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Tuesday, February 24, 2004, 7PM | Room A118 Pendergrass Library / Veterinarian Hospital [Directions...]
Genetics: [Film] [Issues] [Science] [Resources]
Genetics
Moderator Arthur Miller, professor at Harvard Law School, leads
an intense, provocative and often humorous discussion that reveals
the far-reaching implications of genetic testing.
To a group of 13 distinguished panelists, he presents a myriad
of questions concerning genetic testing, the right to privacy, and
the implications of test results in all areas of one's life. Panelists
include Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer, ABC News correspondent
Cynthia McFadden, Mark A. Rothstein, director of the Institute for
Bioethics, Health Policy and Law at the University of Louisville,
Nancy C. Wexler, professor of Neuropsychology at Columbia University
and president of the Hereditary Disease Foundation, and other participants
from the fields of adoption, law, genetics, employment and medicine...
Read the complete film description ››
When Austrian monk Gregor Mendel's mid-19th century experiments
led to the discovery of the basic mechanisms of heredity, the science
of genetics was born. Since then, the focus of scientific inquiry
has moved from Mendel to molecules and from genetics—the study
of individual genes and the way traits pass between generations—to
genomics, the study of an organism's entire complement of DNA (deoxyribonucleic
acid). Today the landscape is dominated by the Human Genome Project
whose end product—the complete sequence of all 3.1 billion
base pairs of DNA contained in almost every human cell—is
an encrypted blueprint for human life. No one could have predicted
that only a century after Mendel, scientists would begin to master
the DNA molecule itself. How did we reach this point? The story
is one of persistence, intuition, and just plain luck... Read
the complete Essay ›› [pdf]››
Focus on Science: Genetics
The twisted ladder of DNA, from which genes are constructed, performs two fundamental functions in life. It is the means by which inherited traits are passed from one generation to the next, and it provides instructions within cells for expressing those traits. Remarkably, DNA has only four distinct molecules constituting the rungs of the ladder: adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine. (The rails up the outside of the ladder are mostly sugar.) Moreover, those four nitrogen bases can only pair up one way: adenine with thymine (A-T or T-A) and guanine with cytosine (G-C or C-G). Those two pairs, backward and forward and repeated billions of times, are somehow responsible for the incredible diversity of life... Read
the complete Essay ›› [pdf]››
Research More:
Best Genetics Film: Cracking the Code of Life
See more Genetics Films ››
Best Genetics Reading: The Impact of the Gene: From Mendel's Peas to Designer Babies
See more Genetics Reading ››
Best Genetics Web Site: The Gene Hunters
See more Genetics Web Sites ››
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