Essay About Evolutionary Process And Birth Of This New Technology

Genetic Engineering Past and Present
Genetic Engineering Past and Present
Science is a creature that continues to evolve at a much higher rate than the beings that
gave it birth. The transformation time from tree-shrew, to ape, to human far exceeds the time
from analytical engine, to calculator, to computer. But science, in the past, has always remained
distant. It has allowed for advances in production, transportation, and even entertainment, but
never in history will science be able to so deeply affect our lives as genetic engineering will
undoubtedly do. With the birth of this new technology, scientific extremists and anti-technologists
have risen in arms to block its budding future. Spreading fear by misinterpretation
of facts, they promote their hidden agendas in the halls of the United States congress. Genetic
engineering is a safe and powerful tool that will yield unprecedented results, specifically in the
field of medicine. It will usher in a world where gene defects, bacterial disease, and even aging
are a thing of the past. By understanding genetic engineering and its history, discovering its
possibilities, and answering the moral and safety questions it brings forth, the blanket of fear
covering this remarkable technical 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 natures
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 Mendels discovery. These early studies concluded that each
organism has two sets of character determinants, or genes (Stableford 16). For instance, in
regards to eye color, a child could receive one set of genes from his father that were encoded one
blue, and the other brown. The same child could also receive two brown genes from his mother.
The conclusion for this inheritance would be the child has a three in four chance of having
brown eyes, and a one in three chance of having blue eyes (Stableford 16).
Genes are transmitted through chromosomes which reside in the nucleus of every living
organisms cells. Each chromosome is made up of fine strands of deoxyribonucleic acids, or
DNA. The information carried on the DNA determines the cells function within the organism.
Sex cells are the only cells that contain a complete DNA map of the organism, therefore, “the
structure of a DNA molecule or combination of DNA molecules determines the shape, form, and
function of the [organisms] offspring ” (Lewin 1). DNA discovery is attributed to the research
of three scientists, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, and James Dewey Watson in 1951. They
were all later accredited with the Nobel Price in physiology and medicine in 1962 (Lewin 1).
“The new science of genetic engineering aims to take a dramatic short cut in the slow
process of evolution” (Stableford 25). In essence, scientists aim to remove one gene from an
organisms DNA, and place it into the DNA of another organism. This would create a new DNA
strand, full of new encoded instructions; a strand that would have taken Mother Nature millions