Genetic Engineering

Amanda Bjork

BIO 108

Spring 2012

Genetic Engineering

Science and technology will always be evolving, and at a much higher rate than we do, the humans that gave it life. The evolution timeline from organism, to apes, to human is develops at a far slower rate than the time from analytical engine, to calculator, to computer and so on. But at the same time science has remained remote. It has permitted advances in production, transportation, and even entertainment. But science has never been able to so deeply impact our lives as it could do via genetic engineering. With the creation of this new technology, political zealots and conservatives often try to inspire fear of it by misinterpreting facts; they promote their hidden agendas in the halls of the United States Congress and Senate. Genetic engineering is a safe and powerful tool that will yield unprecedented results, specifically in the field of medicine and health. It will usher in a world where gene defects, bacterial disease, and even aging will be just a thing of the past. By understanding genetic engineering and its history, discovering its possibilities, and answering the morality/ethics and safety questions it brings forth, the blanket of fear covering this remarkable technological miracle can be lifted.

The first step to understanding genetic engineering, and embracing its possibilities for society, is to obtain a rough knowledge base of its history and method. The basis for altering the evolutionary process is dependent on the understanding of how individuals pass on characteristics to their offspring. Genetics achieved its first foothold on the secrets of nature's evolutionary process when an Austrian monk named Gregor Mendel developed the first laws of heredity. Using these laws, scientists studied the characteristics of organisms for most of the next one hundred years following Mendel's discovery. These early studies concluded that each organism has two sets of character factors, or genes. For...