h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A684155

ok, this is my first proper entry...i'm pretty sure there isn't another entry on the same subject...it's almost a clone (scuse the pun) of my key skills (some stupid course we have to do at school, don't ask me why) essay, in fact it is the same essay, slightly altered and with the picture taken out, but i though it would do for the guide. but of coure i need people to point out things that are wrong with it. etc.
^. .^
= ' =

there are a few problems.

You say "Human cloning, however, is unnatural", but that is exactly what happens when you get identical twins. It is also what happens in the cells of the embryo before differentiation.

you also say "Many people assume a clone will look identical to the parent", but this is also wrong. what they tend to assume is that they will BE identical to the parent. using identical twins as an example, you can easily prove this idea wrong as well.

you also seem to come across as saying that "it is unethical to destroy an embryo just because it is not perfect", but this is an arguament against abortion, not cloning.

You also seem to focus on the cloning of fully grown people who already exist to produce children, but this ignores the main reason that cloning is being used right now. theraputic cloning.

in theraputic cloning you take donor cells from the individual, extract the DNA, implant it into a freshly emptied embryo, and grow it to about the 50 cell stage. At this point it is still a clump of cells, so there is no problem with harvesting stem cells from it (unless you happen to believe that life begins at conception, in which case you have already decided you are against this technology, so keep out of the arguament as nothing will please you but a total ban).

These stem cells can then be implanted back in the individual, and because he was his own donor, there is no rejection problems. the stem cells then regrow back into healthy tissue to replace damaged tissue, and it doesn't show that there was ever any damage in the first place.

A good first attempt on a controversial subject but as xyroth has pointed out it needs a slight bit of tweaking and the area of "therapeutic cloning" should be covered but as I said not a bad start.

Hi Clelba, thought I'd make a few points.

'Asexual reproduction generally only happens in plants'
Not sure about that. Bacteria, archae, fungi (I think), protozoans and viruses (although not alone) reproduce asexually and make up the most abundant life forms on the planet.

Therapeutic cloning does seem to be addressed as far as I can see although maybe not in the way those above havve suggested.

You need to take the first persons out of there (my, I etc. as this is not the style the guide reccomends)

It's definitely a nice start though

I think it needs a bit of fleshing out. More detail on each of the arguments, for example explain why lack of genetic variety in a population is a bad thing. A more detailed description of how cloning is done would be nice too.
The word cloning itself is a little dodgy really. Most genetic engineering involves cloning a single gene or allelle into a bacterial host - this is entirely different to the copying of an entire genome into another host cell of the same species.

In short I think it's a little thin to do justice to this subject really. Sorry

Orcus

thanks everyone. like i said, it was an essay for school which i thought i might as well add to the guide, and it had to be 1000 words max which is why it's a bit short and doesn't really cover anything much. it's also not a very interesting subject...hmmm...maybe i should write about something more frivolous...and maybe get back to this another time...when i can be bothered
but you have come up with very good points which i will consider when i have another go at it
^. .^
= ' =

it is a very intresting subject, well worth finishing off.

I hope you do get round to finishing it off. It's a good topic for an entry, but does need to present a balanced view. I agree that more about gene therapy is needed - eg the potential for treating such diseases as sickle-cell anaemia, haemophilia and Duchenne Muscular dystrophy.

Perhaps also some general points about gene cloning (as opposed to human cloning) would also be nice - eg transgenic farm animals and transgenic plants (like the tomatoes with the gene responsible for the softening of the skin deactivated).

Just one small, nit-picking correction:

"A clone is a creature with a genetic make-up identical to that of its parent"

This is not a valid definition of a clone. A clone is a population of genetically identical organisms. Thus an organism can be said to belong to a clone, but it cannot be a clone (unless you take the view that the population of somatic cells in any one multicellular organism is a clone, because they are genetically identical). In the same way, identical twins are not clones of each other, but belong to the same clone (with a population of two).

this is basically made up from what i could find on the internet, and was sposed to be an essay about the ethics of cloning, maybe a title change would be appropriate? along with more depth, of course. i'm sure i will do more it, but not just yet. and anything else anyone comes up with that needs to be altered, please tell me!

^. .^
= ' =

The term "gene cloning" is very misleading, especially as it refers to genetic engineering, rather than cloning.

While a lot of the techniques for producing transgenic critters are the same, there is one fundamental difference. in a clone, or in pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (which also uses a lot of the same techniques) all you are doing is restricting the gene pool to contain an identical (in the case of the clone) or a reduced (in the case of pgd) diversity. In transgenic genetic engineering (or "designer babies") what you are doing is deliberately implanting new genes in to a place that didn't have them before. This is highly risky for a number of reasons, which I will cover if it becomes necessary.

Aphids are animals that reproduce asexually. Look up "parthenogenesis" with your search engine. All kingdoms of life contain some species that reproduce asexually.

How can it be that "Cloning is the ultimate form of genetic engineering". Genetic engineering is the modification of the genome of an organism. One could say that cloning is in fact the opposite as the whole aim is to create a perfect copy.

You could mention the ELSI (Ethical Legal and Social Implications) part of the Human Genome Project that deals with such debate...

Within the subheaders you could do with some paragraph ( & </p&gt separation for ease of reading.

Where's is therapeutic cloning? This is the main benefit of the technology. You cannot mention human cloning and not talk about this. Especially because it has been in the news in the UK and US a great deal recently. Perhaps a small aside on stem cell research too would be nice.

"...and governments should be especially careful about what laws they enforce on cloning, and how they are enforced."
You used 'enforce' twice there .

Ste

After getting feedback of this high quality, I'd suggest you put your essays up for Peer Review *before* you submit them as articles! It would probably help a great deal (and that wasn't intended as a snotty remark about your schoolwork!)

FM

...or put them up for Peer Review *before* you hand them into your teacher

i'll probly get feedback from my teacher anyway...it didn't really have to be very good as an essay, bu it needs to be better as an article
^. .^
= ' =

have you/are you going to update this?

ah...um...the procrastinator in me is coming out now...no to the first one...and...erm...no comment to the second one
oh...well...i should really, shouldn't i?
oh bother it...
i will. really. i will.
^. .^
= ' =

most of the info you need id in this thread and well its a kewl article, so it deserves it

thanks
it might have to wait a while, unfortunately, cos i have exams and things coming up, but i'll keep reminding myself...
^. .^
= ' =

Yo! Clelba, how's about easin' up things for us scouts and removes this thread from PR and resub it when it's ready?

Just a suggestion,

HELL

or even better updating the article

how do i remove it?
^. .^
= ' =