "First British Human-animal Hybrid Embryos Created by Scientists | Science | The Guardian." Latest News, Comment and Reviews from the Guardian | Guardian.co.uk. Web. 06 Apr. 2011. .
Many, many things that we wear, sleep on, sleep under, walk on, or utilize in wound-care, etc., contain some percentage of cotton. It is a fiber that is used everyday, by everyone, in one way or another. It has qualities that have made it a choice crop for centuries around the world. Today though, cotton is being largely displaced by synthetic fibers that have qualities that exceed the natural crop plant. These fibers can also be mass-produced and sold at relatively lower costs.