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Tuesday, 24 March 2015

Los-Marck

The following link send us to a page where we can download an application that explains us the Lamarckism:

http://mobincube.mobi/3378SW

If you install BIDI you can download the app from the next QR: 


qrCode-EN.png (162×162)

Sunday, 8 March 2015

CMC'S NEWS' REVIEW (VIII)

8/3/2015

http://noticiasdelaciencia.com/not/13033/la-nave-dawn-llega-a-ceres-como-el-primer-visitante-de-un-planeta-enano/


Summary:

N.A.S.A has always improving and his final achievement was to be the first space agency that visits a dwarf planet with a spacecraft. Ceres is the first of the dwarf planets to be visited by a spacecraft. Dawn has taken 7.5 years to reach its destination. His arrival has seen it pass behind the dwarf to hos "dark side". The satellite has turned up at Ceres having previously visited asteroid Vesta. Vesta is the 3th bigger asteriod from the Asteroids's belt (location between Mars and Jupiter).
Researchers think Ceres' interior is dominated by a rocky core topped by ice that is then insulated by rocky lag deposits at the surface. A big question the mission hopes to answer is whether there is a liquid ocean of water at depth. Some models suggest there could well be. The evidence will probably be found in Ceres' craters which have a muted look to them. The speculation is that Ceres has been struck by something, exposing deeply buried ices. The Dawn mission is expected to work at the dwarf planet for, at least, 14 months. 

Critical appraisal:

Every time people are innovation. I think that if we are arriving now to investigate dwarf planets for first time, maybe in 10, 20 or 30 years we will can know all about our solar sysitem. Maybe it discoger can show us a new incredible discover that we will can imagine. As we know more, we are nearer to be perfectly. Maybe this discover shows us that there exists life in other planets. Why not?

Glossary:
A spaceship is a vehicle, vessel or machine designed to fly in outer space. 

Monday, 2 March 2015

The scientist corner

The scientist corner: a deeper look to DNA.


Biography: Gregor Johann Mendel

Johann Mendel was born the 20 of July in 1822. He was the only boy in the family and worked on his family farm with his older sister Veronica and his younger sister Theresia. Mendel took an interest in gardening and beekeeping on the family farm as he grew up.
He went on to the University of Olomouc where he studied many disciplines including Physics and Philosophy. He attended the University from 1840 to 1843 and was forced to take a year off due to illness. In 1843, he followed his calling into the priesthood and entered the Augustinian Abbey of St Thomas in Brno.
Upon entering the Abbey, Johann took the first name Gregor as a symbol of his religious life. Gregor Mendel is most well known for his work with his pea plants in the Abbey gardens. He spent about seven years planting, breeding, and cultivating pea plants in the experimental part of the Abbey garden that was started by the previous Abbot. Through meticulous record keeping, his experiments with pea plants became the basis for modern genetics.
Mendel's first experiments focused on one trait at a time and gathering data on the variations present for several generations. These were called monohybrid experiments. There were a total of seven characteristics he studied in all. His findings showed that there were some variations that were more likely to show up over the other variation.  He called the one that seemed to be missing from the first filial generation "recessive" and the other "dominant" since it seemed to hide the other characteristic.

Mendel's work wasn't truly appreciated until the 1900s -- long after his death. Mendel had unknowingly provided the Theory of Evolution with a mechanism for the passing down of traits during natural selection. Mendel did not believe in evolution during his life as a man of strong religious conviction. However, his work has been added together with that of Charles Darwin's to make up the Modern Synthesis of the Theory of Evolution. Much of his early work in Genetics has paved the way for modern scientists working in the field of microevolution.


Article: Britain Set to Approve Technique to Create Babies From 3 People

Screenshot from 2015-02-24 20:27:32.png


Summary:
British lawmakers voted earlier this month to allow in vitro creation of babies with the DNA of three people. They are still discussing whether it should be put in practice or not.


This technique could prevent genetic diseases in women with mithocondrial diseases, such as muscular dystrophy, loss of vision or even premature death. By using in vitro creation, the embryo would have nucleous DNA from the child's parents but mithocondrial DNA from a donor.

Despite all this advantages, this situation has lit a fierce debate. There are people who are in favor of allowing it. For example, the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, highlights the benefits it would provide, but others are not so sure. The Human Genetic Alert, for example, has said that we are crossing an ethical threshold. Its leaders have warned that if we start giving support to this kind of pioneering techniques, we might be tempted to create DNA modified babies in the future, and that wouldn’t be ethical.



STRIKING IMAGE

Dolly was the first domestic sheep to be cloned from an adukt somatic cell using the process of nuclear transfer. The cell used as the donor for the cloning of Dolly was taken from a mammary gland, and the production of a healthy clone therefore proved that a cell taken from a specific part of the body could recreate a whole individual. Dolly was born on 5 July 1996 and had three mothers (one provided the egg, another the DNA and a third carried the cloned embryo to term).
391px-Dolly_clone.svg.png


This is the clone process that has been used to create this sheep.

On 14 February 2003, Dolly was euthanaised because she had a progressive lung disease and severe arthritis. Dolly has a life expectancy of around 11 to 12 years, but Dolly lived to be 6.5 years old. After cloning was successfully demonstrated through the production of Dolly, many other large mammals were cloned, including pigs, deer, horses… and more animals.

Rheobatrachus-Nord-america-Possiblement-ADN-CO_ARAIMA20130407_0047_1.jpg

The 21th of february of 1953 the cientists Linus Pauling and Robert Corey published his theory of ADN.
This theory tells us that in proteins , the α helix is ​​the main cause of secondary structure. It was postulated first by Linus Pauling and Robert Corey. The amino acids in an α helix are arranged in a right-handed helical structure where each amino acid residue corresponds to a 100° turn in the helix.

DISCOVERY:
In the early 1930s, William Astbury showed that there were drastic changes in the X- ray fiber diffraction of moist wool or hair fibers upon significant stretching. The data suggested that the unstretched fibers had a coiled molecular structure with a characteristic repeat of ~5.1 ångströms (0.51 nm).
Astbury initially proposed a kinked-chain structure for the fibers. He later joined other researchers (notably the American chemist Maurice Huggins) in proposing that:
  • the unstretched protein molecules formed a helix (which he called the α-form)
  • the stretching caused the helix to uncoil, forming an extended state (which he called the β-form).
Although incorrect in their details, Astbury's models of these forms were correct in essence and correspond to modern elements of secondary structure, the α-helix and the β-strand, which were developed by Linus Pauling and Robert Corey in 1951; that paper showed both right-handed and left-handed helixes, although in 1960 the crystal structure of myoglobin showed that the right-handed form is the common one.

Linus Pauing was amazed with the Nobel Price in Chemistry for his theory in 1954.




Sunday, 1 March 2015

CMC's NEWS REVIEW (VIII), by Marina Dorca


CMC'S NEWS' REVIEW (VIII), by Marina Dorca

News' title: Britain Set to Approve Technique to Create Babies From 3 People.

Date of publication: 3rd of February, 2015

Source of information: New York Times

 (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/world/europe/britain-nears-approval-of-fertilization-technique-that-combines-dna-of-three-people.html?_r=0)

Scientific field: Genetics (biology)

Extract:

British lawmakers voted to allow in vitro creation of babies with the DNA of three people. They are still discussing whether it should be put in practice or not.
This technique could prevent genetic diseases in women with mithocondrial defects, such as muscular dystrophy, loss of vision or even premature death. By using in vitro creation, the embryo would have nucleous DNA from the child's parents but mithocondrial DNA from a donor.
Despite all this advantages, this situation has lit a fierce debate. There are people who are in favour of allowing it. For example, the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, highlights the benefits it would provide, though others are not so sure. The Human Genetic Alert, for example, has said that we are crossing an ethical threshold, and that this technique shouldn't be put in practice.

Critical appraisal: Where the limit is?


When science collides with such sensitive issues as the ones related to humans' lives, it's very difficult to determine which is the good thing to do. The ethical limits of science are pretty unclear, and the opinions related to this matter are varied. Should we leave poor babies in the hands of natural selection? Or should we interfere and try to prevent the possible diseases they carry with them?

On one hand, if we approved this technique, we could prevent most of the genetic diseases. Science has advanced enormously last decades, and it has developed pioneer
procedures which could help humans' lives to improve. This technique could be applied to women with defects in the mitochondria. By doing this, they could make sure that its son wouldn't suffer a genetic mitochondria disease, which would be great.

Despite this advantage, bioethics may not be in tune with this kind of techniques. It's true that it could prevent lots of pathologies but, on the other hand, babies would be genetically modified.
I think we shouldn't do anything against nature laws. Science is capable of doing incredible things, but I believe this advances shouldn't go in the opposite direction to what nature establishes. Furthermore, if we start giving support to this kind of pioneering techniques, we might be tempted to create DNA modified babies in the future, and that wouldn’t be ethical. We shouldn't «design» our babies under any circumstance. Does it really matter whether your son will have blue or brown eyes? We may stop caring about such things and embrace the gift of life as its given to us.

Glossary:
Threshold: the sill of a doorway.
In vitro: made to occur in a laboratory vessel or other controlled experimental environment rather than within a living organism or natural setting.
DNA: deoxyribonucleic acid: an extremely long macromolecule that is the main component of chromosomes and is the material that transfers genetic characteristics in all life forms.
Womb: the uterus of the human female and certain higher mammals.
Kidney: either of a pair of bean-shaped organs in the back part of the abdominal cavity that form and excrete urine, regulate fluid and electrolyte balance, and act as endocrine glands.