Gattaca and Genetic Engineering

Gattaca is an intriguing science fiction movie about genetic engineering. It portrays the advantages and disadvantages of genetics in an exciting way. Is genetic engineering right? Everyone has their own opinion on the matter, as with many other controversial issues. In my opinion, there are only specific instances where I would ever even consider genetic engineering. The question will never die, and will most likely be debated for centuries. It's a touchy subject, but someone has to blog it.


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There are some advantages to having a society like the one portrayed in Gattaca. As shown in the movie, genetically engineered people would be genetically inclined to be good at specific things. Each company would have "the best of the best" working for them. There would be no genetic defects, no diseases, no illness for people to deal with. The probabilities in each life could be calculated based on their genetic sequences. It would also help keep crime rates down, as genetic engineering could take out the genes that cause aggression and other unwanted traits.

There are also many disadvantages to genetic engineering. In the movie, the main character, Vincent, is an "in-valid", meaning he was not a genetically engineered baby. Because of this he was never allowed to follow his dreams of going into space until he fraudulently posed as a "valid". The society in Gattaca never let him attempt his dreams, although he shows that he is mentally capable of achieving them. The only thing that mattered was his DNA sequence, just another way society would discriminate. Genetic engineering leaves out those with disabilities, who are unique and essential to society. If we were able to exclude the eccentric, the different, the misfits, and the weak, we would all be the same. There would be no individualism, none of that crazy diversity that makes life fun and unique. Genetic engineering leaves the struggle out of life, and more often than not, people grow and understand things through struggles and mistakes. We would have generation after generation of individuals who do not appreciate the glory of life: genetically engineered robot-humans. Too many people would leave their lives to the realm of possibility, instead of taking their lives into their own hands, and carving their own destinies.

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I personally do not believe genetic engineering should be used at all. If there were any limits placed on genetic engineering, I think it should be used strictly for diseases and life threatening defects. I simply feel that humans are not mentally capable of fixing all the flaws that I am sure will come surface. The consequences just seem far too varied and unpredictable. History shows that when humans play God it never ends well. The famous saying goes "everything happens for a reason". Mother nature has a way of always putting things back the way they should be. That could be very complicating for the genetic engineers.

Lava Lamps in the Lab

Lava lamps used to be essential to the properly furnished 60's style room. Now they can be found and bedrooms and dorms. But where did they come from, and who invented such a retro luminescent? For starters, this mystical art piece was invented by Edward Craven Walker, after 15 years of trying to make a liquid motion lamp that could be mass produced. He got the design idea from a contraption he saw in a pub in Hampshire, England. This contraption had been invented by Mr. Dunnett. Initially retailers found the lamps to be ugly and disgusting, but the "Psychedelic Movement" and the "Love Generation" of the 60's made merchandise like the lava lamp fly off the shelves. He and his company, the Crestworth Company of Dorset, England, marketed the lamp in Europe under the name of Astro Lamp.Two Americans bought the rights to manufacture the lamp in North America, calling it the Lava Lite lamp.

Commercial lava lamps contain a regular incandescent bulb, wax, and water, all contained in a glass bottle. The bulb heats the wax, making its relative density decrease and blobs of wax float to the top, where they cool and ascend back to the bottom. Usually, a wire coil in the base of the glass breaks the surface tension and recombines the blobs of wax. 



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Homemade lava lamps can be made in a simple science experiment, as I did in my biology class. All that is needed is a large empty bottle, food coloring, vegetable oil, water, and Alka Seltzer tablets or salt. I used Alka Seltzer in my experiment. First, the empty container is filled 3/4 with oil. Then water is added to fill the container the rest of the way. As most would easily observe, the oil "floats" on top of the water. This is because oil is less dense than water, and is hydrophobic. The next step is to add a couple drops of food coloring. The food coloring sinks down to the water because food coloring is hydrophilic (water "loving"), so it bonds with water, not oil. The last step is to add the Alka Seltzer, and watch the "lava" flow! The tablet's reaction to the water pushes the water upwards through the oil and mixes the food coloring and water, creating the lava. The water flows in blobs of colored water as the oil pushes the water away from it and back down.

 

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