All About Cloning

Authors Note: This is a research/district assessment essay on the science topic of cloning. It will describe the history, process, and many other intriguing facts about cloning.

What is cloning? Cloning is a complex task that requires a person to make an exact replica of an animal. The copy would have the exact DNA as the animal that was cloned (What is Cloning?). One example of cloning is identical twins. The twins weren’t cloned by a scientist, but they were cloned in naturally. Cloning is well researched topic by scientists and is one of the most controversial and interesting topics that are in science today (What is Cloning?).

First, let’s talk about the history of cloning. The first person to successfully clone an animal was in the late 1800’s named Hans Dreisch. The most known cloned animal is called the Dolly sheep, but Hans Dreisch successfully cloned a sea urchin. Hans Dreisch put two attached embryo cells into a beaker and shook them until the separated. The two separated embryo cells grew into normal sea urchins with no signs of being cloned (Thinkquest.org).

 

Now, you are probably wondering what the process of cloning is. First, you must get a donor nucleus ready. Then you must get an unfertilized egg. Next, you carefully remove the nucleus of the unfertilized egg. Then you insert the donor nucleus to the egg. Last you put the egg into a womb of a female animal. There is more of a chance that the egg will not produce anything, but there is a possibility that it will clone the animals (Carver).

Even though, animals are the ones being cloned, many scientists believe that in the next few years we will be able to clone humans. Humans can be cloned, but it would be harder than any other mammal. One reason is that two important proteins are very close to the chromosomes in eggs. So removal of the nucleus to put in the donor nucleus would remove the proteins of the cell, which would make cell division harder. Still, scientists believe that in the next couple of years cloning humans will be possible (Cloning).

           However, there is a risk to cloning. Right now, there are about 1 – 2 successfully cloned animals per 100 tries. So cloning humans could cause defects in the cloned human because they would be using that persons DNA. Also many people believe that everyone is different and special in their own way, so cloning wouldn’t make people as special. These are some reasons that cloning is a very controversial topic. As cloning humans would be a cool and amazing scientific breakthrough, but it would make people not as unique and special as they are right now (Cloning Fact Sheet)

Scientists are continuously making the cloning technology better and that could help make cloning more efficient and easier to do. Cloning is a very controversial topic that is very well researched among scientists. As it would be cool to clone a human, I do not think that the risk is of cloning a human is worth it. All in all, cloning is a very complex task that many scientists have the honor to participate and improve in.

Bibliography

Batra, Karen. "Process of Cloning." 2008. CloneSaftey.org virtual pressroom. 17 April 2012 <http://www.clonesafety.org/cloning/facts/process/>.

Carver, Roy J. "Cloning: How To Make Identical Genomes ." 2004. Iowa Public Television. 17 April 2012 <http://www.iptv.org/exploremore/ge/what/clone.cfm>.

"Cloning." 1 July 2011. National Human Genome Research Institute . 17 April 2012 <http://www.genome.gov/25020028>.

"Cloning Fact Sheet." 11 May 2009. Human Genome Project Information. 19 April 2012 <http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/cloning.shtml#humans>.

Thinkquest.org. 25 April 2012 <http://library.thinkquest.org/20830/Frameless/Manipulating/Experimentation/Cloning/longdoc.htm>.

"What is Cloning?" Genetic Science Learning Center. 17 April 2012 <http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/tech/cloning/whatiscloning/>.

Changed

Authors Note: This is a writing piece explaining two important quotes in the book, Touching Spirit Bear and relating this to me.

I am reading the book, Touching Spirit Bear, by Ben Mikaelsen. A quote that stood out to me in this book was on page 98. Cole says, “Why couldn’t they (the seagulls) wait just a little longer until he had died.” This quote stands out to me because Cole has given up on life. He couldn’t tolerate the pain and suffering anymore, so he wanted to die. This saddens me because I believe that Cole wanted to turn his life around, but first he would need to survive.

I can’t relate this to my life because I have never been in that much pain and suffering that is described in this book. I can relate this to a friend at my old school. He always seemed depressed and down. Sometimes even when he was talking to you, he would say he was waiting for the right time to die. I think that he gave up in life because he had parents who didn’t care and he was lonely. That made our class very scared so we started to hang out with him and talked him out of killing himself.

Another quote that really stands out to me is on page 106. Cole says, “Why do you guys help me?” This is a turning point in his life because he finally found out that people in the world do care about him and will be there for him. In his past, he could never trust anyone, not even his own parents. Now he has come to trust in Garvey and the world. He also wonders why people have helped him when he has been so mean to people in his past. This quote tells us that Cole Matthews is a changed kid.

            I can relate to this quote because I sometimes can be mean and yet people still help me. Also Cole and I don’t like being helped because we think we know everything. The people who usually help me despite my anger are my parents. No matter what I do, they will still help me. Cole and I need to work on being more nice to people by excepting people’s help and learn to let people who know more about things help us. They aren’t trying to hurt us, they are trying to make us better.

Nightmare

I am fierce and destructive. I live in your sleep. I overwhelm you with fear. I am your worst nightmare. You awake sweating and trembling with the picture of me in your head. You quickly survey the area asking yourself, who am I?

First, you saw me and you are trying to forget about me, but you can’t because I am now a part of you. You try to fall asleep again, but then in the blink of an eye I am back in your mind. You wake once again. You slowly get out of bed looking around in panic. You creep along the floor tip toeing all the way. Then you turn on the light and wait of few minutes to gather yourself. Then the lights go off.

Next, you walk swiftly to your bed, pull your sheets over, and close your eyes. You think that I won’t come back and you happily start to dose off into a deep sleep. The coming morning you wake powerful because you think that you have won. But the reality is you haven’t.

Finally, you walk into your room the next night sleepy and tired. You crawl into your bed and slowly drift off to sleep. And that is when I strike. With brutal force I slowly take over your mind and love to see you fear me. You try to fight me, but your mind plays tricks on you and you start to go crazy. You might hate me, but you can’t get rid of me. So keep trying because it won’t work.

I keep coming back striking when you least expect it. I overwhelm your mind with fear and you coward away from me, but I always find me. You can’t stop me. You can’t control me because I control you.

All About Terabithia

Authors Note: This is a retelling piece on the book Bridge to Terabithia explaining the important events in the story.

  Jess is a lonely young kid who lived next to a person who is his age. She just moved in and Jess is very excited. Together they make up a place to get away from everything called Terabithia. At Terabithia, they have many adventures, some good and some devastatingly bad.