In Chapter 1 How Genes really work, David Shenk discusses the irony of our past paradigm of G+E. Scientists have always viewed nature and nurture as separate components, and the irony of trying to distinguish the two is that it is the very opposite of what we need to be doing, which is "understanding how nature and nurture interact." (32) Understanding the interaction between these two components and not trying to find out how they are distinct will allow scientists to develop a much deeper understanding of genes. The key to this understanding is "precisely which genes do get switched on, and when, and how often, and in what order, will make all the difference in the function of each cell-- and the traits of the organism." (32)
What types of biotechnology have we learned about that allow us to accurately know when, which, how, and the functions of each cell? How do you think that knowing these things will apply to understanding the traits, the "temperament, intelligence, and talent" (32) of individuals? How do you think that this knowledge can be combined with our knowledge of the environment to even further understand the complexity of genetics?
Sara Lee
(yoojin3795@hotmail.com)
Nature versus nurture has been debated over for many years, but now, scientists are discovering that nature and nurture together affects the outcome of a person. David Shenk makes the analogy of humans to a jukebox “with many potential tunes…[and a] built in capacity for a variety of possible lives” (33). Humans indeed do have a certain set of unique genes which influence many parts of a person’s life. However, these genes don’t determine everything and are subjected to change depending on how the person chooses to act. Nature and nurture together decide who a person is going to become, and how successful they will be in life. The debate between these two terms is over because in reality it’s both that are affecting the outcome of someone.
ReplyDeleteScientists have developed techniques that can determine what the function of any cell in your body is by decoding sequences of genes. “Advances in high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies using short read lengths have enabled rapid sequencing of entire human genomes” (http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v30/n3/full/nbt.2134.html). The software that uses these short read lengths is called HugeSeq and has it made it possible for scientists to see just how much genes affect the body and action of an individual. This information allows scientists to determine how much of an impact genes have on someone and of much of the environment affects that specific trait. There’s proof that genes don’t affect everything in an individual that different experiments have shown. One experiment showed how two mice with identical genetic codes had two different fur colors because they both lived in different environments.
Another technique that scientists have created to determine gene expression patterns is called the gene microarray chip. The gene microarray chip consists of “tiny dots of DNA arranged on a grid [of]…silicon water [which] represents almost all of the genes in a human genome” (Campbell 432). This piece of technology is being used today on people that are suffering from cancer or other diseases in order to determine how to treat that person using their genetic sequences as references for specific treatment. The genes that a person inherits can be appealed to from the environment in these cases in order to help someone recover from an illness. This new technology has helped many people survive, and has the helped the human race advance as a whole.
Anisha Ghosh (anishaghosh16@gmail.com)