Week 10 Assignments - The Chemistry of Life

Re: Gene Therapy -

I definitely have mixed feelings about this question and topic. I am again awed by the technologies that we have developed and the possible applications for those technologies which can be so useful to quality of life for so many people. I suppose that what I feel most strongly is that we should continue to explore these technologies and their applications, and in particular clinical trials should continue in the study of gene therapy.

That being said, I also have serious concerns about the ethical use of the information that comes out of those trials. Given where we are as a species at this point in time, and given how much farther we have to go in learning how to humanely treat each other and the responsibility that we all carry to respect life and this planet in general - well, lets just say that I am less than optimistic at the moment that we are actually capable of doing so, and therefore I am not at all sure that we can use these technologies responsibly - at least at this time.

I also have some questions about treating conditions that are considered disabilities. Let me first say that I have a sister who is severely disabled, so I don't want to be construed as being heartless or clueless when I say this - but my question is around whether or not the existence of disabilities or anomalies in living systems aren't necessary in a normal cycle of life and death....if the attempt to eradicate those anomalies isn't harmful to that cycle in some way, that this might create an imbalance which is harmful in nature, more so than a cure would be helpful. I don't actually have an answer or even an opinion on this question, it is, just, a question...

Definitions of the Chemistry of Life links:

Not very helpful, to me anyway. Most of the links either took me to general pages at schools offering coursework on this topic, or were ads for journals, or sometimes didn't work at all...the few that I found actually had a definition on them were really long and wordy - I think the wikipedia article we were already provided with was more succinct and interesting, frankly.

Re: Animations links:

I was able to get these animations to work, and they were way cool, IMO. Of course, the only thing is that it would be helpful to have text or explanations to go along with the various models - but for instance I looked at the orbitals animations, and having a fuzzy understanding of that concept, I was able to have a slightly less fuzzy experience viewing that animation...tee hee.