Models of DNA Structure

So my group and I created a structure of DNA on the white bored and took a picture of it. We had decided to do it differently than everyone else's. Then we answers some questions about the structure of DNA and how it kind of works.

 

Old school DNA sequencing: Sanger method

So there are many ways that you are able to record DNA. This one was the old way, which was quite difficult to do with out getting confused a little or lost with the multiple lines of coding. Back then they didn't have computer to do them automatically like we do now. I had to read the bottom to the top and make sure it was all done correctly otherwise I would either have to many letters or not enough.

From DNA to Proteins: Central Dogma Vocabulary

I created a Popplet with definitions to show the definitions and that I was able to understand them.
http://popplet.com/app/#/1781706 If you go here, it will take you to the popplet.

GATTACA Reflection Questions

Questions about GATTACA!

Choose several of the following questions to discuss in a blog post reflection on the movie GATTACA. This reflection might be used as an artifact on your portfolio page 4 and could help demonstrate your awareness of the effects of science and technology upon society.

1. The following terms were used in the movie. How do they relate to the words we use: degenerate and invalid?

        De-gene-erate

        In-valid

        Borrowed Ladder

2. Why do you think Vincent left his family, tearing his picture out of the family photo, after winning the swimming race against his brother?

So I thin Vincent left his family because they didn't support him in his dream, they thought he could never do it because he was invalid.

3. Describe the relationship between Vincent and Anton.

The relationship between Vincent and Anton is kind of difficult at times because Anton was the perfect child while Vincent was invalid. Vincent and Anton competed in swimming the furthest and every time Anton won until the last time they swam and Vincent won. In the end they still were brothers and loved one another.

4. When Jerome Morrow said to Vincent/Jerome, “They’re not looking for you. When they look at you, they only see me,” what did he mean? Can you find any parallels to this type of situation in real life?

When Jerome said that to Vincent, he meant that they don't see beyond what his information his because his information says it all. It's like what people say it's not what is on the outside but what is on the inside.

5. Choose your favorite character from the film. Explain why you choose that person. Would you want to be that person? Why? Why not?

My favorite character had to be Vincent because even when people told him he could never go to outer space he never listened but instead strived to be better and live his dream. Even though he was invalid he accomplished more than anyone could dream and he strove so hard to be better. Although I would never want to be him because those aren't my dreams at all.

6. At the end of the film, you are told that the Doctor knew about Vincent all along. Why did the Doctor go along with the fraud? What would you have done if you were the Doctor?

So in the end the doctor did knew about Vincent all along but he went along with it all this time because he to had a son with dream and problems. His son had looked up to Vincent and the doctor knew how hard he worked to get to where he was. If I were to be in the same situation as the doctor I would help Vincent accomplish his dream. I would not want to be the one to destroy his dreams. He was not causing anyone problems or putting anyone in dangerous situation because he was able to control himself.

7. The technology to do what was done in the movie is definitely possible within the next ten years. Do you think that Vincent’s world could eventually happen in America? Why?

I do think that Vincent's world could eventually happen in America because everyday in America there are people working to improve our technology. Every year the improvement to our technology is tremendous.

8. What do you think is wrong with the society portrayed in "GATTACA"? What is right?

The society in GATTACA is portrayed as the perfect people could accomplish anything they wanted to because they were not messed up or had a disease. The people who were sick or had some type of disease were automatically put at the bottom and kind of looked down upon. Vincent had a heart disease and because of that he wasn't allowed to do much. I thought of this to be very wrong because the dreams of many people were taken away without even having a fighting chance to them.

9. What were the screenwriters trying to tell us through the episode of the 12-fingered pianist? Is anything wrong with engineering children to have 12 fingers if, as a result, they will be able to make extraordinarily beautiful music?

The screen writers were trying to tell us that you can have a child with any feature or can do anything by putting the right gene together that you want them to have. I truly think that having twelve fingers is wrong just to make extraordinary music. We are not mean to have twelve fingers only ten, even if the parent want that they should not be able to go through with it.

10. You and your spouse are having a child and are at the Genetic Clinic pictured in the movie. What characteristics would you want for your child and what would you ask to be excluded? Why would you make those choices?

  If me and my spouse were to have children and go to the Genetic Clinic like in the movie, all I would ask is to have a healthy child that resembled both my spouse and I. I would love for them to play sports but I would not want them to be made for them because I would rather them make their own choices rather than them having to live up to a picture perfect future. It's not right!

11. Picture yourself as either Vincent, Jerome, or Anton. Would you have acted the same or done things differently if you were in the same world as them?

If I were to be in the same situation as Vincent and Jerome then I would do the same thing because I would want to prove everyone wrong on what they think and believe. Just because something is wrong with you doesn't mean you have to revolve your world around it.

12. How does the society portrayed in GATTACA resemble the type of society that some Americans were hoping for during the height of the Eugenics movement?

The society in GATTACA is resembled to stop all of the bad characteristics that kids can have. The healthy people or kind of put on a pedal stool while the sick or not healthiest people or put down at the bottom. They believe that only the healthy people can do stuff while the unhealthy are a inconvenience.

Copying the Code: examining the evidence Worksheet

In class we were given time to go on the internet and answer these question and then right them down.

DNAi Timeline a scavenger hunt

So during this scavenger hunt I was able to obtain a lot of different information about the different scientists and what what they were able to do. There were quite a bit and yet there is still more but it was very crazy all the different thing they had done.

Eugenics

Eugenics

    So many people may be wondering, what exactly is eugenics? Well it was a time when people believed that sterilizing all of the people that weren't in their eyes perfect humans. This was wrong on so many levels because they thought that if they sterilize them there would never be another one of them. If you were not the perfect race or you were blind and handicapped in any other way, you were to be sterilized. You were not given much of a choice at that time. They would even go against your will, it was all up to the people around you. So if you were ever going to be able to reproduce  the  people around you would decide or if they felt like you weren't right then you would just be sterilized. Sometimes people would go into surgery for one thing and come out steril. . There had been many highly  educated scientists who had believed all of the stuff that others had believed in.  What the people had been doing must of been seen as reasonable because it was of what everyone had been doing, instead it was looked down upon in our time more than it was actually was in their time.  In the end the whole entire world had been affected by the act of eugenics one way or another.

So the American Eugenics had developed in the wake of  turbulent economic and social problems following the Civil War. There had been a lot of different types of people moving into the United States,  The founder of eugenics was Francis Galton  who in 1883  perceived eugenics as a moral  philosophy to improve humanity by encouraging the ablest and the healthiest people to actually reproduce. The movements in eugenics had favored the negative approach in the United States, Scandinavia and Germany.  The eugenicists had argued that the defective (people who were not perfect in their eyes)  should not be prevented from breeding, through custody in asylums or compulsory sterilization. The favored methods had been vasectomy and tubal ligation but the doctors had felt that sterilization was a more humane way of dealing with people who could not help themselves. So some doctors believed that sterilization was not viewed as a punishment because the social failure of unfit people was due to an irreversibly degenerate germplasm.

So in the beginning they first had started to understand the human traits and how the child gets  one member of the gene pair from the mother and one from the fathers. These genes may either be recessive or dominant .Then a sexlinked was expressed when males inherit a recessive gene on their single X cromosome.So the eugenicists examined family peigrees and attempted to discern the patter of one of the three basics modes of inheritances.  Those were recessive, dominant or sex linked and back then and today the study of gene inheritances involves two important elements which are finding relate large families that express the trait under study and the scoring each family member for the presence or absence of the trait. In the first decades of the 20th century  eugenicists fared well on the first element, because large families were much more  common , but they had come across a problem because scoring traits was difficult  especially the the eugenicist would try to measure complex traits or complex mental illnesses. Some of those illnesses were like schizophrenia or manic depression.  During the entire  time of eugenics, DNA had not yet been shown to be the molecule of heredity.The eugenicists had no physical road marks to help them follow inheritance through a family.

The eugenics research had a large impact on the  American society. I believe the eugenicist were very judgement and had a image of a perfect world when in reality we will never have that. So they had so many people believing in something that was wrong and very untrue. Also people from certain places had been unfit to live in the U..S, therefore it was very hard to get through to the United States.

    The eugenics had many absurd laws when it came to marriage and mixing races.  So in the early 1900’s the eugenics movement had supplied a new set of argument to support the existing restrictions on interracial marriage. There had been legal restrictions of who could marry who. There had been supposedly biological dangers of mixing the races.They had believed that  it would lead to racial suicide and the eventual disappearance of white civilization.  

    So just think a little about all of this, I feel like the eugenicist and the people who had supported it in the end were very much in the wrong. At that if someone wanted a family they could either have it if they were the right race and had no problem, but if they had a slight problem or were they wrong race they were sterilized here had been supposedly biological dangers of mixing the races.. I believe everyone should have the opportunity of having their own family as long as their head is in the right place. I think if you handicap and you could take care of your child or weren't fit for a child, then no you should not bring one into the world because they could possibly grow up having the same problem as you. Also if you are a drug addict or homeless and aren't helping yourself then you should not have a child because you wouldn't be able to provide for the child , you could put them in harms way unintentionally, or you wouldn't  be able to give the love and attention because your mind would be elsewhere. Therefore I think those type of people should be given birth control, use protection or if they won't do any of  those then they should be sterilized., but that is just my own belief.

Sources

http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics/