Catching Criminals of HIV Crimes

HIV is a deadly disease without a cure.  Someone that is HIV positive can become a great threat.  With there being no obvious signs of HIV, it is very easy for it to be passed on.  Infecting someone with HIV when the infected knows and the receiver doesn't, can be considered assault with deadly weapon-HIV.  In the article that I read,  "Perpetrators of HIV crimes uncovered through “evolutionary forensics”", the author discusses how scientists can now determine who infected whom. This means that there is now a way to have "evolutionary forensic" evidence to solve a case.  This is similar to DNA testing but much more complicated due to the fact that the HIV virus mutates making more virions.  This article was really interesting to me because it is talking about something that is very prevalent in our world.  It also shows science being applied to a real life situation.  One thing that drew me to this article was how similar it was to what we had learned about DNA testing.  I myself have never had jury duty but from what I know about it, it does not sound fun. One of the thing that I think would be the worst is the fact that your vote could change someones life completely.  The DNA testing and HIV testing provides hard evidence to support or contradict a case.  This evidence reduces the risk of sending an innocent person to jail.      

Animal Biotechnology

Political Cartoon

Genetics

Squeal Pig Squeal

India Waller

                It is a well-known fact, thanks to Food INC., The Omnivores Dilemma, and other food oriented pieces of art, that our food system is grotesque and cruel.  Cows are crammed together in their own filth, and chicks’ beaks are clipped off.  There are many debates and proposals about how to approach this problem but none quite like this one.  With where we are today with genetic research there is a possibility that our meat could be genetically altered to make these animals feel no pain. 

                A lot of research has been done on mice and a gene called Nav 1.7.  It has been discovered that the mice lacking this gene are less sensitive to pain.  In an article written by Lisa Zyga they explain how genetic engineering could alter the farm animals genetic to make it so they lack the gene Nav 1.7 which would hopefully decreasing their ability to feel pain.  There has also been some test where scientist engineer mice that lack specific enzymes and genes.  This make it so the animals can still sense pain which not feeling the unpleasant sensation.  Both are experimental and new.  Many people including Adan Shriver, a philosopher, feel that this is not the best option but is an improvement. 

                There is much controversy over Genetically Modified Organisms.  It’s still so new we don’t know what to expect.  I personally feel that we as a human race believe that we are so much smarter than millions of years of evolution.  We change something to make it more convenient but then it causes a problem, but instead of going back and looking at our mistake we find a new way to solve that problem which in turn makes a new problem.  An example of this is when we began to feed cows cheap corn and made them live on a limited amount of land while standing in their own feces, this made cheap beef and lot of it but made it so they were so sick they needed antibiotic in their feed.  This brought on a whole other problem of an excess amount of antibiotics creating an ideal environment for viruses to mutate.  This also cause the cows to have unhealthy stomachs which caused more pollution and waste.  I feel that we need to change our ways and not just cover up our mistakes.  Therefor I feel that this mutation of the genes of these animals is not the best way to approach this problem.   

Guilty or Not Guilty?

Innocence Project

India Waller

Joseph Lamout Abbitt was convicted of first degree rape of two girls in their own home.  He was sentenced to two life sentences plus 110 years in 1995.  He was one of the prime suspects because he used to live in the neighborhood and both girls identified him as their rapist.  Eyewitness identification was the main evidence against this innocent man even when he had a valid alibi and DNA test done on a piece of clothing found at the house.  Even with this evidence of his innocents he was still convicted of the rape.   Joseph served 14 years before he was proven innocent in 2009 by DNA testing. 

The study of DNA started in the 1920’s when Thomas Hunt Morgan began to experiment with the genetics of fruit flies.  The first step is to understand what DNA is and what it’s purpose.  The next  big step is the discover and replication of the structure of DNA.  James Watson and Francis Crick came up with the double helix structure in 1953.  In 1958 a man named Coenberg was able to isolate the DNA polymerase, and was able to create DNA in a test tube.  The genetic code was cracked in 1966 which made it so we could understand what made up DNA.  In 1984 Alec Jefferys used DNA fingerprinting to identify an individual, and a year later this was used in the court room.  This was the start of using DNA to prove a defendant guilty or not guilty.

 Why if we had this ability in 1984 was Joseph Abbitt wrongfully convicted in 1995 when there was plenty of DNA that could have proven his innocent?  His trial seemed   rushed and not fair at all.  This was not justice this was a blame game with extremely high stakes.  This shows me the true magnitude of the power of science.  It’s astounding as well as terrifying.  In the right hands science can cure illnesses and set innocent people free, but in the wrong hands science can be dangerous.     

The Story of:

Lucy the Chimp

India Waller

            In sophomore biology we are learning about evolution.  There is much controversy over teaching this theory in schools, but the truth is theories are quite factual.  For example atoms and cells are theories as well.  But this is not about whether evolution is true or not, it is about one of a species that we as a human race share a common ancestor with.  A chimpanzee named Lucy.  We listened to this story on a radio about a chimp that was taken from her mother the moment she was born and placed in the care of a human couple to be raised and socialized with human norms as an experiment.  At certain age most chimps that have been raised in a human home become too strong and their chimp instincts start to take over and they can no longer live in a human house.  When Lucy reaches this age she is sent to a reserve with other domesticated chimps to try to be introduced into the wild.  This is when a woman named Janis comes into the picture.  This transition is hard for all the chimps but none quite as much a Lucy.  Janis then moves the chimps to a small deserted island.  It has a tragic ending where Lucy is found dead skinned with her hands and feet cut off, the tail tell signs of poachers. 

                      Lucy´s death felt like murder. After listening to this story and hearing how human like she became, the thought of some ignorant person taking her life without a second thought for a few hundred bulks is infuriating and incredibly heart breaking.  Lucy was taught sign language which she could use pretty affectively.  When guests came to the house she would make tea for them.  She was aware of her human mother, Jane´s feelings and would try to comfort her if she was sad or sick.  She could dress herself.  She was attracted to human beings.  She would look at magazines.  Once she went potty on the floor and told her human dad that it was someone else.  All these human characteristics and all that intelligence snuffed out for money. 

            When she became too old and wild to live with her human family she was sent to a nature reserve with a handful of other domesticated chimps to be re-socialized  to live in the wild on their own.  The beginning was rough for all the chimps but after a while most of them let their instincts take over and began to become self-sustaining, but Lucy just couldn’t let go.  She became very stressed out.  She got infections, she wouldn’t eat, and her hair began to fall out.  Seeing this Janis, who had a special connection with Lucy, decided to take action.  She and the domesticated chimps were transferred to a deserted island in hope that being isolated would help these chimps.  At first the chimps would not leave Janis alone so Janis decided she had to make it so they couldn’t get to her.  So for the next year Janis lived in a cage on this island.  At first the chimps crowded the top of the cage and wouldn't leave, but eventually they moved on and began to establish a sustainable life on this island, all except Lucy.  She wouldn’t let go, she kept making the hurt sign to Janis and telling her to come out of the cage.  It went on like this for a while until finally Janis came out of the cage.  It wasn’t until Lucy offered Janis a leaf and then Janis is turn offered it back to Lucy that this chimp finally began to scavenge for herself. 

            We can learn for Lucy by seeing how the socialization of animals to human norms is very complicated and can be detrimental to the animal.  Lucy was stuck between these two worlds, being human and being a chimpanzee.  When she came to the age where her instinct really started to take over she could no longer live with humans.  She was torn away from everything she knew because she was never supposed to be there in the first place.  She did not fit in in either world.  When she was let back into the wild she couldn't let go of her human ways for a long time.  Her story also shows us how we as a human race treat other animals.  We think of ourselves as better, more deserving, and superior to everything else and we think that that gives us the right to treat other living things any way we please.  A poacher killed this incredible, intelligent, emotional, feeling chimp with no consequences.  I believe that  the things that set us apart from other biotic beings like our brain, our opposable thumbs, and our bipedalism, should not give us the right to abuse these creatures, but should give us a responsibility to protect and respect our world and everything on it.     

To listen to this amazing story yourself click on the link below!

http://www.radiolab.org/2010/feb/19/lucy/

First Blog

I am a Sophomore at Animas High School.  The purpose of this blog is to create something that I can look back on later in life and see the things that I learned in biology.  I will be blogging about biology.