Genetic Research & Accomplishments
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Genetics today is on the cutting edge of biological science, and scientists working in this area are involved in a wide variety of pursuits that will have profound implications for our future on this planet, with projects including the creation of new biologic entities, curing diseases, manufacturing synthetic versions of biologic substances, identifying different genetic codes and what they do, and perhaps finding a way to control that genetic information to produce animals with certain characteristics or without certain characteristics, including greater strength, resistance to disease, and a higher yield in meat, eggs, dairy products, or whatever they provide. Geneticists have already accomplished many of these things with grains, plants, and even certain farm animals. They are addressing disease through the creation of new strains of bacteria by means of recombinant DNA technology. Speculation about the future may be surpassed by the reality in a very few years. Cloning is one of the techniques being used in genetic research and offers the promise of the development of new strains of plants and animals with specific traits. Cloning and other genetic research is also applicable to human beings, and this raises a number of ethical issues which have to be addressed before such research proceeds--if it is to proceed at all. Indeed, there is good reason to decide in favor of caution if not an outright ban on the engineering of human beings.
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gineering techniques based on recombinant DNA permit genetic exchanges between species that do not normally interbreed thus offering the opportunity for us to transcend the limits imposed by nature on hereditary processes. Using these techniques, scientists can manipulate genes individually by directly modifying the DNA molecules in which genetic information is encoded. This means that the technique has the potential to transform the genes of all species into a global resource that can be used to shape novel life forms obedient to the scientist rather than to the dictates of natural selection (Suzuki and Knudtson 115-116).
The sorts of genetic changes science has been seeking can be seen in the recently announcement by a combination of U.S. and British researchers that they have genetically engineered sheep and goats to secrete drugs in their milk as a means of giving the biotech industry a streamlined means for producing many pharmaceuticals. The livestock produced in this manner are called transgenics because their cells contain foreign genes which direct the production of proteins with medicinal purposes. Goats developed at Tufts University and Genzyme Corporation in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for example, bear the gene for
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Some common words found in the essay are:
, David Heyd, Brownlee Silberner, Researchers Scotland, Cambridge Massachusetts, DNA DNA, Suzuki Knudtson, Institute Scotland, Institutes Health, Animal Pharmacy, hereditary material, genetic engineering, ethical issues, recombinant dna, plants animals, experiments human, walnut trees, gene cloning, dna molecules, cloning human, animals specific traits, hereditary material contained, hereditary material via,
Approximate Word count = 2589
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)
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