Gene Splicing Essays

Gene Splicing Essays Gene Splicing Essay Gene Splicing Essay The Future Evolution of Human: Gene Splicing Gene Splicing: Survival of the Fittest Long ago stories, legends, and myths were created describing humans who were infused with the body parts of animal. Creatures such as mermaids, centaurs, and Satyrs were placed into our minds and we could only imagine what it would be like to meet these creatures. They became so numerous that they were given a category, Anthropomorphism. Over time and with our knowledge of science increasing, body parts that may have been considered to be part of Anthropomorphism were explainable. Webbed hands and feet, humans being born with a tail; and even being born with an extra appendage like an extra toe or finger are no longer a disfiguring ailment. But what if Anthropomorphism wasn’t just a myth? What if they were a new stage in human evolution? Scientists in many fields have hypothesized that humanity like the dinosaur will eventually die out, so what will it take for humanity to survive? Dr Joseph Alter, a Professor of Anthropology, believes that with the biotechnology available today, we could see human being born with animal DNA. This new breed could be stronger, faster, and immune to diseases that regular humans would not be able to survive. In his article, The Once and Future â€Å"Apeman†, Chimeras, Human Evolution, and Disciplinary Coherence, Dr. Alter states that â€Å"It helps us translate the obvious, that our kinship to animals is closer and more intimate than we have thought, both in fact ( with reference to the evolutionary record ) and in principle. † (640) While many may take either a religious and/or negative moral viewpoint to this type of science, the time may come when this science is necessary to continue any kind of human species. : Dr. Jarod Diamond in his book, â€Å"Collapse, How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed believes that the current society will eventually collapse due to may reasons, but one of the biggest the loss of natural resources. These resources, such as fossil fuels, land, and forests will make humans have to search for other means to continue living. In today’s current society most humans will not survive. We have become a society of comfort. Dr. Diamond states we are one big epidemic (disease) from having our civilization collapse. But with a re-combination of our genes with animals, we raise the ercentage of survival. Since the first days of cloning, the eventual next steps were to clone humans, but after that where would we go? Dr. Alter states that after cloning the next step would be gene manipulation and gene splicing. â€Å" With the advent of culture we did stop being animals. But neither did we ever just become human. We made ourselves into human-which raises the question h ow far that process can and should be taken. †(642) Less than 50 years ago, this process was an idea, a form of science fiction, but the discussion can now be made that society has turned that page. With embryonic stem cells, we have been able to generate new organs. What used to be done only in nature; is now being re-created inside of a laboratory. Science fiction has become science fact. Why should gene splicing and gene manipulation not have the same chance? With any new science, there are morale questions that become asked. Is this real science? Are we playing God and creating a new species? What if this new species of man attacks or destroys our current society? The reality is science already predicts the end of man. Our civilization has increased exponentially over the year. Currently we have about 7 billion people alone on the planet. Resources are being depleted at quadruple the rate more than 100 years ago. Global warming has changed the weather patterns on the planet to levels not ever seen or recorded. Yet currently in western society we keep wasting resources as if they will never end. That is why we need to start looking at a merger between animals and man. The best of both worlds. The animal instincts and mans ability for adaption. The science to gene manipulation and gene splicing leads us back to the question, are we playing God? In a secular sense, yes, but what religion fails to see is that man and animal have had a connection that extends through our genetics. We share DNA with many animals, but certain DNA have long been turned off because we evolved to our current state. As Dr Marilyn Strathern was quoted as saying, â€Å"relatives are always a surprise and biotechnology extends the scope of kinship along with all of its social entailments. (642) While religion asks that we not engage in this discussion, there will come a time when it must be discussed and a possible plan must be put in place for the end of humanity. All options must be considered, and gene splicing is one of those options. How would we achieve this chimera of man and animal? Both through nature and nurture, we have the means today to make it possible. Breeding of the species is one way. The best example of mixed breeding is the Liger. The half lion / half tiger can be bred and then created in a lab. While the breeding does not allow for the new animal to have children, the breeding creates a bigger and stronger animal than the individual animals used to create the Liger. Nature has done most of the work, but now nurture must take over. We must try and adapt these new species with other species. The new hybrid of man will need to get used to their new abilities, senses, and feelings. No new species could survive without nurture, we must make them understand that they are new and with anything new comes fear and misunderstanding. We must give them space to grow and adapt to their new environment. It does not sound like a simple task but it must be done for survival to occur. While I do believe that gene splicing is the future of man, I also realize that by the time we realize that it must be done, it will be too late. Our western civilization is dominated by the Bible and by religion. Just as embryonic stem cell research has grinded to a halt in the United States due to the belief that we are â€Å"killing children† to save ourselves, so there will be many that balk on the idea that they should bond with an animal to survive. The idea has great potential but without money and the right political backing, then this idea that man will merge with other animals will remain an idea. Our civilization will not collapse tomorrow but after reading Dr. Alters proposal I see that there is hope and a future via bio-technology. The philosopher, George Santayana, was quoted as saying â€Å"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it†. In anthropology we study humankind throughout time, to learn about ourselves and maybe not make the same mistakes as our previous ancestors. Unfortunately, we, the humankind are not learning from our past mistakes and are on a downward spiral to eventual oblivion. References Alter, Joseph; The Once and Future â€Å"Apeman† Chimeras, Human Evolution, and Disciplinary Coherence. Current Anthropology Vol 48, Num 5 October 2007. Diamond, Jarod: Collapse; How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Viking Penguin Group, NY, NY. 2005. Keister-inman,Clinton Van; â€Å"The Face of the Super Humanity† Internet Journal of Biological Anthropology; Volume 2, 2009

Life of Wilkie Collins, English Detective Novel Writer

Life of Wilkie Collins, English Detective Novel Writer Wilkie Collins (January 8, 1824 – September 23, 1889) has been called the grandfather of the English detective novel. He was a writer of the sensational school during the Victorian Period, and with bestselling novels and successful plays such as The Woman in White, The Moonstone, and The Frozen Deep, Collins explored the effects of mysterious, shocking, and criminal happenings within  Victorian middle-class families. Early Years and Education Wilkie Collins (born William Wilkie Collins) was born on Jan. 8, 1824, on Cavendish Street in Marylebone, London. He was the eldest of two sons of William Collins, a landscape artist and a member of the Royal Academy, and his wife Harriet Geddes, a former governess. Collins was named after David Wilkie, the Scottish painter who was his godfather. After spending one year at a small preparatory school called Maida Hill Academy  near Tyburn, England, Collins went with his family to Italy, where they stayed from 1837 to 1838. In Italy, the Collins family visited archaeological ruins and museums and resided in a number of cities, including Rome, Naples, and Sorrento, before returning home. Wilkie then boarded at a boys school run by Henry Cole in Highbury from 1838–1841. There, Collins was bullied into telling stories to the other boys at night because he had learned Italian and had picked up on plots from foreign literature and was not shy in bragging about it. At age 17, Collins started his first job with a tea merchant named Edward Antrobus, a friend of his fathers. Antrobus shop was located on The Strand in London. The heady atmosphere of The Strand- a major thoroughfare populated by theaters, law courts, taverns, and newspaper editorial offices- gave Collins ample inspiration to write short articles and literary pieces in his spare time. His first signed article, The Last Stage Coachman, appeared in Douglas Jerrolds Illuminated Magazine in 1843. In 1846, Collins  became a law student at Lincolns Inn. He was called to the bar in 1851, but never  practiced law. Early Literary Career Collins first novel, Iolani, was rejected and didnt resurface until 1995, long after his death. His second novel,  Antonina was only one-third of the way finished when his father died. After the elder Collins death, Wilkie Collins started work on a two-volume biography of his father, which was published by subscription in 1848. That biography brought him to the attention of the literary world. In 1851, Collins  met  Charles Dickens, and the two writers became close friends. Although Dickens was not known to serve as a mentor for many writers, he was surely a supporter, colleague, and mentor for Collins. According to scholars of Victorian literature, Dickens and Collins influenced one another and even co-wrote several short stories. Dickens supported Collins by publishing some of his stories, and it is possible that the two men were knowledgeable of the others less-than-ideal Victorian sexual alliances. Collins was called William and Willie as a child, but as he rose in stature in the literary world,  he became known as Wilkie to just about everyone. The Sensational School The sensation genre of writing was an early stage in the development of the  detective novel. Sensational novels offered a hybrid of domestic fiction, melodrama,  sensational journalism, and  gothic  romances. The  plots contained elements of bigamy, fraudulent identity, drugging, and theft, all of which took place within the middle-class home. Sensational novels owe much of their sensation to the earlier Newgate novel genre, which consisted of biographies of notorious criminals.   Wilkie Collins was the most popular and is today the best-remembered of the sensational novelists, completing his most important novels in the 1860s with  the heyday of the genre. Other practitioners included Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Charles Reade, and Ellen Price Wood. Family and Personal Life Wilkie Collins never married. It has been speculated that his close knowledge of Charles and Catherine Dickens unhappy marriage may have influenced him. In the mid-1850s, Collins began living with Caroline Graves, a widow with one daughter. Graves lived in Collins house and looked after his domestic affairs for most of thirty years. In 1868, when it became clear that Collins would not marry her, Graves briefly left him and married someone else. However, she and Collins reunited two years later after Graves marriage ended. While Graves  was away, Collins became involved with Martha Rudd, a former servant. Rudd was 19 years old, and Collins was 41. He established  for her a few blocks away from his home. Together, Rudd and Collins had three children: Marian (born 1869), Harriet Constance (born 1871), and William Charles (born 1874). The children were given the surname name Dawson, as Dawson was the name Collins used when he bought the house and visited Rudd. In his letters, he referred to them as his morganatic family. By the time he was in his late thirties, Collins was addicted to laudanum, a derivative of opium, which featured as a plot point in many of his best novels, including The Moonstone. He also traveled throughout Europe and led a fairly lavish and sybaritic lifestyle with his traveling companions, including Dickens and others he met along the way. Published Works Over his lifetime, Collins wrote 30 novels and over 50 short stories, some of which were published in magazines edited by Charles Dickens. Collins also wrote a travel book (A Rogues Life), and plays,  the best-known of which is The Frozen Deep, an allegory of the failed Franklin expedition to find the Northwest Passage across Canada. Death and Legacy Wilkie Collins died in London on Sept. 23, 1889, at the age of 69, after having suffered a debilitating stroke. His will divided what proceeds were left from his writing career between his two partners, Graves and Rudd, and the Dawson children. The sensationalism genre faded in popularity after the 1860s. However, scholars credit sensationalism, especially  Collins work, with reimagining the Victorian family  in the midst of social and political changes of the Industrial Age. He often depicted strong women who overcame the injustices of the day, and he developed plot devices that the next generations of writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle used to invent the detective mystery genre. T.S. Elliot said of Collins that he was the first and greatest of modern English novelists. Mystery writer Dorothy L. Sayers said that Collins was the most genuinely feminist of all the 19th century novelists. Wilkie Collins Fast Facts Full Name: William Wilkie CollinsOccupation:  AuthorKnown For: Bestselling detective novels and developing of the sensational genre of literatureBorn: January 8, 1824  in London, EnglandParents Names: William Collins and Harriet GeddesDied: September 23, 1889 in London, EnglandSelected Works: The Woman in White, The Moonstone, No Name, The Frozen DeepSpouses Name:  Never married, but had two significant partners –  Caroline Graves, Martha Rudd.Children: Marian Dawson, Harriet Constance Dawson, and William Charles DawsonFamous Quote:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Any woman who is sure of her own wits, is a match, at any time, for a man who is not sure of his own temper.† (from  The Woman in White) Sources Ashley, Robert P. Wilkie Collins Reconsidered. Nineteenth-Century Fiction 4.4 (1950): 265–73. Print.Baker, William, and William M. Clarke, eds. The Letters of Wilkie Collins: Volume 1: 1838–1865. MacMillan Press, LTD1999. Print.Clarke, William M. The Secret Life of Wilkie Collins: The Intimate Victorian Life of the Father of the Detective Story. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1988. Print.Lonoff, Sue. Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. Nineteenth-Century Fiction 35.2 (1980): 150–70. Print.Peters, Catherine. The King of Inventors: A Life of Wilkie Collins. Princeton: Princeton Legacy Library: Princeton University Press, 1991. Print.Siegel, Shepard. Wilkie Collins: Victorian Novelist as Psychopharmacologist. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 38.2 (1983): 161–75. Print.Simpson, Vicky. Selective Affinities: Non-Normative Families in Wilkie Collinss No Name. Victorian Review 39.2 (2013): 115–28. Print.