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Free immortality Essays and Papers – 123HelpMe

Title Length Color Rating The Quest For Immortality - I believe that literal and spiritual immortality are impossible but genetic, memorial, and historical are achievable. In my opinion, literal immortality is impossible from a medical view. This could never happen because the bodys organs and muscles would wear out and stop working, for example the heart is a muscle and would eventually stop working over time. Eventually the lubrication in the joints would dry out and moving would be unbearably painful. In addition, the skin would lose elasticity.... [tags: Immortality Essays]594 words(1.7 pages)Good Essays[preview] Wordsworth's Ode: Intimations of Immortality - Wordsworth's Ode: Intimations of Immortality The fifth stanza of Wordsworths Ode: Intimations of Immortality is especially interesting to me because of the images it presents. It is at this point in the poem that Wordsworth resumes his writing after a two-year hiatus. In the fourth stanza, he poses the question, Whither is fled the visionary gleam? Stanza five is the beginning of his own answers to that question. Contrary to popular enlightenment ideas, Wordsworth suggests that rather than become more knowledgeable with age, man if fact is born with vision splendid and as he ages, that vision dies away and he left empty.... [tags: Wordsworth Ode immortality intimations Essays]390 words(1.1 pages)Strong Essays[preview] The Belief of Immortality - There were no real evidence on the existence of an everlasting life. Humans have never went to this extent because of aging and diseases that cause death. The reason why people are desperately aiming for an eternal is fear of the death, more especially the unknown of what comes next. That fear triggers many to believe there must be an upcoming of events right after death. However, this suggests that there is no evidence of immortality, but it is a set of belief created by mankind to reassure death, and many philosophers such as David Hume disapproved it.... [tags: Research, Origin, Death Fear]:: 4 Works Cited 965 words(2.8 pages)Better Essays[preview] Immortality in Literature - For centuries people have desired to transcend the limits of a temporary life, yearning for the ultimately unattainable goal of immortality. Poets have expressed in certain poems the desire to remain as they are with their beloved despite time and death. Although William Shakespeares Sonnet 55 and Edmund Spensers Sonnet 75 both present immortality through verse, only Spenser combines this wish for immortality with love and companionship, while Shakespeare promises himself immortality as long as the sonnet continues to be read.... [tags: Literary Analysis ]1229 words(3.5 pages)Strong Essays[preview] The Search for Immortality in the Epic of Gilgamesh - The fear of death and the search for eternal life is a cultural universal. The ideology surrounding immortality transcends time and a plethora of cultures. The theme, immortality appears in stories from the Epic of Gilgamesh, which was composed by ancient Sumerians roughly around 600 B.C., to present day works of fiction in the twenty first century. Gilgamesh, a figure of celestial stature, allows his mortal side to whittle away his power after the death of Enkidu. Undeniably, defenseless before the validity of his own end, he leaves Uruk and begins a quest for Utnapishtim; the mortal man who withstood the great deluge and was granted immortality by the gods (Freeman 36).... [tags: Epic of Gilgamesh Essays]:: 9 Works Cited 1509 words(4.3 pages)Powerful Essays[preview] Immortality - It is death that gives urgency to life. It drives us to discovery, to cross oceans and reach into the emptiness of space says the Herald Tribune columnist Rich Brooks (Thompson). The thought of being immortal is extremely alluring. To live in an ageless body, have all the time in the world to basically do whatever is something that every person has thought of. Immortality has always been a myth, but with technology continuing to advance everyday with alarming speed, it might soon be possible. Scientist Ray Kurzweil and many others have even predicted that this goal could be reach in the next twenty years.... [tags: Scientific Research ]:: 15 Works Cited 1296 words(3.7 pages)Strong Essays[preview] Mortality and Immortality in Ode to a Nightingale - When talking about poetry and Romanticism, one of the most common names that come to mind is John Keats. Keats lifestyle was somewhat different from his contemporaries and did not fit the Romantic era framework, this is most likely the reason he stood out from the rest. Keats wrote many poems that are still relevant, amongst them Ode to a Nightingale, which was published for the very first time in July, 1819. The realistic depth and lyrical beauty that resonates in Ode to a Nightingale is astounding.... [tags: romantic poet, romantic era, john keats]:: 8 Works Cited 1445 words(4.1 pages)Powerful Essays[preview] Theme of Immortality in Literature - For centuries people have desired to transcend the limits of a temporary life, yearning for the ultimately unattainable goal of immortality. Poets have also expressed in their works the desire to remain as they are with their beloved despite time and death. Although William Shakespeares Sonnet 55 and Edmund Spensers Sonnet 75 from Amoretti both offer immortality through verse, only Spenser combines this immortality with respect and partnership, while Shakespeare promises himself immortality as long as the sonnet continues to be read.... [tags: Literary Analysis ]1122 words(3.2 pages)Strong Essays[preview] Evolution, Immortality, and Humanity - Our ancient ancestors in the Neolithic Era only lived for an average of 20 years, an age now considered to be only the beginning of adulthood. As human technology becomes more sophisticated and knowledge of the ourselves and of nature expands, humans develop longer lifespans and the general quality of life improves. In fact, we have more than tripled the lifespan of our ancestors while retaining much of the same biological fitness. Humans have withdrawn from natural selection because technologies (not the evolution of the body) allow humans to adapt to the ever-changing natural world.... [tags: Genomics, Genome]:: 10 Works Cited 2431 words(6.9 pages)Term Papers[preview] Hume, Descartes, and Nietzsche's Views on Immortality - Immortality is one of mankinds major apprehensions, and even though it has been mainly restricted to religious customs. People have different opinions about immortality. Everybody defines immortality differently. For some people it is the survival of the astral body resembling the physical body, for others the immortality of the immaterial soul and lastly the resurrection of the body. Basic definition of immortality is the unknown continuation of a persons existence, even after death. Immortality primarily referred to soul as it like it does not die when the human body dies, but since they both well connected together, when the body dies, soul dies too; therefore, immortality does not exis... [tags: afterlife, moral, soul]1054 words(3 pages)Strong Essays[preview] Infamy vs. Immortality: Beowulf and Gilgamesh - Immortality, monstrosity, infamy, catastrophe, might, and courage are all aspects of the epic legends of Beowulf and Gilgamesh. Though they subsisted in two utterly different historical eras, these epic heroes have numerous similarities and differences. For example, while they were booth deemed epic heroes, their mortalities were not equal. Beowulf had superhuman qualities such as having the strength of thirty men, but was born a mortal man. On the contrary, Gilgamesh was a demigod as he was born two-thirds god and one-third human by Ninsun, the goddess of dreams and cows.... [tags: Epic Poems, Grendel, Anglo-Saxon]605 words(1.7 pages)Better Essays[preview] Homer and Immortality - Homer and Immortality Immortality is one the subject of much mythology and folklore. From the stories of the gods themselves, to Achilles and the Styx, to vampires and present day Christian beliefs in an afterlife, the concept of immortality has been with humanity since the beginning of humanity. The wise and ever edifying Homer leaves myths of the elusive ever-lasting life out of his works; did Homer's Achilles not wear armor. The Odyssey is a story of mortality. Limitation and suffering are what define humanity, yet they are also what give life merit.... [tags: Papers]540 words(1.5 pages)Good Essays[preview] The Immortality Pill - Originally when I was posed this question my immediate response was to return the Immortality pill (IP). The reason I initially responded this way, and still remain set on my belief had plenty to do with the factors involved. First, if I were to take the Immortality pill I would already know my horrific demise, such as an accident, war victim, or suicide. Secondly, just as suicide effects not only the person committing the act, but more so the family and friends in that individuals life, yet the same concept is present when making the decision to take this pill.... [tags: essays research papers]598 words(1.7 pages)Better Essays[preview] Ozymandias and Immortality - Ozymandias and Immortality Ozymandias expresses to us that possessions do not mean immortality. Percy Shelley uses lots of imagery and irony to get his point across throughout the poem. In drawing these vivid and ironic pictures in our minds, Shelley explains that no one lives forever, and neither do their possessions. Shelley expresses this poems moral through a vivid and ironic picture: On the pedestal of the statue, there are these words, My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!(10-11).... [tags: Papers]427 words(1.2 pages)Strong Essays[preview] The Allure of Vampires and Immortality - The Allure of Vampires and Immortality Humanity has always been fascinated with the allure of immortality and although in the beginning vampires were not a symbol of this, as time passed and society changed so did the ideas and perceptions surrounding them. The most important thing to ask yourself at this point is 'What is immortality?' Unfortunately this isn't as easily answered as asked. The Merriam Webster Dictionary says immortality is 'the quality or state of being immortal; esp : unending existence' while The World Book Encyclopedia states it as 'the continued and eternal life of a human being after the death of the body.' A more humorous definition can be found in Th... [tags: Argumentative Persuasive Essays]1033 words(3 pages)Strong Essays[preview] Death and Immortality in The Epic of Gilgamesh - Death and Immortality in The Epic of Gilgamesh The search for immortality has been a major concern for many men and women all throughout history. True love and immortality in life would be a dream come true to many. To spend time with a special someone, the person one feels closest to, and never have to say good-bye would greatly appeal to most people. But when death steps into the picture, even with all the pain and devastation, one starts to re-evaluate themselves. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh explores the possibility of immortality following the saddening death of his friend and brother, Enkidu.... [tags: The Epic of Gilgamesh]1379 words(3.9 pages)Powerful Essays[preview] Gilgamesh and the Quest for Immortality - Gilgamesh and the Quest for Immortality The stories of the hunt for immortality gathered in the Epic of Gilgamesh depict the conflict felt in ancient Sumer. As urbanization swept Mesopotamia, the social status shifted from a nomadic hunting society to that of a static agricultural gathering society. In the midst of this ancient "renaissance", man found his relationship with the sacred uncertain and precarious. The Epic portrays the strife created between ontological nostalgia for a simpler time and the dawn of civilization breaking in the Near East.... [tags: Epic Gilgamesh essays]1044 words(3 pages)Strong Essays[preview] Immortality and Myth in The Age of Innocence - Immortality and Myth in The Age of Innocence Edith Whartons books are considered, by some, merely popular fiction of her time. But we must be careful not to equate popularity with the value of the fiction; i.e., we must not assume that if her books are popular, they are also primitive. Compared to the works of her contemporary and friend, Henry James, whose books may seem complex and sometimes bewildering; Whartons The Age of Innocence appears to be a simplistic, gossipy commentary of New York society during the last decade of the 19th century*.... [tags: essays papers]3237 words(9.2 pages)Powerful Essays[preview] Search for Immortality Depicted in The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Odyssey - Through the many of mankinds tales of adventure the search for immortality is a very common theme. Many heroes have made it the objective of their travels and adventures. This is no different in The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Odyssey. The heroes in both are tempted by the offer of immortality, however each of them turns it down for their own reasons. In The Odyssey, Odysseus rejects the offer of immortality from the goddess Calypso long after he discovers the true nature of the afterlife after travelling to Hades.... [tags: Epic of Gilgamesh, The Odyssey]:: 1 Works Cited 858 words(2.5 pages)Better Essays[preview] Kierkegaard and P.M. Moller on Immortality - Kierkegaard and P.M. Moller on Immortality P.M. Moller and His Relation to S.A. Kierkegaard Although virtually unknown today outside of Danish philosophical circles, Moller (1794-1838) was, during his lifetime, esteemed as one of Denmarks most loved poets, and beginning in 1831 he held the position of professor of philosophy at the University of Denmark. While at the university Moller taught Moral and Greek Philosophy, and his early philosophical position has been regarded as Hegelian. Kierkegaard began his university studies in 1830, and the young professor made a deep impression upon him.... [tags: Essays Papers]2281 words(6.5 pages)Strong Essays[preview] Man at the Brink of Immortality - Man at the Brink of Immortality From the earliest civilizations arose an innate desire to survive in any given environment. Those that chose to fight deaths henchmen, famine and war, developed more advanced agricultural techniques and created complex social structures. The primal instinct to exist drove humanity to proliferate across the world, as many populations boomed, seemingly without bound. Throughout history, this fervent yearning for life was shared by the predominant masses, but the inevitable befell every person on earth.... [tags: Exploratory Essays Research Papers]:: 5 Works Cited 1868 words(5.3 pages)Term Papers[preview] Search for Immortality in the Epic of Gilgamesh - The Search for Immortality In The Epic of Gilgamesh the main character, Gilgamesh, is searching for immortality. This want is brought about by deep feelings held by Gilgamesh for his dead friend Enkidu. From this, Gilgamesh finds himself being scared of dying. This fear pushes Gilgamesh to search for the power of immortal life, which is believed to be held only by women because of the fact that they can reproduce. This takes him on a long and tiresome journey to a land where no mortal has gone before.... [tags: Epic Gilgamesh essays]725 words(2.1 pages)Strong Essays[preview] Immortality and Symbolism in John Keat's Nightingale Ode - The nightingale and the discussion about it are not simply about a bird or a song but about human experience in general. Nightingale is not an eternal entity. There are many images of death within the poem. The images are particular and sensuous, but not highly visual. Nightingale experiences a sort of death but actually it is not a real death nightingale is mysterious and even disappears at the end of the poem but nightingale itself is symbol of continuity or immortality and is universal and undying in contrast with the morality of human beings.... [tags: Poetry Analysis, Poem Analysis]541 words(1.5 pages)Good Essays[preview] The Immortality and Blindness to a Dark Continent - The Immortality and Blindness to a Dark Continent Joseph Conrads s novel Heart of Darkness portrays an image of Africa that is dark and inhuman. Not only does he describe the actual, physical continent of Africa as so hopeless and so dark, so impenetrable to human thought, so pitiless to human weakness, (Conrad 2180) as though the continent could neither breed nor support any true human life. Conrad lived through a time when European colonies were scattered all over the world. This phenomenon and the doctrine of colonialism bought into at his time obviously influenced his views at the time of Heart of Darkness publication.... [tags: Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad Analysis]1683 words(4.8 pages)Strong Essays[preview] Immortality And Mortality In The Economic Sciences - Sam Vaknin's Psychology, Philosophy, Economics and Foreign Affairs Web Sites Roberto Calvo Macias, a young author and thinker from Spain, once wrote to me that it is impossible to design a coherent philosophy of Economy without accounting for the (sad?) fact that we are mortals. This insight is intriguing. It is not that we refrain from Death in dealing with matters economic. What are estate laws, annuities, life insurance policies - but ways to cope with the Great Harvester.... [tags: essays research papers]1168 words(3.3 pages)Strong Essays[preview] Reaction Paper On Immortality On Ice - Reaction Paper On Immortality On Ice The movie that we watched was about reviving a person from the dead. This is said to be done in the future but they had already started researching how to use ice as a power to revive a clinically dead person. They used ice as a method to preserve a body and now they are planning on how to revive a person through the use of nanotechnology that can repair all the cells that were ruptured n the freezing process.... [tags: Movie Film Reaction]1539 words(4.4 pages)Strong Essays[preview] Immortality And Resurrection: The Dichotomy Between Thought and Physicality. - In religion the concept of life after death is discussed in great detail. In monotheistic religions, in particular the Christian theology, death is a place where the soul, the eternal spirit that is part of you, transcends or descends to depending on if you go to heaven or hell. The argument calls for a form of immortality of the soul and a lack of immortality of the bodythe soul lives forever, the body perishes. John Hick in his excerpt from Immortality and Resurrection refutes the ideology that the spirit and body are dichotomous, one being everlasting and the other limited.... [tags: Spirituality]:: 1 Works Cited 1870 words(5.3 pages)Term Papers[preview] A Mortals Sense Of Immortality - A Mortal’s Sense of Immortality To fear death is to fear life itself. An overbearing concern for the end of life not only leads to much apprehension of the final moment but also allows that fear to occupy one’s whole life. The only answer that can possibly provide relief in the shadow of the awaited final absolution lies in another kind of absolution, one that brings a person to terms with their irrevocable mortality and squelches any futile desire for immortality. Myths are often the vehicles of this release, helping humanity to accept and handle their mortal and limited state.... [tags: essays research papers]1788 words(5.1 pages)Powerful Essays[preview] Courage, Virtue, and the Immortality of the Soul: According to Socrates - In the Laches and the Phaedo, courage and virtue are discussed in depth. Also, arguments for the possibility of the existence of the immorality of the soul are given in the Phaedo. In the Laches, Socrates and two generals, Nicias and Laches, wrestle with how exactly to define courage. After discussing and working their way through two definitions of courage, Nicias proposes a third definition of courage. However, this definition of courage that he proposes is actually the definition of virtue. When the dialogue comes to an end, no definition of courage has been reached.... [tags: Philosophy ]:: 3 Works Cited 1983 words(5.7 pages)Term Papers[preview] Above Tintern Abbey and Intimations of Immortality by William Wordsworth - The poems, Above Tintern Abbey and Intimations of Immortality written by the poet, William Wordsworth, pertain to a common theme of natural beauty. Relaying his history and inspirations within his works, Wordsworth reflects these events in each poem. The recurring theme of natural beauty is analogous to his experiences and travels. Wordsworth recognizes the connections nature enables humans to construct. The beauty of a wild secluded scene (Wordsworth, 1798, line 6) allows the mind to bypass clouded and obscured thinking accompanied with man made environments.... [tags: poetry, natural beauty]:: 3 Works Cited 982 words(2.8 pages)Better Essays[preview] Themes of Death and Immortality in Emily Dickinson's Poetry - Throughout Emily Dickinsons poetry there is a reoccurring theme of death and immortality. The theme of death is further separated into two major categories including the curiosity Dickinson held of the process of dying and the feelings accompanied with it and the reaction to the death of a loved one. Two of Dickinsons many poems that contain a theme of death include: Because I Could Not Stop For Death, and After great pain, a formal feeling comes. In Dickinsons poem Because I Could Not Stop for Death, Dickinson portrays what it is like to go through the process of dying.... [tags: Literary Analysis ]:: 4 Works Cited 991 words(2.8 pages)Good Essays[preview] Egyptian Religion and Immortality - The most noticing aspect of Egyptian religion is its obsession with immortality and the belief of life after death. This sculpture can show you this on how mummification gave upbringing to complex arts in ancient Egypt. The sculpture is the Mummy Case of Paankhenamun. The artwork is currently viewed at The Art Institute of Chicago. The sculpture was from the third period, Dynasty 22, in ancient Egypt. However, the sculpture has many features to it that makes it so unique in ancient Egypt from any other time.... [tags: essays research papers]1397 words(4 pages)Strong Essays[preview] Free Essays - Immortality and the Epic of Gilgamesh - Immortality and the Epic of Gilgamesh Immortality - (a) the quality or state of being immortal. (b) never ending existence. Although that is the Webster definition of immortality, what is never-ending existence. That question has a different answer for everyone. Some people believe that never-ending existence happens by never physically dying, and others believe that immortality can be obtained through your children. I personally feel that your children cannot give you immortality nowadays because of all the influences outside of the home.... [tags: Epic Gilgamesh essays]401 words(1.1 pages)Strong Essays[preview] Discussion of D.Z. Phillips Conception of Immortality - Discussion of D.Z. Phillips Conception of Immortality In his book 'Death and Immortality', D Z Phillips starts by asking the question: does belief in immortality rest on a mistake. The first two chapters are negative in the sense that they examine traditional philosophical, as well as common sense, conceptions of what immortality means. Phillips argues that philosophical analyses centred on the notion of immortality have generally been constructed around certain essential presuppositions: presuppositions that assume some form of continuation of personal identity after death.... [tags: Papers]1096 words(3.1 pages)Strong Essays[preview] Ode Intimations of Immortality by William Wordsworth - Ode Intimations of Immortality by William Wordsworth In Ode: Intimations of Immortality, William Wordsworth explores the moral development of man and the irreconcilable conflicts between innocence and experience, and youthfulness and maturity that develop. As the youth matures he moves farther away from the divinity of God and begins to be corruption by mankind. What Wordsworth wishes for is a return to his childhood innocence but with his new maturity and insight. This would allow him to experience divinity in its fullest sense: he would re-experience the celestial radiance of childhood as well as the reality of his present existence.... [tags: Papers]832 words(2.4 pages)Better Essays[preview] Immortality Discovered: New Scientific History of Mankind or Simply Challenging God? - Humankinds long desire to live an eternal life has been accomplished. After thirty years of denying their research on immortality, Japans National Institute of Genetics (NIG) surprised the world by announcing that they have found a way to implement immortality in humans. However, they have also announced that those who deserve immortality will only be considered as possible subjects and immortality will not be an option for everyone. Humane societies all around the world are raged about NIGs discovery on immortality and criticizes not only on the discovery, but also their attempt to mimic God.... [tags: religious beliefs]:: 5 Works Cited 742 words(2.1 pages)Strong Essays[preview] Bernard Williams' Paper The Makropulos Case - ... Pushing the idea further, it does appear that immortality is a positive thing when an individual can pursue new and ever evolving categorical desires as their life continues. This idea will reemerge as we discuss avoiding boredom over infinity. Building upon the accumulation of categorical desires, Williams asserts that as we approach temporal infinity all those desires have been satisfied. The satisfaction of these desires is not by means of just enough fulfillment, but by a more than enough sense of fulfillment.... [tags: reflections on the tedium of immortality]:: 1 Works Cited 1996 words(5.7 pages)Term Papers[preview] The Desire for Everlasting Life and Gilgamesh - The desire for everlasting life or immortality has been the first and the oldest quest of mankind. At the beginning of time, man was designed to live forever. When God created Adam, he created him to dwell on the earth and to fill it with his offsprings. At no time was he told that this was a temporary arrangement. He was to live forever unless he ate from one certain tree. If he ate from that tree, then he would die. We are then left with several questions, if he had not eaten from that tree, would he still be alive.... [tags: immortality, Epic of Gilgamesh, Foster]1272 words(3.6 pages)Strong Essays[preview] To Accept or Not Accept Socrates Theory of Recollection as Sufficient Answer to Menos Paradox - ... The problem of circularity in Socrates justification is especially problematic because it highlights the weak foundation that his entire theory is built upon. If the basis of ones theory is unsound there is no reason to accept what has been built up from it. If Socrates refutation of Menos Paradox is that knowledge is simply recollection, it is necessary that he prove the immortality of the soul independently. Since Socrates has failed to do so, then his theory cannot be accepted a sufficient way of overcoming the paradox.... [tags: immortality, slave, interrogation]1008 words(2.9 pages)Better Essays[preview] The Transition from Life to Death in Because I Could not Stop for Death by Emily Dickinson - Because I could not stop for Death by Emily Dickinson is a story about the transition from life to death. It begins with death stopping to accompany her on her journey to the afterlife. Throughout this poem the reader follows the speaker through different stages of life, through death, and into the other side where she looks back upon her journey. Each of the stages have purpose, and a well defined meaning. The first reference to death is made in the first line in which she refers to death in the physical form.... [tags: immortality, journey, afterlife]:: 1 Works Cited 817 words(2.3 pages)Better Essays[preview] Representations of Death in Because I Could Not Stop for Death by Emily Dickinson - ... Carriage is a capitalized noun which has a big meaning for Dickinson. With capitalizing Ourselves she means the relationship between death and her. She wants us to believe and know that something serious is going to happen between death and her. The last interesting word in this stanza is Immortality. It is a hint that Dickinson is not talking about death at the end, but it can be an example for life after death. The next stanza starts with We slowly drove, he knew no haste. It represents that they have all the time they want and that they use it properly.... [tags: immortality, characterization, cold]:: 1 Works Cited 822 words(2.3 pages)Better Essays[preview] The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Ignorance of Gilgamesh - In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgameshs pursuit for immortality is marked by ignorance and selfish desire. Desire and ignorance, as The Buddha-karita of Asvaghosha suggests, pollutes mans judgment resulting in his inability to break the cycle of birth and death. At the core of Gilgameshs desire resides his inability to accept the inevitability of death, making his rationality behind the pursuit of immortality ignorant and selfish. Implicitly, Gilgameshs corrupt desire for immortality conveys that Gilgamesh does not mature as a character.... [tags: Gilgamesh, Desire, Immortality]:: 1 Works Cited 1013 words(2.9 pages)Strong Essays[preview] The Immortality of the Soul - Plato has roused many readers with the work of a great philosopher by the name of Socrates. Through Plato, Socrates lived on generations after his time. A topic of Socrates that many will continue to discuss is the idea of an immortal soul. Although there are various works and dialogues about this topic it is found to be best explained in The Phaedo. It is fair to say that the mind may wonder when one dies what exactly happens to the beloved soul, the giver of life often thought of as the very essence of life does it live on beyond the body, or does it die with it.... [tags: Philosophy ]:: 3 Works Cited 1430 words(4.1 pages)Powerful Essays[preview] Is the Prolonged Span of Life by Medic Care Technology a Triumph or a Tragedy? - ... The answer is obvious. In general, I would characterize aging more of a tragedy than a triumph based on the current situation. In other words, there is still much we can do to improve the quality of our aging procession. To begin with, there are health issues eating up the life quality of elder people. Nowadays, the health system is still exerting more efforts on quantity instead of quality of life for elder people. Life quality could always be sacrificed for the sake of longevity. Such an idea has put millions of elder people living long lives living in long-term pain and suffering.... [tags: ancient civilization, humanity, immortality]852 words(2.4 pages)Better Essays[preview] Because I Coulndt Stop fo Death by Emily Dickinson - Emily Dickinson is known for her poetry especially surrounding the subjects of death, love, and nature. These themes, however, are less standard than they may appear at first glance. Dickinson writes poetry with complex themes, and in many cases, each of her poems may be classified by more than one theme. Because I could not stop for death is a prime example of Dickinsons multifaceted work. Emily Dickinson personifies death along with an underlying theme of love in Because I could not stop for death. Within the first line of Because I could not stop for death, readers are already aware that the theme of death will occur throughout the poem.... [tags: love, and nature, immortality]964 words(2.8 pages)Better Essays[preview] Alexander the Great: Was He Really That Great? - Why was Alexander III of Macedon called 'Great'. The answer seems relatively straight forward. Alexander conquered territories, established empires and died young, at the height of his power. However, he was also over-ambitious and pushed his men to their limits in his quest for immortality, while murdering killing thousands along his way. Alexander is neither deserving nor unworthy of his title as the Great. Born in the year 356 BC to the king of Macedon, Philip II, and his wife Olympias, Alexander the Great spent much of his childhood learning to be a leader and claim the title of the greatest military leader the world has ever known.... [tags: immortality, murdering, power, empires]950 words(2.7 pages)Better Essays[preview] Who is this Death you Speak of?: Piers Anthony's On A Pale Horse - Who is this Death You Speak Of. According to Alan Loy McGinnis, there is no more noble occupation in the world than to assist another human being - to help someone succeed. Piers Anthony, the author of the book On a Pale Horse, seems to agree with that statement when he writes the book series called Incarnations of Immortality, of which On a Pale Horse is the first. This book is a fascinating work of fiction that relates science to magic and expresses that human beings might need a little more help than they expect.... [tags: Incarnations of Immortality, Mythology]:: 2 Works Cited 1327 words(3.8 pages)Strong Essays[preview] Responsibility and The Dangers of Science in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - ... With all of these scientific discoveries and theories being discovered and hypothesized, there was a lot of concern about the responsibilities and the dangers of science. There were many people who were very cautious about what kind of areas they pried into, especially those that had not been charted by any other human being before. Some even chose not to go any deeper than the human race already had, for fear of what the consequences might be. Other scientists, like Darwin, had an immense affect on the world as we know it today.... [tags: victor, cloning, immortality]1126 words(3.2 pages)Strong Essays[preview] Are We Now Living in Aldous Huxleys Brave New World? - COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY: this is the World State's motto in a science fiction novel Brave New World written by Aldous Leonard Huxley in 1932. Huxley predicts the future world ironically, and I assume everyone hopes his prediction will not come true. Fortunately, Huxleys brave new world is just a fictional world; no one knows whether Huxleys brave new world will become a reality or not. However, technology improves rapidly and scares people that their world is gradually approaching to Huxleys brave new world.... [tags: community, identity, technology, immortality]1108 words(3.2 pages)Strong Essays[preview] The Meaning of The Mind and Soul - Death and immortality Since the times of Plato and before, humans have pondered the existence of a soul and the afterlife. I am going to present my argument for the existence of a soul and the potential for surviving one's physical death. For the purpose of my argument I will define that the meaning of the mind and soul are one and the same. The two main accepted views of the human condition are that of the physicalist and that of the dualist. The physicalist views the human condition in a purely physical state.... [tags: death, immortality, plato]:: 3 Works Cited 860 words(2.5 pages)Better Essays[preview] Epic of Gilgamesh Essay - Desperate Search for Immortality - Desperate Search for Immortality in the Epic of Gilgamesh The search for immortality seems to be an obsession for many men and women all throughout history. In the Epic of Gilgamesh a man investigates the possibility of immortality following the saddening death of his friend, his brother Enkidu. That man, Gilgamesh, feeling the fear of the possibility of his own mortality which was before unrealized before the death of Enkidu, searches for a way to preserve himself. Is it truly that Gilgamesh searches for a physical immortality or more of a spiritual immortality.... [tags: Epic Gilgamesh essays]830 words(2.4 pages)Strong Essays[preview] Comparison of Gilgamesh and Enkidu - Gilgamesh was two thirds of a god who possessed beauty, a gorgeous body, and great amounts of courage and strength that surpassed all other humans. His greatness was established through the wonderful walls he built around Uruk, a rampart, and a temple for Anu and Ishtar (Gilgamesh & Sandars, 61). Enkidu on the other hand was initially an uncivilized man created by the goddess of creation, Aruru. His appearance was strictly barbaric with his long hair and hairy body, whose innocent mind knew nothing of a civilized human culture (Gilgamesh et al., 62).... [tags: brother, strength, immortality]887 words(2.5 pages)Better Essays[preview] The Search for Immortality in On the Beach at Night and Sunday Morning - The Search for Immortality in On the Beach at Night and Sunday Morning The search for immortality is not an uncommon one in literature. Many authors and poets find contentment within the ideals of faith and divinity; others, such as Whitman and Stevens, achieve satisfaction with the concept of the immortality of mortality. This understanding of the cycle of death and rebirth dominates both Walt Whitman's "On the Beach at Night" and Wallace Stevens' "Sunday Morning" and demonstrates the poets' philosophies of worldly immortality.... [tags: Papers]698 words(2 pages)Good Essays[preview] Immortality in the Soul - Humanity is in a constant process to better themselves, as a result of their self-transcending nature. The purpose of this process is to achieve an immortal soul. In order for this to occur, according to Plato, the individual must first be engaged in his Theory of Education: beginning with the Allegory of the Cave, followed by the Metaphor of the Divided Line, and then completing with the Theory of Forms. To be fully immerse in this process, an understanding of Plato's Allegory of the Cave is necessary.... [tags: Literary Analysis ]:: 4 Works Cited 1797 words(5.1 pages)Term Papers[preview] Life after Death, Reincarnation, Resurrection and Immortality of the Soul - Life after Death, Reincarnation, Resurrection and Immortality of the Soul Belief in life after death has taken many forms, some which are unique in particular religious belief systems, though; others can be found in more than one religion. 'For most religions, life after death is an article of faith. In Western religions, the belief is founded in scriptural evidence, but for all religions the belief in life after death is the same: life after death has been promised to humans by an all powerful'[1] There are many views of life after death in particular which have been much adhered to and much discussed by philosophers.... [tags: Papers]1730 words(4.9 pages)Strong Essays[preview] Human Cloning Can Make Immortality a Reality - Congress, the president, foreign countries, political activists, companies, consumers, churches, ethicists, doctors, patients, and even scientists have entered the fervent debate on cloning. The March edition of the Life Extension Foundations (LEF) magazine vocally calls for American citizens to write to their Senators and stop an anti-cloning bill from passage through both Houses (See Figure 1.) While the public argues over short-term questions such as what is the definition of cloning, at what point does life begin, and is cloning bad we must examine the hidden future potential and consequences of therapeutic cloning.... [tags: Exploratory Essays Research Papers]:: 20 Works Cited 4046 words(11.6 pages)Powerful Essays[preview] Immortality in "The Great Gatsby" - People say that "money makes the world go around." It may, but in the novel The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald money is what causes greed and death. The novel is filled with multiple themes but one predominate theme that the author focuses on is immorality. The novel was written in the1920s which was a time that drew away from social and moral values and yearned for its greed and empty pursuit of pleasure. Gatsby, gains his wealth through bootlegging only because he wants to show Daisy his wealth.... [tags: American Literature]800 words(2.3 pages)Good Essays[preview] The Immortality of Skyy Vodka - It happens to be spring break and I decided to take a road trip to visit an out of state relative in Florida. While I am driving I happen to see advertisements on bill boards of Skyy Vodka at nearly every stop or city I pass. While Im driving on the interstate about every ad I perceive almost symbolizes sex or some sort of representation of a high economic status. For instance Skyy Vodka commercial and magazine covers usually depict men dressed up in expensive suits, driving fancy cars, and owning luxurious mansions.... [tags: advertisments, sexually, materialistic, audience]641 words(1.8 pages)Better Essays[preview] Making the Disintegration of the Keller Family Compelling in Arthur Miller's All My Sons - How does Arthur Miller make the disintegration of the Keller family compelling for the audience. The disintegration of the Keller family is clearly apparent from the beginning of the performance with all the lies and fabrication between Keller, Chris and Mother and all the secrets they are hiding from one another. The spuriousness of mother also plays a key role in the putrefaction of the Keller family and the quixotic views of Chris and his opinion of himself being morally pure, but he turns out to have a murderer for a father.... [tags: immortality, suicide, corrupt]:: 1 Works Cited 943 words(2.7 pages)Better Essays[preview] Achieving Immortality through the Telling of Myths - Everyone has had to sit threw a long and overly exaggerated fishing story. These stories, told by family and friends, are usually epic tails of finding, luring and inevitably catching the biggest fish imaginable. For most, these tales are brief moments were their feats are brought into the spotlight. For Edward Blood, the main character in Tim Burtons film Big Fish, these fantastical tales become his life. To the point that it is hard for Edwards son, William, to distinguish what is fact and what is fiction, in regards to his father.... [tags: Tim Burton, Big Fish, Film Analysis, FIlm]:: 3 Works Cited 1062 words(3 pages)Strong Essays[preview] Immortality Through Verse in Shakespeares Sonnet 18 and Spensers Sonnet 75 - Immortality Through Verse in Shakespeares Sonnet 18 and Spensers Sonnet 75 Desiring fame, celebrity, and importance, people for centuries have yearned for the ultimately unattainable goal of immortality. Poets, too, have expressed desires in verse that their lovers remain as they are for eternity, in efforts of praise. Though Shakespeares Sonnet 18 and Spensers Sonnet 75 from Amoretti both offer lovers this immortality through verse, only Spenser pairs this immortality with respect and partnership, while Shakespeare promises the subject of the sonnet immortality by unusual compliments and the assurance that she will live on as long as the sonnet continues to be read.... [tags: Sonnet essays]:: 8 Works Cited 1677 words(4.8 pages)Powerful Essays[preview] Comparing Loss in Thomass Fern Hill and Wordsworths Ode: Intimations of Immortality - Loss of Childhood in Thomas Fern Hill and Wordsworths Ode: Intimations of Immortality Through the use of nature and time, Dylan Thomass "Fern Hill" and William Wordsworths Ode: Intimations of Immortality both address the agonizing loss of childhood. While Wordsworth recognizes that wisdom and experience recompense this loss(Poetry Criticism 370), Thomas views "life after childhood as bondage"(Viswanathan 286). As Fern Hill progresses, Thomass attitude towards childhood changes from one of happiness and fulfillment to sadness and loss.... [tags: Comparison Compare Contrast Essays]1796 words(5.1 pages)Powerful Essays[preview] Nanotechnology: Immortality Or Total Annihilation? - Technology has evolved from ideals once seen as unbelievable to common everyday instruments. Computers that used to occupy an entire room are now the size of notebooks. The human race has always pushed for technological advances working at the most efficient level, perhaps, the molecular level. The developments and progress in artificial intelligence and molecular technology have spawned a new form of technology; Nanotechnology. Nanotechnology could give the human race eternal life, or it could cause total annihilation.... [tags: essays research papers]2237 words(6.4 pages)Strong Essays[preview] How to Extend Human Life Span - In this day and age, humans have created the ability to manipulate a persons body and overall health to further extend their life. From simple things such as dietary changes or supplements, to life saving technology, medicine, and everything in between, the ability to make a life last longer than it would have otherwise is an amazing gift. While the future holds much opportunity for growth in the ability to extend humans lifespan, the medical abilities currently possessed offer human kind the ability to live longer than ever before.... [tags: Human Immortality]:: 4 Works Cited 952 words(2.7 pages)Better Essays[preview] The Immorality of the Soul - Immorality of the Soul Is the human soul mortal or immortal. With death does one fall into nothingness or does one survive death, passing into another way of existing. This is a question that has agitated thought for ages. There is something within all human beings that lives on forever. Even when death is upon us, the soul of a human being never dies. Thus, we arrive at the statement that the human soul is immortal. The purpose of this paper is to explain how the human soul is immortal through analyzing various philosophies.... [tags: human, soul, life, society]729 words(2.1 pages)Better Essays[preview] Infant Immortality - Infant Mortality in the United States Trends in infant mortality are considered to be a barometer of technology and an accurate indicator of the health of a society. Despite technological excellence and numerous social programs offered throughout the country, the infant mortality rate (IMR) in the United States continues to be a national concern. For many, infant mortality brings to mind the deprivation and poverty found in third world countries. Yet in the United States, nearly 40,000 children die every year for some of the same reasons that cause infant death in underdeveloped parts of the world (Anderson, 1987).... [tags: essays research papers]1521 words(4.3 pages)Strong Essays[preview] A Boy's Memories in Robert Penn Warren True Love - Robert Penn Warren's poem True Love express the power of love and attraction to cause an unrequited love to become a source of nostalgia, admiration and the idealization of the intended for the admirer. The narrator and admirer, reminisces on his childhood memories of the older girl, still idealizes her to the point of her being a mere object rather than a real person. Years after the boys memories, the narrator still holds shallow impressions of the girls reality though but has grown to have a slightly deeper view of her situation.... [tags: attraction, imperfect, immortality]:: 1 Works Cited 857 words(2.4 pages)Better Essays[preview] Lust, Loss, and Immorality in the Little Mermaid - The Little Mermaid: Of Lust, Loss, and Immortality Under the sea, in an idyllic and beautiful garden, stands a statue of a young man cut out of cold stone for the Little Mermaid who knows nothing but the sea, the statue stands as an emblem of the mysterious over-world, a stimulus for imagination and sexual desire, an incentive for expansion of experience, and most predominately, an indication that something great and all-encompassing is missing from her existence. Traces of curiosity and a vague indication of the complexities of adult desires mark the child mermaid; in such a stage of development, the statue will suffice.... [tags: Fairy Tale Children Story]:: 3 Works Cited 1877 words(5.4 pages)Term Papers[preview] Artists and Their Muses in Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray and Woolf's To the Lighthouse - ... Mr. Ramsay desires that his ideas remain important and in a state of stagnation for years to come but he is also confronted with the idea that Lily realizes, everything comes to an end. Mr. Ramsays ideation is also present within Oscar Wildes novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. The idea of legacy is clearly shown when Dorian Gray has a moment of pure envy and states, I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die (Wilde 29). While Mr. Ramsay desired the stagnation of his philosophical ideas and literature Dorian desires the stagnation his own of beauty.... [tags: legacy, painting, immorality]:: 2 Works Cited 1074 words(3.1 pages)Better Essays[preview] The Immorality of Cloning - The Immorality of Cloning The cloning of animals and humans disregards the common ethics of the creation of humanity. Three types of cloning currently exist. There is therapeutic cloning, DNA cloning and reproductive cloning. Therapeutic cloning does not actually make a clone, it just makes stem cells. Stem cells are capable of becoming any type of cell that they are introduced to. For example, when a stem cell is introduced to a damaged heart, it transforms itself into a healthy heart cell. Even though stem cells might be very good for helping alleviate the pain of some diseases, the best use of stem cells is making embryos.... [tags: ethics, controversy, stem cell, science]:: 5 Works Cited 1140 words(3.3 pages)Strong Essays[preview] The Consequences of Immorality on Students - One morning in April 1999, the calm was shattered in the town of Littleton, near Denver, Colorado. Two youths in black trench coats entered the local high school and began shooting at students and teachers. They also detonated bombs. The perpetrators, merely 17 and 18 years old ended the massacre by taking their own lives. Regrettably, only after the death of twelve students and a teacher, more than 20 wounded physically, and a nation filled with emotional devastation. This is but one incident fostered by the decline of morality as a whole in society today.... [tags: Ethics]:: 8 Works Cited 1187 words(3.4 pages)Strong Essays[preview] Immorality in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales - Immorality and moral ambiguity are two concepts that will ruin any relationship. In Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales, he specifically illustrates through his pilgrims stories some comical and realistic events that display immorality in the Middle Ages. There are several characters whose stories are focused on presenting the immorality within their tales. Like that of The Millers Tale, and The Merchants Tale. Chaucer utilizes these tales to display one specific immoral act, which is sexual sin or lust.... [tags: Literature]:: 7 Works Cited 1648 words(4.7 pages)Powerful Essays[preview] The Immorality of Adultery - The Immorality of Adultery Sex is believed, by some, to be a universal language, one that is free of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes; a language that can be spoken and understood by two complete strangers who may have nothing in common.... [tags: Papers]1657 words(4.7 pages)Strong Essays[preview] Immorality of Euthenasia in The Giver by Lowis Lowery - Do you love your grandparents. Do you want them to be euthanized for being old. IN The Giver by Lowis Lowry the old are euthanized for being old. The newborns that are not sleeping through the night are killed to. And people who cant seem to get anything right are killed for just that. Lowry reveals the immorality of euthanasia in the scenes depicting the Euthanasia of the identical twin, Jonas's reaction to the true meaning of release for the old, transgressors, and non-conforming infants, and his final rescue of Gabe.... [tags: immoral, rescue, infants, kill, old]676 words(1.9 pages)Better Essays[preview] Sexual Sin and Immorality in the Old Testament - ... This is nowhere more evident than in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, where in Gen. 19 God destroyed both cities because of their twisted demoralized nature and desire for homosexuality. It highlights the pinnacle of sex gone wrong, and illustrates how far sex has come from being a divine tool of God to being a tool of depravity and fulfillment of lustful thoughts and actions. Moreover, homosexuality is condemned by the Old Testament, as stated in Leviticus 18:22: You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination (ESV). Aside from Sodom and Gomorrah, there are other stories in the Old Testament where such a divine gift from God has been corrupted by the sinful desir... [tags: biblical studies, relationship with Christ]:: 1 Works Cited 1480 words(4.2 pages)Powerful Essays[preview] The Immorality and Danger of Human Cloning - The Immorality and Danger of Human Cloning The emergency room doors burst open. The doctor and nurses dart into the room. Linda, a twenty-four year old soon-to-be mother, lies on a gurney in the middle of the delivery room. Several hours later Linda and her husband hold Madison, the miracle that has just been born to them. They have shared the astonishing experience of having the first ever, cloned baby. Human cloning is very real and just around the corner. In the 1970's, the process of cloning was first experimented.... [tags: Argumentative Persuasive Essays]:: 6 Works Cited 1044 words(3 pages)Better Essays[preview] Morality and Immorality in Othello - Morality and Immorality in Othello William Shakespeares tragic drama Othello presents to the audience a picture of many different shades of morality and immorality. It is the purpose of this essay to elaborate in detail on this thesis. Roderigos opening lines to Iago in Act 1 Scene 1 take us to the very root of the problem: Tush. never tell me; I take it much unkindly That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse As if the strings were thine, shouldst know of this.... [tags: Othello essays]:: 3 Works Cited 1245 words(3.6 pages)Strong Essays[preview] Immorality of Human Nature Depicted in Golding's Lord of the Flies - In Lord of the Flies, William Golding expresses the idea that humans are naturally immoral, and that people are moral only because of the pressures of civilization. He does this by writing about a group of boys, and their story of survival on an island. The civilized society they form quickly deteriorates into a savage tribe, showing that away from civilization and adults, the boys quickly deteriorate into the state man was millions of years ago. This tendency is shown most in Jack, who has an animalistic love of power, and Roger, who loves to kill for pleasure.... [tags: literary analysis, analytical essay]922 words(2.6 pages)Better Essays[preview] Innocence vs. Immorality in Othello - Innocence vs. Immorality in Othello In William Shakespeares tragic drama Othello we find a wide array of moral and immoral conduct, a full range of lifes goodness and badness. Let us in this paper examine the specific types of each, and how they affect the outcome. In Shakespeares Four Giants Blanche Coles comments on the lack of veracity in Iagos speech: The story that Iago tells Roderigo about the promotion of Cassio over him is not true, although it has been accepted by many discriminating scholars.... [tags: Othello essays]:: 2 Works Cited 1382 words(3.9 pages)Powerful Essays[preview] The Immorality of Child Labor - The Immorality of Child Labor Child labor is a serious moral issue. There have been many controversial debates over whether it should be legal or not. Two different viewpoints on the subject exist. Many argue that child labor is morally wrong and that the children should not work, no matter how poverty stricken their family might be. Advocates and major corporations that support child labor argue that it is good because it gives poverty-stricken families a source of income. Child labor first appeared with the development of domestic systems (when people became civilized).... [tags: Papers Argumentative Children Work Essays]:: 4 Works Cited 1236 words(3.5 pages)Strong Essays[preview]

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Free immortality Essays and Papers - 123HelpMe

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Title Length Color Rating The Effects of Genetic Engineering on Agriculture - Genetic engineering is a way in which specific genes for an animal or plant can be extracted, and reproduced to form a new animal or plant. These new organisms will express the required trait for that gene. This practice is a very controversial topic within the scientific world. It is being implemented in various areas such as agriculture even though there are many alternatives that can be found for genetic engineered crops, such as organic materials and reducing leeching of the soil. The controversy regarding this practice occurs as it is believed to contribute both negative and positive implications and dangers, not only to oneself but the environment as a whole.... [tags: Genetic Engineering ] :: 5 Works Cited 1303 words (3.7 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Pros and Cons of Genetic Engineering - Genetic Engineering is highly controversial since some people believe that genetic engineering is playing God. As this fact there is opposition to the progression of the field by people who do not see the value in genetic engineering, or they fear what genetic engineering may lead to for us as people. There is a history of discover that belongs to genetic engineering, which has led to numerous products that have emerged which have brought numerous applications to the society of the world. Though there are benefits to genetic engineering, there are also drawbacks to genetic engineering including ethical and legal issues that are dealt with in todays society in order to try and regulate the... [tags: Genetic Engineering] :: 8 Works Cited 2049 words (5.9 pages) Term Papers [preview] The Benefits of Genetic Engineering - Almost three decades ago, on July 25, 1978, Louise Brown, the first test tube baby was born (Baird 1). With this birth another controversy broke out, do humans have the right to make life. Most of the concern comes from the fear of control over the production and development of human beings. But, those who are against cloning would most likely look the other way if they needed gene therapy after receiving a grim diagnosis. There are many aspects of genetic engineering and to thoroughly understand it looking into each is absolutely necessary.... [tags: Genetic Engineering ] :: 6 Works Cited 1443 words (4.1 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] The Ethics of Genetic Engineering - The Problem Genetic engineering has been around since the 1960s although major experiments have not been really noticed until the 1990s. The science comes in different forms the two major being cloning and genetic reconstruction. Cloning is the duplicating of one organism and making an exact copy. For example in 1996 the creation of the clone sheep named Dolly the first mammal to be cloned which was a great achievement. The other form, genetic reconstruction, is used to replace genes within humans to help or enhance the life of an unborn child for a medical reason or just for the preference of a parent.... [tags: Genetic Engineering ] :: 5 Works Cited 1437 words (4.1 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Apocalyptic Visions of Genetic Engineering - Global warming, nuclear winter, microscopic black holessociety views all these as apocalyptic phenomena resulting from the accelerating rate of discovery in the fields of science and technology. Opinions on fields like climate change and atomic weaponry certainly have a basis in scientific evidence, but many other apocalyptic reactions derive from hypothetical situations and thought experiments. To further examine public opinions on scientific fields, we can examine genetic engineering (GE). The possibilities of GE have prompted many ethicists to provide commentary on the topic, opening a dialogue between policy and experimentation in order to address topics such as genetically modified cro... [tags: Genetic Engineering] :: 7 Works Cited 2203 words (6.3 pages) Term Papers [preview] The Genetic Engineering Industry - Ever wish chocolate was healthy and could have the same nutrients and vitamins as fruit and vegetables. Food, one of three necessities of life, affects every living organism on Earth. Although some foods are disliked because of taste or health issues, recent discovery will open up new prosperities and growth in agriculture. Genetic engineering has the capability to make foods taste better, increase nutrient value, and even engineer plants to produce aids for deadly health issues. Every day the progress, understanding, and development of genetic engineering is digging deeper and with this knowledge virtually anything is possible.... [tags: Genetic Engineering ] :: 7 Works Cited 1806 words (5.2 pages) Term Papers [preview] Genetic Engineering in Humans - Author Chuck Klosterman said, The simple truth is that were all already cyborgs more or less. Our mouths are filled with silver. Our nearsighted pupils are repaired with surgical lasers. We jam diabetics full of delicious insulin. Almost 40 percent of Americans now have prosthetic limbs. We see to have no qualms about making post-birth improvements to our feeble selves. Why are we so uncomfortable with pre-birth improvement? Despite Klostermans accurate observation, there are reasons people are wearisome toward pre-birth enhancement.... [tags: Genetic Engineering ] 859 words (2.5 pages) Better Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering: The Impact of Human Manipulation - The scenes of a science fiction movie show presumably unrealistic scientific inventions. In today's world, time travel, cloning, and even light sabers are some of the countless topics that are seemingly unattainable and just ideas of the imagination. Saying that these events are feasible would be completely absurd. However, with recent scientific advancements, science fiction is now becoming more of a reality rather than a fantasy. Nevertheless, only about twenty-five years ago, genetic engineering fell into this same, idealistic category.... [tags: Genetic Engineering ] :: 6 Works Cited 1725 words (4.9 pages) Better Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering: A Major Advancement for Mankind - As the Biochemist Isaac Asimov once said, "The advancement of Genetic Engineering makes it quite conceivable that we will design our own evolutionary progress. Scientists have always thought about new ways to progress through technology in our era, and in 1946, scientists discover that Genetic material from different viruses can be combined to form a new type of virus. This was a major discovery that trickles down to the modern era of Genetics. Current scientists have pioneered new ways to decode human DNA, beating the $3 billion government-run Genome project to its goal.... [tags: Genetic Engineering] :: 10 Works Cited 973 words (2.8 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering: Is the Human Race Ready? - It is incredible to see how far genetic engineering has come. Humans, plants, and any living organism can now be manipulated. Scientists have found ways to change humans before they are even born. They can remove, add, or alter genes in the human genome. Making things possible that humans (even thirty years ago) would have never imagined. Richard Hayes claims in SuperSize Your Child. that genetic engineering needs to have limitations. That genetic engineering should be used for medical purposes, but not for genetic modification that could open the door to high-tech eugenic engineering (188).... [tags: Genetic Engineering] 1455 words (4.2 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] The Dark Side of Genetic Engineering - I never knew what genetic engineering was until I watched a special on the Discovery channel. The special showed scientists forming the first perfect embryo. What was very shocking was that the scientists kept asking each other what traits this embryo should compose of. To me that was disturbing and unethical to make a living human being based on what traits the parents would want them to have. This process goes against nature just as Francis Bacon said if we would control nature, we must first obey her (Fox 193).... [tags: Genetic Engineering Essays] 1104 words (3.2 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Historical Background Of Genetic Engineering - DNA is the material that gives us our personality, our looks, and our thought processes, good or bad, DNA controls all of this. DNA full name is Deoxyribonucleic Acid. It is called that because it is missing one oxygen atom, and it is located in the nucleus. It is also in the form of an acid. DNA is made up of four subunits: Adenine, Thymine, Guanine and Cytosine. During the production of RNA, the messenger of DNA, Uracil is used instead of thymine. A small segment of this DNA is called a gene.... [tags: dna, Genetic Engineering, genes] :: 8 Works Cited 1513 words (4.3 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering Is Not Safe - Genetic engineering is the intended modification to an organisms genetic makeup. There have been no continuing studies on this topic or action so there is no telling whether or not it is harmless. Genetic engineering is not safe because scientists have no absolute knowledge about living systems. Given that, they are unable to do DNA surgery without creating mutations. Any interference on an organisms genetic makeup can cause permanent damage, hereditary defects, lack of nutritious food, or a spread of dangerous diseases.... [tags: Genetic Engineering Essays] :: 5 Works Cited 994 words (2.8 pages) Good Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering: A Step Forward - Genetic engineering (GE) refers to the technique of modification or manipulation of genes (the biological material or chemical blue print that determines a living organisms traits) from one organism to another thus giving bacteria, plants, and animals, new features. The technique of selecting the best seed or the best traits of plants has been around for centuries. Humans have learned to graft (fuse) and hybridize (cross breed) plants, creating dwarfs and other useful forms since at least 1000 B.C.... [tags: Genetic Engineering Essays] 498 words (1.4 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Benefits of Genetic Engineering - Genetic Engineering is an idea that we can ponder on quiet days. The creation of altered DNA is an enticing aspect that can greatly influence the average human life. The research of genetic engineering is an ongoing exploration that may never end. I am a supporter of a genetic engineering. There are three basic beneficial basis of genetic engineering. Those are genetically altered crops, the creation of medicines, and the creation of organs so that many lives could be saved. Genetically altered crops are very beneficial to third world countries.... [tags: Genetic Engineering, DNA, ] :: 3 Works Cited 455 words (1.3 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Understanding Genetic Engineering - What if cancer could be cured by eating a pear. Or if a crop of wheat could be developed so that it never rotted. These may sound like science fiction but they're not as strange as they first seem to be, and may even be reality in the future. Fifteen years ago who would have thought that plants could be created to be immune to pesticides or that it would be possible to create a sheep that is exactly like its parent in every physical way. And yet both of these currently exist due to genetic engineering.... [tags: Genetic Engineering ] :: 13 Works Cited 1820 words (5.2 pages) Term Papers [preview] Genetic Engineering: Annotated Bibliography - Genetic Engineering. The World Book Encyclopedia. 2008 ed. This encyclopedia was extremely helpful. In not knowing all of the exact terms and basic knowledge of genetic engineering, it helped inform any reader of all this and more. The pages that had information on genetics and genetic engineering, had detailed definitions and descriptions for all the terms and ideas. Instead of focusing more towards the future of genetic engineering, it gave numerous facts about the technology and accomplishments of today.... [tags: Annotated Bibliographies, Genetic Engineering] 879 words (2.5 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Is Genetic Engineering Superior or Appalling? - Genetic engineering has changed a lot through the years. It is now possible not to only be able to genetically engineer just plants but also animals and people, plants especially. There are many different kind of plants that have been genetically modified. Genetic engineering is not all good but it is also not all bad. Genetic Engineering will come together the more you read. Plants are not the only thing getting bigger because of genetic engineering modifying the sizes. Animals are starting to become a bigger part of genetic engineering.... [tags: genetic plants,polar tree, genetic engineering] :: 7 Works Cited 1183 words (3.4 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering: The Negative Impacts of Human Manipulation - The scenes of a science fiction movie show presumably unrealistic scientific inventions. In today's world, time travel and cloning are only two of the countless topics that are seemingly unattainable ideas of the imagination. Saying that these events are within reach would be completely absurd. However, with recent scientific advancements, science fiction is now becoming more of a reality rather than a fantasy. Nevertheless, only about twenty-five years ago, genetic engineering fell into this same, idealistic category.... [tags: Genetic Engineering ] :: 6 Works Cited 1675 words (4.8 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering: Major Advancement or Major Setback? - As the Biochemist Isaac Asimov once said, "The advancement of Genetic Engineering makes it quite conceivable that we will design our own evolutionary progress. Scientists have always thought about new ways to progress through technology in this era, and in 1946, scientists discovered that Genetic material from different viruses can be combined to form a new type of virus. This was a major discovery that trickles down to the modern era of Genetics. Current scientists have pioneered new ways to decode human DNA, beating the $3 billion government-run Genome project to its goal.... [tags: Genetic Engineering ] :: 10 Works Cited 1335 words (3.8 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Human Genetic Engineering in Beneficial to Society - Even after thousands of years of evolution, the human race is not perfect: it is ravaged by disease and limited by nature. Yet, in recent times, researchers have begun to ascertain an advanced understanding of the underlying genetic code of humanity. The Human Genome Project, now complete, has provided a map of the intricacies in human DNA, allowing researchers to begin looking at the purpose of each gene. When combined with selective embryo implantation, which is used occasionally today to avoid hereditary diseases or to choose gender, genetic discoveries can become a sort of artificial evolution.... [tags: Pro Human Genetic Engineering] :: 8 Works Cited 1484 words (4.2 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering - Just imagine the scene: and newlywed wife and husband are sitting down with a catalog, browsing joyously, pointing and awing at all the different options, fantasizing about all the possibilities that could become of their future. Is this a catalog for new furniture. No. This catalog for all features, phenotype and genotype, for the child they are planning to have. It is basically a database for parents to pick and choose all aspects of their children, from the sex of the child, to looks, and even to personality traits.... [tags: Genetic Engineering] 1131 words (3.2 pages) Good Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering - Genes are, basically, the blueprints of our body which are passed down from generation to generation. Through the exploration of these inherited materials, scientists have ventured into the recent, and rather controversial, field of genetic engineering. It is described as the "artificial modification of the genetic code of a living organism", and involves the "manipulation and alteration of inborn characteristics" by humans (Lanza). Like many other issues, genetic engineering has sparked a heated debate.... [tags: Genetic Engineering ] :: 7 Works Cited 1882 words (5.4 pages) Term Papers [preview] Genetic Engineering: The End of Life as We Know It - Prior to 1982, genetic engineering was a relatively new branch of science. Today, scientists have a firm understanding of genetics and its importance to the living world. Genetic engineering allows us to influence the laws of nature in ways favorable to ourselves. Although promising in its achievements, it also has the potential for abuse. If engineering of this caliber were to be used for anything other than the advancement of the human race, the effects could be devastating. If precautions are not implemented on this science, parents might use it solely for eugenic purposes.... [tags: Genetic Engineering Essays] 773 words (2.2 pages) Better Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering: The Next Technological Leap or a Disruption to the Natural Order of Our Planet? - While walking down the produce aisle at your local grocery store, have you ever questioned where the assortment of goods came from. When asked, perhaps your first thought would likely be from a local farm or orchard. But what if I were to tell you that those very goods could in fact be from a far less obvious third choice. What if someone told you that those pretty peaches on display were meticulously grown in a laboratory to bring forth predetermined traits. As futuristic as it may sound, this type of technology is no longer science fiction but has become a new reality.... [tags: Genetic Engineering ] :: 3 Works Cited 936 words (2.7 pages) Better Essays [preview] The Need for Policy Makers to Regulate Human Genetic Engineering - Human genetic engineering (HGE), a prevalent topic for scientists in research, is the process of manipulating genes in the human genome. Potentially, scientists can use the process of HGE to alter many biological and psychological human traits by gene modification. Currently, however, there is a large deficiency in information regarding HGE and its effects to the human body; creating a need for scientists to conduct more research and tests. Because of the many unknowns involving HGE it is necessary for policy makers to regulate HGE for the use by scientists.... [tags: Human Genetic Engineering] :: 2 Works Cited 1249 words (3.6 pages) Strong Essays [preview] The Pros and Cons of Genetic Engineering - Genetic engineering is a process in which scientists transfer genes from one species to another totally unrelated species. Usually this is done in order to get one organism to produce proteins, which it would not naturally produce. The genes taken from one species, which code for a particular protein, are put into cells of another species, using a vector. This can result in the cells producing the desired protein. It is used for producing proteins which can be used by humans, such as insulin for diabetics and is also used to make organisms better at surviving, for example genetically modifying a plant so that it can survive in acidic soil.... [tags: Genetic Engineering Essays] 1054 words (3 pages) Better Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering: The Controversy of Genetic Screening - The Controversy of Genetic Screening Craig Ventor of Celera Genomics, Rockville, MD, and Francis Collins of the National Institutes of Health and Wellcome Trust, London, England, simultaneously presented the sequence of human DNA in June of 2000, accomplishing the first major endeavor of the Human Genome Project (HGP) (Ridley 2). As scientists link human characteristics to genes-segments of DNA found on one or more of the 23 human chromosomes-prospects for genetic engineering will increase dramatically.... [tags: Genetic Engineering Essays] :: 4 Works Cited 1609 words (4.6 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] An Enhanced Genotype: Ethical Issues Involved with Genetic Engineering and their Impact as Revealed by Brave New World - An Enhanced Genotype: Ethical Issues Involved with Genetic Engineering and their Impact as Revealed by Brave New World Human society always attempts to better itself through the use of technology. Thus far, as a species, we have already achieved much: mastery of electronics, flight, and space travel. However, the field in which the most progress is currently being made is Biology, specifically Genetic Engineering. In Aldous Huxleys Brave New World, humanity has taken control of reproduction and biology in the same way that we have mastered chemistry and physics.... [tags: Genetic Engineering ] :: 6 Works Cited 2288 words (6.5 pages) Term Papers [preview] The Benefits of Genetic Engineering - Outline I. Thesis statement: The benefits of genetic engineering far outweigh its potential for misuse. II. Genetic Engineering A. Definition of Genetic Engineering. (#6) B. Who invented Genetic Engineering Gregor Mendel (Christopher Lampton #7) Thomas Hunt Morgan (Christopher Lampton #7) III. Benefits of Genetic Engineering A. Genetic Screening (Laurence E. Karp #4) B. Gene Therapy (Renato Dulbecco #6) C. Cloning D. Genetic Surgery (Christopher Lampton #7) E. Benefits in Agriculture (David Pimentel and Maurizio G.... [tags: Genetic Engineering Research Papers] :: 15 Works Cited 2500 words (7.1 pages) Strong Essays [preview] The Benefits of Genetic Engineering - The selective Engineering of Genetics is invaluable to the health and happiness of humans. The importance of this issue has played second fiddle to the arguments, for and against genetic engineering. This essay will discuss the impact of genetic engineering on everyday life, for example genetic disorders, disease and how its impact on life in the world today. Although the opinions differ greatly, the benefits are substantial. Firstly, an increasing importance is being placed on the role of genetic engineering in the use of riding the incidence of genetic disorders.... [tags: Genetic Engineering Essays] :: 8 Works Cited 1176 words (3.4 pages) Strong Essays [preview] The Benefits of Genetic Engineering - What exactly is genetic engineering. A simple definition of genetic engineering is the ability to isolate DNA pieces that contain selected genes of other species(Muench 238). Genetic engineering has been the upcoming field of biology since the early nineteen seventies. The prosperous field has benefits for both the medical and also the agricultural field. The diminishing of diseases, especially congenital disorders, reduction of pollution, eradication of world hunger, and increased longevity are just some of the possibilities which scientists foresee.... [tags: Genetic Engineering Essays] 1146 words (3.3 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering Is Not Ethical - For many years, genetic engineering has been a topic in heated debates. Scientists propose that genetic engineering far outweighs its risks in benefits and should be further studied. Politicians argue that genetic engineering is largely unethical, harmful, and needs to have strong limitations. Although genetic engineering may reap benefits to modern civilization, it raises questions of human ethics, morality, and the limitations we need to set to protect humanity. Though there is harsh criticism from politicians, scientists continue to press forward saying that genetic engineering is of utmost importance to help and improve society.... [tags: Genetic Engineering is Immoral ] :: 5 Works Cited 1490 words (4.3 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Is Genetic Engineering Ethically Correct? - Over the past few years, genetic engineering has come a long way from its roots. What spawned as just a project for understanding has now become quite powerful. An article written by Michael Riess aided me in gaining some knowledge of the ethical dilemmas faced in the field of genetic engineering. Suppose you and your partner both discover that you are carriers of a genetic defect known as cystic fibrosis, and the two of you are expecting a baby. Genetic screening gives you the opportunity to use antenatal diagnosis to see if the baby will have cystic fibrosis or not (Reiss).... [tags: Genetic Engineering Essays] :: 2 Works Cited 715 words (2 pages) Strong Essays [preview] The Benefits of Genetic Engineering - The engineering of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is entirely new, yet genetics, as a field of science, has fascinated mankind for over 2,000 years. Man has always tried to bend nature around his will through selective breeding and other forms of practical genetics. Today, scientists have a greater understanding of genetics and its role in living organisms. Unfortunately, some people are trying to stop further studies in genetics, but the research being conducted today will serve to better mankind tomorrow.... [tags: Genetic Engineering Essays] 1109 words (3.2 pages) Strong Essays [preview] The Benefits of Genetic Engineering - Many people are envied or deprecated because of certain traits they are born with. Those that are envied are a select few, which in turn is why they are envied. When one child in a nursery has a toy, he is coveted by all the other children in the nursery. He will be idolized, and nearly every child will want to be his friend. However, there will also those that want the toy for themselves. The children that are jealous will do whatever they can to get the toy. The jealous children often resort to violence, and this is true in all aspects of life.... [tags: Genetic Engineering Essays] 975 words (2.8 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering and the Media - Genetic engineering and its related fields have stimulated an extremely controversial scientific debate about cloning for the last decade. With such a wide range of public opinions, it is hard to find any middle ground. Some feel that improving the genes of future children will help mankind make a major evolutionary step forward. Others agree that there could be dangerous unforeseen consequences in our genetic futures if we proceed with such endeavors. A third group warns that the expense of genetic enhancement will further separate the wealthy from the poor and create a super race. Popular magazines and the Internet are two of the major arenas in which this debate has been hotly cont... [tags: Genetic Engineering Essays] :: 21 Works Cited 1731 words (4.9 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] The FDA Should Prohibit Genetic Engineering - Abstract: Recent developments in genomic research have enabled humans to manipulate the genes of living organisms with genetic engineering. Scientists have used this momentous technology in environmental and most recently, agricultural spheres. However, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not require that genetically altered foods be labeled as such. As a result, there is no protection against humans' ability to construct organisms that nature never intended to exist and to threaten nature's carefully balanced environment. Is it ethically responsible for the government to allow scientists to continue with these advances if they do not understand their consequences.... [tags: Genetic Engineering, Genetic Ethics] :: 10 Works Cited 2439 words (7 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering is Immoral - Genetic engineering gives the power to change many aspects of nature and could result in a lot of life-saving and preventative treatments. Today, scientists have a greater understanding of genetics and its role in living organisms. However, if this power is misused, the damage could be very great. Therefore, although genetic engineering is a field that should be explored, it needs to be strictly regulated and tested before being put into widespread use. Genetic engineering has also, opened the door way to biological solutions for world problems, as well as aid for body malfunctions.... [tags: Genetic Engineering Essays] 423 words (1.2 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering is Unethical - Just as the success of a corporate body in making money need not set the human condition ahead, neither does every scientific advance automatically make our lives more meaningful'; (Wald 45). These words were spoken by a Nobel Prize winning biologist and Harvard professor, George Wald, in a lecture given in 1976 on the Dangers of Genetic Engineering. This quotation states that incredible inventions, such as genetic engineering, are not always beneficial to society. Genetic engineering is altering the genetic material of cells and/or organisms in order to make them capable of making new substances or performing new functions'; (Wald 45).... [tags: Genetic Engineering is Immoral] :: 3 Works Cited 1141 words (3.3 pages) Better Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering is Unethical - Genetic engineering is a technology that has been created to alter DNA of different species to try and make them more improved. This essay will discuss the eugenics, the religious point of view about genetic engineering, genetically modified food and the genetic screening of embryos. In this essay it will be said wether genetic engineering is ethical or unethical. During 1924 Hitler said that everyone needs to be blond hair, blue eyes and white. This is known as Eugenics, thanks to a new science known as biotechnology in a few decades.... [tags: Genetic Engineering Essays] 492 words (1.4 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering: Playing God - Current technology has made what once seemed impossible, mapping the human genome, a reality within the next decade. What began over forty years ago with the discovery of the basic structure of DNA has evolved into the Human Genome Project. This is a fifteen-year, three billion dollar effort to sequence the entire human genetic code. The Project, under the direction of the U.S. National Institute of Health and the department of Energy is ahead of schedule in mapping what makes up an individual's genetic imprint.... [tags: Genetic Engineering Essays] 634 words (1.8 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering: Playing God - Regenerating extinct species, engineering babies that are born without vital body organs, this is what the use of genetic engineering brings to the world. In Greek myth, an chimera was a part lion, part goat, part dragon that lived in Lycia; in real life, its an animal customized with genes of different species. In reality, it could be a human-animal mixture that could result in horror for the scientific community. In myth the chimera was taken down by the warrior Bellerophon, the biotech version faces platoons of lawyers, bioethicists, and biologists (Hager).... [tags: Genetic Engineering Essays] :: 8 Works Cited 1804 words (5.2 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering Research Paper - I. Introduction In the past three decades, scientists have learned how to mix and match characteristics among unrelated creatures by moving genes from one creature to another. This is called genetic engineering. Genetic Engineering is prematurely applied to food production. There are estimates that food output must increase by 60 percent over the next 25 years to keep up with demand. Thus, the result of scientist genetically altering plants for more consumption. The two most common methods for gene transfer are biological and electromechanical.... [tags: Science Biology Genetic Engineering Essays] :: 3 Works Cited 1347 words (3.8 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Human Genetic Engineering: Unnatural Selection - Introduction Technology has a significant influence across the world, as it has become a fast growing field. Modern biotechnology has been in the major forefront of this influence. From the discovery of DNA to the cloning of various animals, the study of genetic engineering has changed the way society views life. However, does genetic engineering have the capacity to influence the world to its best abilities. Products, which are genetically engineered, may cause severe negative effects on our society.... [tags: Genetic Engineering Essays] :: 3 Works Cited 1509 words (4.3 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering - At the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland, Dr. Keith Campbell, director of embryology at PPL therapeutics in Roslin, and his colleague Dr. Ian Wilmut worked together on a project to clone a sheep, Dolly, from adult cells. On February 22, 1997, they finally succeeded. Dolly was the only lamb born from 277 fusions of oocytes with udder cells. Wilmut says there were so many failures because it is difficult to ensure that the empty oocytes and the donor cell are at the same stage of the cell division cycle.To clone Dolly, basically scientists took an unfertilized egg cell, removed the nucleus, replaced it with cells taken from the organism to be cloned, put it into an empty egg cell which... [tags: Genetic Engineering Essays] 1446 words (4.1 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering: Our Key to a Better World - What is genetic engineering one might ask and why is there so much moral controversy surrounding the topic. Genetic engineering as defined by Pete Moore, "is the name given to a wide variety of techniques that have one thing in common: they all allow the biologist to take a gene from one cell and insert it into another" (SS1). Such techniques included in genetic engineering (both "good" and "bad") are, genetic screening both during the fetal stage and later in life, gene therapy, sex selection in fetuses, and cloning.... [tags: Genetic Engineering Essays] :: 3 Works Cited 1117 words (3.2 pages) Better Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering and Cryonic Freezing: A Modern Frankenstein? - Genetic Engineering and Cryonic Freezing: A Modern Frankenstein. In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, a new being was artificially created using the parts of others. That topic thus examines the ethics of "playing God" and, though written in 1818, it is still a relevant issue today. Genetic engineering and cryogenic freezing are two current technologies related to the theme in the novel of science transcending the limits of what humans can and should do. Genetic engineering is widely used today.... [tags: Genetic Engineering Essay Examples] :: 5 Works Cited 1507 words (4.3 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering: The Tremendous Benefits Outweigh the Risks - Wouldn't it be great to improve health care, improve agriculture, and improve our quality of life. Genetic engineering is already accomplishing those things, and has the potential to accomplish much more. Genetic engineering, also referred to as biotechnology, is a fairly new science where the genes of an organism are modified to change the features of an organism or group of organisms. Genes are found in the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) of an organism, and each gene controls a specific trait of an organism.... [tags: Genetic Engineering Essay Examples] :: 7 Works Cited 2253 words (6.4 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering Brings More Harm Than Good - Until the recent demise of the Soviet Union, we lived under the daily threat of nuclear holocaust extinguishing human life and the entire biosphere. Now it looks more likely that total destruction will be averted, and that widespread, but not universally fatal, damage will continue to occur from radiation accidents from power plants, aging nuclear submarines, and perhaps the limited use of tactical nuclear weapons by governments or terrorists. What has gone largely unnoticed is the unprecedented lethal threat of genetic engineering to life on the planet.... [tags: Genetic Engineering Essays] 1953 words (5.6 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering New Teeth - The article I read was about some scientists that were able to grow teeth inside rats bodies. This project was led by Pamela C. Yelick, a scientist for Forsyth Institute, and the project was conducted in Massachusetts. Joseph P. Vacanti, a tissue engineer at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Yelick had the idea for the experiment. Vacanti had previously worked with rats and he found that cells will naturally organize themselves into tissues and other complex structures if they are placed in the right environment.... [tags: Genetic Engineering Essays] 736 words (2.1 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Ethics of Human Cloning and Genetic Engineering - INTRODUCTION When the Roslin Institute's first sheep cloning work was announced in March 1996 the papers were full of speculation about its long-term implications. Because of this discovery, the medias attention has focused mainly on discussion of the possibility, of cloning humans. In doing so, it has missed the much more immediate impact of this work on how we use animals. It's not certain this would really lead to flocks of cloned lambs in the fields of rural America, or clinically reproducible cuts of meat on the supermarket shelves.... [tags: Genetic Engineering Essays] :: 9 Works Cited 1845 words (5.3 pages) Strong Essays [preview] We Must Educate Ourselves Before Passing Laws Restricting Cloning and Genetic Engineering - Biotechnology and genetic engineering involve the cloning of animal cells and organisms, but they also involve the alteration of an organism in an effort to make it more perfect, whether it is a crop, an animal, or even a human being. Obviously the cloning of humans or the cloning of human cells is much different than the cloning of genetically superior livestock or a better quality, higher yielding food crop, and people throughout the world realize this. The cloning of human beings has become one of the worst fears in our society today and for that reason many laws have been passed throughout European countries and North America in an effort to ban human cloning.... [tags: Genetic Engineering Essays] :: 4 Works Cited 1937 words (5.5 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] The Benefits of Human Genetic Engineering - Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis is a revolutionary procedure that utilizes in vitro fertilization to implant a healthy egg cell into the mothers uterus after it is screened for mutations or other abnormalities. That way, only healthy eggs can develop to term and become beautiful, bouncing boys or girls. Designer babies have a bright future in the face of science because they are genetically engineered to be: disease free; viable donors for a sibling or parent; and with optional elimination of any severe cosmetic disorders that might develop,without risk to human diversity in the future.... [tags: Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, PGD] :: 6 Works Cited 1650 words (4.7 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering The Perfect Child - Modern society has an unquestionable preoccupation with perfection. Indulging in our vanities with things such as plastic surgery, veneers, botox, collagen, hair dye, and so on, have become a part of the socially acceptable norm. People do these things, and more, in an attempt to become their ideal selves. However, many are taking these practices to a completely new extreme, and are not stopping at just altering their own physical characteristics. With recent advances in medical science and technology, couples are now able to genetically modify embryos to create their ideal children.... [tags: Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis] :: 2 Works Cited 1022 words (2.9 pages) Strong Essays [preview] The Morals and Ethics of Genetic Engineering - Introduction Widely considered a revolutionary scientific breakthrough, genetic engineering has been on a path toward changing the world since its introduction in 1973 by Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer (What). However, as genetic engineering slowly permeates the lives of humanity, the morals and ethics behind what are now common practices are entering public attention, and as a culture we are left to question whether the change brought on by such a discovery bring benefits and positive change, or damage and destruction.... [tags: genetics, theology, bioethics, DNA, GMOs] :: 13 Works Cited 3322 words (9.5 pages) Research Papers [preview] The Human Genetic Engineering Debate - Science is moving forward at an increasing rate every day. Just in the past decade, there have been numerous new discoveries in astronomy, chemistry, geology, paleontology, and many more scientific fields. However, some of the fastest growing subjects are in the field of biological sciences, more specifically genetics. Over the past twenty years a new genetic science known as genetic engineering has come to prominence. Genetic engineering is the direct manipulation of an organisms genome using biotechnology, including a humans genome.... [tags: Genetics, Science Ethics] :: 9 Works Cited 1838 words (5.3 pages) Better Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering in the Modern World - Advances in biotechnology can be looked at two ways; both, positive and negative. People can also differ in what would qualify as a positive and negative way. Some may think that tinkering with Deoxyribonucleic acid also know as DNA, should not be allowed at all for any reason. Others may believe that manipulating human DNA can have many different beneficial outcomes. Biotechnology and genetic engineering can be looked at in two very different ways; can either be misused or unethical or it can be beneficial, ethical, and used for the better kind.... [tags: biotechnology, DNA, abortion] :: 1 Works Cited 966 words (2.8 pages) Better Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering and the Pursuit of Perfection - Research Paper Rough Draft In the year 2050, a young boy nervously rehearses what hes going to say as he approaches the cheerleader hes been too nervous to approach for the past month. But as he draws near, a jock pushes his books out of his hands. Hes teased, being the school wimp. They call him names like undesirable, god-child, and in-valid. Of course nobody cares for a less-than-perfect child whose genetic makeup was left to fate. With the introduction of genetic engineering into society, people like this young boy simply have no hope for competing against the likes of the genetically reimagined, perfect jock, people engineered to be unflawed.... [tags: Perfection, Body Image, Technology] :: 10 Works Cited 1898 words (5.4 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering: Pros and Cons - Our world has finally begun its long-predicted descent into the depths of chaos. We may not yet realize it, but more and more problems plague the very state of our humanity with each passing day, such as cancer, famine, genetic disorders, and social elitism. It seems as though there is little hope, although a new solution has finally emerged, in the form of genetic engineering. It is apparent, however, that currently we cannot proceed, because while there are an abundant amount of advantages to genetic engineering, it is not a utopian process; criticism includes its practicality, theological implications, and changes in modern social structure.... [tags: Eugenics, Ethics] :: 5 Works Cited 1212 words (3.5 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Is Genetic Engineering Ethically Right? - Described at its most simple, ethics can be described as a socially constructed set of behaviours and beliefs deemed either acceptable or unacceptable by the vast majority of people. Ethical beliefs can vary somewhat from person to person and are ever changing and malleable (www.ncbi.nlm.gov/pubmed/15289521). There are three main ethical theories used by present day philosophers; these are Meta-ethics, Normative ethics and Applied ethics. Meta-ethics focuses on the nature of moral judgement and the foundation of ethical principles.... [tags: DNA, gene, diabetis] :: 10 Works Cited 1191 words (3.4 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering and the Public - Genetic Engineering and the Publics Uses of Genetic Engineering Opinions about genetic engineering range from disgust to awe. These opinions may also depend on what type of animal is being genetically manipulated, how such manipulation is being done, and for what reasons. In California, pet fish that have been genetically altered to fluoresce (glofish) have been restricted for sale.[1] Yet, for the rest of the United States these fish are found in several species, varieties and morphs. In California, Commissioner of Californias Fish and Game, Sam Schuchat, felt that there was a difference in genetic modification depending on the use of the product made.[2] The use of genetic engineering f... [tags: Stake Holders, Science, Dialogue] :: 6 Works Cited 877 words (2.5 pages) Better Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering: A Good Thing? - Today there are many definitions of Genetic Engineering, such as Genetic Engineering is a laboratory technique used by scientists to change the DNA of living organisms (Kowalski) and Genetic Engineering refers to the modification or manipulation of a living organisms genes (Genetic). No matter the wording all definitions of genetic engineering refers to somehow changing an organisms genetic identity. Many people today support genetic engineering because it has many potential benefits for today's society; however, it also has many potential threats associated with it.... [tags: argumentative, persuasive, informative] :: 19 Works Cited 1928 words (5.5 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering and its Drawbacks - In the past few years, there have been numerous technological advances, one of them being genetic engineering. Scientists are experimenting with genes and animals to create everything from a Day-Glo pet fish to a pig whose liver could be used in a liver transplant for humans. Scientists argue that genetic engineering can be used to test medicinal products without putting humans at risk, to battle diseases and to make a body with a stronger immune system, amongst many other reasons, which they claim are to improve the outcome of the human race.... [tags: gene, transplant, animal testing] :: 9 Works Cited 911 words (2.6 pages) Better Essays [preview] The Perfect Child: Genetic Engineering - Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you could produce the perfect child. You picked their eye color, hair color, body type, even intelligence level. Instead of waiting nine months to see what your child looks like; you will already know because you chose their outer appearance. Improvements in science, has given way to the idea of allowing people to choose their offsprings physical attributes. This new concept is known as designer babies. A designer baby according to the oxford dictionary is a baby whose genetic makeup has been artificially selected by genetic engineering, combined with in vitro fertilization to ensure the presence or absence of particular genes or characteris... [tags: Designer Babies, Stem Cells] :: 5 Works Cited 899 words (2.6 pages) Better Essays [preview] Cons of Genetic Modification of Plants - In our everyday lives we have a substantial need for food. Everyone on planet earth needs food to survive from day to day, so engineers have begun mutating plants and crops to create a better source of nutrition to the population. Scientists are pushing the boundaries in order to create the most bountiful crops and, in turn, healthier people. Imagine what could happen if there were larger harvests, more succulent fruits and nutritious vegetables. Our imagination can run wild with the endless possibilities of genetic alteration of food.... [tags: Genetic Engineering ] :: 5 Works Cited 1011 words (2.9 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Germline Engineering and Reprogenetic Technologies - Modern technologies are constantly advancing in a multitude of ways to the degree that scientists have gained enough knowledgeable about the human genome to be able to find specific genes during the embryonic stage of reproduction. Scientists have already begun to use this knowledge to allow parents the ability to select the sex of their child and screen for genetic diseases via preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) with in vitro fertilization (IVF). Sex-selection has already created world-wide discussion regarding the ethics of such a situation.... [tags: Genetic Engineering ] :: 4 Works Cited 2055 words (5.9 pages) Term Papers [preview] Genetic Engineering and Experimentation - ... However, Ill be using it in the context that it is the experimentation of genetic engineering to see if its safe for the public. While you might think genetic engineering/experimentation is all fun and games while youre having your genes modified to make you smarter, or prettier, or something like that, there are consequences and dangers that can come with that modification. Then again, once perfected, genetic engineering could do a lot of good for humanity and society in general. Eliminate diseases, fix mental and psychological disabilities, maybe even (and semi-hopefully) keep people from being outright stupid.... [tags: Science, Controversy] :: 4 Works Cited 880 words (2.5 pages) Better Essays [preview] The Genetic Engineering Debate - In recent discussions of genetic engineering, a controversial issue has been whether genetic engineering is ethical or not. In The Person, the Soul, and Genetic Engineering, JC Polkinghorne discusses about the moral status of the very early embryo and therapeutic cloning. J. H. Brookes article Commentary on: The Person, the Soul, and Genetic Engineering comments and state opinions that counter Polkinghornes article. On the other hand John Harriss Goodbye Dolly? The Ethics of Human Cloning examines the possible uses and abuses of human cloning and draw out the principal ethical dimensions, both of what might be done and its meaning, and of public and official response (353).... [tags: Ethical Dilemma, Embryos With Dignity] :: 4 Works Cited 1403 words (4 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Ethics of Genetic Modification Technology - Modern society is on the verge of a biotechnological revolution: the foods we eat no longer serve simply to feed us, but to feed entire nations, to withstand natural disasters, and to deliver preventative vaccination. Much of this technology exists due to the rapid development of genetic modification, and todays genetically modified crops are only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Says Robert T. Fraley, chief technology officer for biotech giant Monsanto, Its like computers in the 1960s. We are just at the beginning of the explosion of technology we are going to see." Biotechnologys discontents are numerous and furious, declaring the efforts of corporations of Monsanto to be dangerous... [tags: Genetic Engineering] 776 words (2.2 pages) Better Essays [preview] Xerosotmia and genetic engineering - All around the globe, predominantly in the United States and in Europe, there are technological advances in science that affects the way people live. In recent years, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have replaced peoples diet with genetically altered foods, which has affected human health. In a broad view, GMOs are created by splicing genes of different species that are combined through genetic engineering, consequently improving the resulting organism. Large corporations who choose to use Xerosotmia i i make larger profits with less time and effort involved (ABNE).... [tags: biology, genetically modified organisms] :: 4 Works Cited 1309 words (3.7 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] The Dangers of Genetic Engineering - Genetically manipulating genes to create certain traits in a human embryo is impossible at this point. Perhaps it will never happen. It is not inevitable in the long run, as some scientists pragmatically point out. (Embgen). It is, however, something that dominates modern day discussion concerning genetics and therefore must be addressed with care and consideration. There are many ways that gene manipulation could come about. Advances in spermatogenesis as well as the field of assisted reproductive technology, as seen in In Vitro Fertilization clinics, point toward methods that could house the systematic alteration of genetic information in reproductive cells. Transpl... [tags: Genetic Manipulation Essays] :: 5 Works Cited 1033 words (3 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Engineering the Perfect Human - For centuries, mankind has been fascinated by the idea of perfection. In recent decades, the issue has been raised regarding the perfect human and whether scientists are able to engineer and create this. Attempts have been made in the past to engineer this said perfect human, through eugenics and scientific racism, but until now, these attempts have been ineffective. Only now, with modern technology, are scientists able to make more significant progress in altering the human genome to the produce desired characteristics of perfection.... [tags: Genetic Engineering ] :: 21 Works Cited 1831 words (5.2 pages) Term Papers [preview] Can Genetic Modification Benefit Humanity? - Throughout the course of human history, new technological advancements have always created opposing views, and conflict between the different groups that hold them. Today, one of the greatest technological controversies is over the morals and practicality of genetically modifying crops and animals. Reasons for doing so vary from making them more nutritious to making plants more bountiful to allowing organisms to benefit humans in ways never before possible. Genetic engineering is a process in which genes within the DNA of one organism are removed and placed into the DNA of another, a reshuffling of genesfrom one species to another (Steinbrecher qtd.... [tags: Genetic Engineering] 1676 words (4.8 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering - In the field of animal and human genetic engineering there is much more speculation, than fact, because very little has actually been tested in the real world. Firstly, theres a big question mark over safety of genetic engineering. In addition, genetic engineering can cause greater problems than that what we have today. Moreover, we can create a injustice world between Designer vs Non-designer children. Furthermore, genetic engineering is a type of murder because of the process of genetically modifying a baby.... [tags: designer babies, perfect baby] :: 5 Works Cited 911 words (2.6 pages) Better Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering - Imagine a world where diseases can be found and prevented before they happen. This would be a future possibility if genetic engineering became more advanced. Genetic engineering is when parts of DNA are spliced into another piece of DNA which give new traits to the organism containing the DNA. Through continued research in the field of genetics, techniques such as mapping genomes and splicing DNA can be used beneficially to improve on existing organisms and their traits. To help understand genetic engineering, it is important to understand its history.... [tags: Cloning] :: 4 Works Cited 894 words (2.6 pages) Better Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering - In the 21st century, times are changing. Everyday objects are becoming perfect with alterations to their system. These alterations are not only occurring on man-made objects, but also on natural organisms, such as newborn babies. Science has come a long way to being able to have the capability to alter pre-born babies to a parents desire. There are four arguments that can be considered when discussing this topic, including nature and three others. While many scientific minds are all for creating perfection in a child, many different groups of minds are arguing this act against nature should be abolished from scientists minds.... [tags: Ethics] 888 words (2.5 pages) Better Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering - I, as a Christian, believe that the traits of a child are a blessing to a parent in one-way or another. Although I hold this true, I actually wouldnt mind being able to design my own baby. I mean, I could root out all of the bad traits, and add the ones I want. I would make my child a girl with olive skin, brown hair, bright green eyes, and to have the dancing feet of Fosse, the facial expressions of Liz Taylor, and the vocal chords of Lea Michelle. I want her to be a star of the screen or stage.... [tags: controversy, genes, physical traits, flaws] :: 3 Works Cited 890 words (2.5 pages) Better Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering - Moore's law, the statement that technologies will double every two years is a very thought-provoking inception for technologist and scientist (Moore's Law par.1). Numerous people are thrilled about this commandment while others are petrified. Why an individual might be troubled by technology one might inquire. Well there are many arguments that claim that technology is contrary to itself, nature, and humans. The unpretentious fact is technology is cohesive within the humanoid existence and will linger as time travels on.... [tags: genetically modified foods] :: 13 Works Cited 1461 words (4.2 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Human Genetic Engineering: Dreams and Nightmares - Technological breakthroughs and advancements have occurred so rapidly since the dawn of the information age, that one often overlooks the great power humanity holds over the building blocks of life itself. While our understanding and mapping of Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequences has been slow coming since Friedrich Mieschers isolation of the double-helix shaped molecule, efforts in recent decades to map the human genome have opened many doors to the potential manipulation of lifes basic elements.... [tags: human genome, human genetics, cloning] :: 7 Works Cited 1162 words (3.3 pages) Strong Essays [preview]

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Space Seed – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Space Seed" is an episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek. It is the 23rd episode of the first season and was first broadcast by NBC on February 16, 1967. "Space Seed" was written by Gene L. Coon and Carey Wilber and directed by Marc Daniels. Set in the 23rd century, the series follows the adventures of Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and his crew aboard the Starfleet starship USS Enterprise. In this episode, the Enterprise crew encounter a sleeper ship holding selectively bred superpeople from Earth's past. Their leader, Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbn), attempts to take control of Enterprise. The episode also guest stars Madlyn Rhue as Lt.Marla McGivers, who becomes romantically involved with Khan.

Wilber conceived the general plot for a different series, Captain Video and His Video Rangers, which featured humans from Ancient Greece who were preserved in cryogenic suspension and revived. The script changed numerous times during preproduction as producer Bob Justman felt that it would be too expensive to film. Eventually Gene L.Coon and series creator Gene Roddenberry also made alterations. These revisions include the marooning of the criminals at the end of the episode, and the change of the primary villain from a Nordic character to a Sikh. Roddenberry attempted to claim the primary writing credit for "Space Seed", a request turned down by the Writers Guild of America.

Montalbn was the casting director's first choice for Khan and described the role as "wonderful".[2] Despite being planned as an inexpensive bottle episode, the special sets and shots using starship miniatures caused the episode to go over budget. On first broadcast, the episode held second place in the ratings for the first half-hour with 13.12 million viewers, but during the second half it was pushed into third place. "Space Seed" has been named one of the best episodes of the series by Cinefantastique, IGN, and other publications. The 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan serves as a sequel to this episode. Plot elements of the episode and The Wrath of Khan were also used in the 2013 film Star Trek Into Darkness, and references to it appear in episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise.

On stardate 3141.9, the Federation starship USS Enterprise finds the derelict SS Botany Bay floating in space. Botany Bay was launched from Earth in the 1990s. A landing party comprising Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), Doctor Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott (James Doohan), and historian Lieutenant Marla McGivers (Madlyn Rhue) beams over to the freighter. The landing party finds a cargo of 84 humans, 72 of whom are alive in suspended animation after nearly 200years. McGivers identifies the group's leader. The occupant begins to revive, but Kirk brings him to Enterprise for a medical examination when his chamber fails.

Kirk has Botany Bay taken in tow by a tractor beam, and Enterprise sets course for Starbase12. In sickbay, the group's leader awakens and attacks McCoy but, impressed by McCoy's bravery, releases the doctor and introduces himself as "Khan" (Ricardo Montalbn). Lt.McGivers marvels over Khan, a living relic from the 20th century, her field of interest. First Officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy) discovers that their guest is Khan Noonien Singh who, along with his people, are products of 20th-century selective breeding designed to create perfect humans. The genetic superhumans instead became warlords and conquered more than a third of the planet, sparking the Eugenics Wars, Earth's last major global conflict. Between eighty and ninety of the superhumans were unaccounted for at the end of the war; Khan is listed as the most dangerous.

Khan is placed under guard in quarters. McGivers is sent to brief him on current events. Taking advantage of McGivers' attraction towards him, Khan tells her he means to rule mankind again and needs her help to take over Enterprise. Reluctantly, she agrees, beaming Khan to Botany Bay, where he revives the rest of his superpeople. They return to Enterprise and assume control of the ship. Khan throws Kirk into a decompression tank, and threatens to slowly suffocate him unless Kirk's command crew agree to follow Khan. Having a change of heart, McGivers frees Kirk from the chamber. Kirk and Spock vent anesthetic gas throughout the entire ship to disable Khan and his cohorts. Khan escapes the gas and heads to Engineering, where he attempts to destroy Enterprise, but Kirk confronts him and a brawl ensues. Though outmatched by Khan's superior strength, Kirk pulls an odd rod-like tool (never seen before or since, in this episode or the entire series) from a wall and uses it as a club to knock the superman unconscious.

Kirk holds a hearing to decide the fate of Khan and his followers. The captain decides that they should be exiled to Ceti AlphaV, a harsh world that Kirk believes would be a perfect place for Khan to start his kingdom. Khan claims he is up to the challenge of taming the world and accepts Kirk's offer. Instead of a court-martial for Lt.McGivers, Kirk allows her to go into exile with Khan. Spock notes that it would be interesting to see what Khan makes of Ceti AlphaV in 100years.

Carey Wilber was hired to write a script for an episode of Star Trek. His idea was based on an episode he wrote for the television series Captain Video and His Video Rangers (19491955). His work on that show featured Ancient-Greek-era humans transported in suspended animation through space, with the people of the future finding that they have mythological powers. For "Space Seed", Wilber replaced these mythological powers with abilities that were enhanced due to genetic engineering.[3] Wilber had briefly worked with Gene Roddenberry on the television series Harbormaster. His science fiction extended beyond Star Trek: he also wrote scripts for Lost in Space and The Time Tunnel around the same time.[2][4]

In Wilber's first proposal for the story that became "Space Seed", dated August 29, 1966shortly before the first episode of Star Trek aired[5]the villain was Harold Erickson, an ordinary criminal exiled into space. He sought to free his gang from Botany Bay, seize Enterprise, and become a pirate.[4] Parts of the story were inspired by the use of penal colonies in the 18th century, and characterizations were based on descriptions from the series' writer's bible. As a result, several elements of the draft proposal differed from how the characters behaved in the actual seriesfor example, the draft includes a scene where Spock defeats Kirk at chess by cheating.[5] Producer Gene L.Coon told Wilber that his work was the best outline he had seen during his time on Star Trek. Fellow producer Bob Justman was less enthusiastic; he compared it negatively to Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, and felt the concept would be too expensive to film. There were also concerns that an unsolicited script submitted by science fiction author Philip Jos Farmer resembled the proposed plot which, as Roddenberry had corresponded with Farmer, might lead to litigation.[4]

NBC executives reviewed the plot for "Space Seed" and approved it, but Justman reassessed the outline, saying that it needed to be heavily revised.[6] In September, Wilber was given a list of suggested changes including asking him to remove any mention of the setting, as the producers did not want to say how far in the future Star Trek was set, and to remove the chess scene.[5] Wilber submitted a second draft, but Roddenberry still had problems with basic elements of the script. He did not believe common criminals would be fired into space as a solution and strongly disliked the notion of space pirates.[6][7] The second draft introduced the idea that Kirk marooned Erickson and his crew on a new planet; this remained in the final version.[8] Wilber was not asked for a third draft; Coon was tasked with the re-write;[9] he submitted it on December 7 and updated it twice over the following five days.[10] Wilber accepted Coon's re-writes, and left the staff after the submission of his second draft as his contractual obligations were complete.[2]

Coon proposed that Erickson should be a rival to Kirk, a genetic superman who had once ruled part of Earth.[11] Roddenberry and Justman were still unhappy with the script, and Roddenberry revised it once more a week before filming was due to begin, after Montalbn had been cast.[9][12] In this draft the blond Nordic character of Erickson became closer to the version seen on screen.[9] In Roddenberry and Coon's script, the character was renamed Sibahl Khan Noonien. The name Govin Bahadur Singh was suggested by the DeForest Research company, who checked scripts for potential errors on behalf of the production company; the Singh name was suggested in part because it was closer to actual Sikh names. Coon and Roddenberry settled on Khan Noonien Singh; Roddenberry had an old Chinese friend named Noonien Wang that he had lost touch with, and hoped that Wang would see the episode and contact him.[12] In the final draft, Roddenberry listed himself as the primary writer, Coon as co-writer and Wilber was absent, but the Writers Guild of America turned down Roddenberry's request to be credited; Coon received the main credit; Wilber was given co-writer and "story-by" credits.[9] Wilber did not often watch his own work, and nearly thirty years later had never seen "Space Seed".[2] Coon was later credited as Lee Cronin for his part in production of the script.[13]

Mexican actor Ricardo Montalbn was cast as the genetic superman Khan Noonian Singh, having been the first choice for the role.[2][14] He had been suggested by casting director Joseph D'Agosta, who was not looking to cast an actor of a particular ethnic background due to Roddenberry's vision for the series; Roddenberry wanted to show his perceived 23rd century values by not requiring any specific ethnicities when casting actors in guest roles.[8] Montalbn had previously appeared in a television movie created by Roddenberry, The Secret Weapon of 117 (also referred to as The Secret Defense of 117),[2][14] which was the writer's first attempt to create science fiction on television and aired more than ten years before Star Trek.[15] Montalbn called his role as Khan "wonderful",[2] saying that "it was well-written, it had an interesting concept and I was delighted it was offered to me".[2] The main cast were enthusiastic about working with Montalbn; DeForest Kelley later said "I enjoyed working with Ricardo the best. I was privileged. He is a marvelous actor."[16]

Madlyn Rhue, who portrayed Lt.Marla McGivers, had previously worked with Montalbn in an episode of Bonanza in 1960 as his on-screen wife; she later appeared with him in a 1982 episode of Fantasy Island.[8][14] Montalbn and Rhue also appeared in separate episodes of Roddenberry's previous NBC television series, The Lieutenant (19631964). Main cast member George Takei did not appear in "Space Seed"; the character of Hikaru Sulu was replaced by Blaisdell Makee as Lt.Spinelli. It was the first of two appearances in Star Trek for Makee, who would return in the episode "The Changeling" as Lt.Singh. John Winston appeared for the second time as Lt.Kyle, and would go on to make nine further episodic appearances in that role. Following positive feedback from the producers and the network regarding James Doohan, "Space Seed" was the first episode to feature a more prominent role for his character, Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott.[14]

Filming of "Space Seed" began December 15, 1966, and concluded on December 22 after six days of shooting.[14] Roddenberry, Coon and Wilber's rewrites resulted in a shooting script of nearly 60pages and 120scenes.[17]Marc Daniels was hired to direct the episode; he had previously worked on The Lieutenant.[18] The first day's filming coincided with the airing of the episode "Balance of Terror", and Daniels allowed the cast and crew to go home early to watch it.[19] The other five days ran to schedule, to the extent that there was an early finish on the final day of filming, allowing cast and crew time to return home to watch a repeat of the episode "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" which had replaced "Arena" on that evening's schedule.[20] A scene filmed but later cut from the episode depicted a discussion between McGivers and Angela Martine (Barbara Baldavin), intended to show that McGivers was looking for a forceful man.[19] Further scenes were trimmed after filming following input from NBC. For example, scenes shot on the Botany Bay were cut as executives felt the costumes worn by the newly awakened crew were too revealing.[19][20]

The character of Khan required five costumes, more than any other guest star in the entire series. This meant that the staff working on costumes had less time to devote to any one costume. Montalbn's athletic physique was such that when his measurements were passed to them, staff thought there had been a mistake. Costume designer William Ware Theiss found it challenging to produce the outfits in the time allotted, to make the materials seem suitably futuristic and to fit his own preferences in design. Two of Khan's outfits re-used previous costumes, while three were specifically created for Montalbn.[17] The production built two new sets for the episode: the decompression chamber in sickbay, and the set on board Botany Bay.[19] A doorframe from that set was later reused as an overhead unit in McCoy's research lab, which appeared later in the series.[21]

Post production on "Space Seed" began on December 23, 1966, and ran through February 5 the following year. The Westheimer Company produced the majority of effects in the episode, but the scenes of Enterprise and Botany Bay in space were produced by Film Effects of Hollywood who were not credited on screen for their work. Botany Bay utilized a design Matt Jefferies created prior to the USS Enterprise. It had been previously labeled "antique space freighter",[20] and was built by Film Effects of Hollywood.[18] The creation of the ship miniature caused the episode to go over budget by more than $12,000; "Space Seed" actually cost a total of $197,262 against a budget of $180,000. By this point, the series was nearly $80,000 over budget in total.[16] The Botany Bay model was later re-purposed as a freighter for the episode "The Ultimate Computer".[21]

The sound effects team borrowed effects and manipulated them in order to achieve the "painted sound" effect sought by Roddenberry.[16][20] Although a number of sources were used, they attempted to avoid most science fiction television series as they wanted an authentic sound. The sound archive of the United States Air Force was used, although the photon torpedo sound was created from the 1953 film The War of the Worlds.[16] "Space Seed" was awarded the Golden Reel for sound editing on television by the Motion Picture Sound Editors society.[16]

"Space Seed" was first broadcast in the United States on February 16, 1967, on NBC. A 12-city overnight Trendex report compiled by Nielsen ratings showed that during the first half-hour, it held second place in the ratings behind Bewitched on ABC with 13.12million viewers compared to Bewitched's 14.44million. The episode beat My Three Sons on CBS. During the second half-hour it was pushed into third place in the ratings by the start of the Thursday Night Movie on CBS, the Western film One-Eyed Jacks starring Marlon Brando, which received 35.5percent of the audience share compared to 28percent for "Space Seed".[16]

A High Definition remastering of "Space Seed", which introduced new special effects and starship exteriors as well as enhanced music and audio, was shown for the first time on November 18, 2006, in broadcast syndication. It was the eleventh remastered episode to be shown.[22] This meant that the episode was made available to over 200 local stations across the United States with the rights to broadcast Star Trek, and depending on the station it was broadcast either on November 18 or 19.[23]

In 1967, The Indiana Gazette described "Space Seed" as "a good piece of science fiction".[24] The Kokomo Tribune called it "imaginative", and also said that the episode was "particularly interesting" for "its commentary on the scientific know-how of the late 1990s".[25]

Later reviewers watched the episodes several decades after broadcast. Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the episode an 'A' rating, noting its strong characters and the interplay between Kirk and Spock that emphasizes their friendship.[26] Michelle Erica Green called the episode "legendary" in her review for TrekNation. She thought that Khan made the "perfect foil" for the trio of Kirk, Spock and McCoy and said that the episode was not dulled by later episodes and films based on "Space Seed".[27] In Mark Pickavance's review at Den of Geek, he said that it remained an "obvious choice of great source material" to be followed up in a film.[28]

The review by Eugene Myers and Torrie Atkinson on Tor.com criticized the attraction between McGivers and Khan, saying that it was "really uncomfortable to watch her immediate attraction to him and her easy acceptance of his abusive and controlling behaviour".[29] However, both praised the episode, Myers giving it a five out of six, and Atkinson a six out of six rating.[29] Also at Tor.com, in Ryan Britt and Emily Asher-Perrin's list of the ten most under-appreciated elements of Star Trek, they placed "Space Seed" at number three saying that "As an introductory story to what old school Star Trek was all about, 'Space Seed' is perfect. It presents an original science fiction concept, grapples with notions of human technology and ingenuity creating a monster, and features Captain Kirk beating the crap out of someone with a piece of Styrofoam. What more could you want?"[30]

Entertainment Weekly named the episode the second best of the series,[31] while IGN ranked "Space Seed" as the fourth best, praising the fist fight between Kirk and Khan.[32] It appeared in the top ten episodes listed by Cinefantastique and was also included in a list of ten "must see" episodes on The A.V. Club.[16][33] Reviewer Zack Handlen said that it "features a terrific performance from guest star Montalban, gives the franchise one of its greatest villains, and sets the stage for one of best science-fiction adventure movies ever made."[33]

The first adaptation of "Space Seed" was as a re-working into a short story by author James Blish as part of the novelization Star Trek 2. This book contained seven short stories, each based on an episode of The Original Series and was published in 1968. The adaptation of "Space Seed" appeared as the final story in the book.[34] The first home media release of "Space Seed" was on a single-episode VHS cassette in 1982 by Paramount Home Video.[35] It was one of the episodes of The Original Series published on Capacitance Electronic Disc, alongside "The Changeling", released on November 1, 1982.[36] A LaserDisc of the episode, alongside "Return of the Archons" was released in 1985.[37] Further releases of all episodes of the series were made on VHS and Betamax.[38][39] These releases reverted to a single episode tape as in the original 1982 version.[40]

The episode was released on DVD paired with "A Taste of Armageddon" as part of the general release of the series in 2000.[41] There were no additional extras added to that entire series of releases, except the DVD containing "Turnabout Intruder".[42][n 2] "Space Seed" was later released within a DVD box set of the first season in 2004;[43] all three seasons of The Original Series were released as full-season box sets that year.[42] The episode was included in the remastered season one release on DVD and Blu-ray in 2009. This release featured CGI remodels of Enterprise and other space scenes, including the Botany Bay.[44] The most recent release is as part of the Star Trek: Origins collection on Blu-ray, which was released in 2013.[45]

The events of "Space Seed" are followed up in the 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.[12]Harve Bennett was hired to produce a sequel to Star Trek: The Motion Picture having never seen the television series; he therefore watched every episode in preparation and latched onto Khan from "Space Seed" as the compelling villain he considered to be lacking from the first film.[46][47] In resuming the role of Khan, Montalbn worried that fans would see him only as Mr. Roarke from Fantasy Island but felt that he managed to recapture the character after re-watching "Space Seed".[48] The film set a record for the opening weekend gross of $14.3million, and went on to take $78.9 million domestically within the United States,[12][49] making it the sixth best-selling film of the year.[18]

The movie features errors in continuity when compared to "Space Seed". Because of re-casting, Khan's followers appear not to have aged from their appearance in the episode and Khan recognises Pavel Chekovthe character did not join Star Trek until season two, after this episode took place. This latter error was described in Deborah Cartmell and Imelda Whelehan's book Adaptations: From Text to Screen, Screen to Text as the "gaff notorious throughout Star Trek fandom".[50] An explanation was presented in the novelization of The Wrath of Khan, which stated that Chekov was working on the night shift at the time.[50]

A non-canon novelization by Greg Cox was later released in 2005 to fill in the timeframe between "Space Seed" and the film, titled To Reign in Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonien Singh. This book expanded on Khan's romance with McGivers, and the author wanted to "give her a spine" as he felt that she was not "the pride of Starfleet, and even less of a feminist role-model" in her appearance in "Space Seed".[51]

Events of both "Space Seed" and The Wrath of Khan were also directly referenced in 2013's Star Trek Into Darkness, in which Benedict Cumberbatch portrayed Khan.[52] The film took $70.1 million on the opening weekend, and $467.3 million internationally throughout the cinematic release.[53] As part of their line of licensed Star Trek comic books, IDW Publishing launched a five part mini-series titled Star Trek: Khan which described the early part of Khan's life and how the events in Star Trek Into Darkness diverged from those seen in "Space Seed".[54][55] One of the writers of the film, Roberto Orci, was the story consultant on the comic series. This series also explained how Khan changed physically in order to be represented by Cumberbatch in the film.[56] A retro-style film poster for "Space Seed" was created by Juan Ortiz in 2013, released around the same as Star Trek Into Darkness.[57]

The television series Star Trek: Enterprise makes several further references to the events first described in "Space Seed". In "Twilight", the survivors of the Xindi attack on Earth eventually resettle on Ceti AlphaV.[58] The development of Khan and his followers were said to have been through selective breeding in "Space Seed". American sociologist William Sims Bainbridge said that this method would have been unable to create genetic supermen in such a short space of time and that today the less implausible method of genetic engineering (directly changing the DNA code) would be used.[59] In fact, subsequent references to the creation of Khan and the other supermen, such as in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Doctor Bashir, I Presume", substituted genetic engineering.[60]

The Eugenics Wars, first mentioned in "Space Seed", are stated in the Star Trek Chronology by Michael and Denise Okuda as taking place between 1992 and 1996. They considered it fortunate that these events did not come to pass in the real world, and noted that the development of the Botany Bay in 1996 as an instance of where "Star Trek's technological predictions have missed by a significant margin."[61] The war itself has been referenced elsewhere in the Star Trek franchise. The first mention of the wars following "Space Seed" was in the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode "The Infinite Vulcan", in which a cloned version of Dr. Stavos Keniclius, a scientist from that era, clones Spock.[62] Later, during the production of "Doctor Bashir, I Presume?", writer Ren Echevarria, seeking a secret past for Doctor Julian Bashir, noted that coverage of the issue of eugenics in Star Trek had been limited to Khan and his followers. Fellow writer Ronald D. Moore decided to link the background of Bashir to genetic engineering.[60] However, "Encounter at Farpoint" and Star Trek First Contact confused matters by saying WWIII (aka The Eugenics Wars) had occurred in the 2050s.[63] Furthermore, when Echevarria wrote that the Eugenics Wars took place 200 years before the Deep Space Nine episode "Doctor Bashir, I Presume?", he took the time interval directly from The Wrath of Khan, failing to factor in the additional century between the events of the The Original Series (and its associated films).[64]

Novelist Gary Cox first mentioned the events of the Eugenics Wars in his non-canon novel Assignment: Eternity, which followed up on the events of the episode "Assignment: Earth" and included the characters of Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln.[65] In it, he mentioned that Seven and Lincoln were involved in overthrowing Khan during the Eugenics Wars. He had not intended to explore this any further, but he was prompted to do so by his editor at Pocket Books. He wrote a story, split into two books, about the specific events of the Eugenics Wars, entitled Star Trek: The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh. As the Eugeneics Wars were already meant to have taken place, he decided to describe them as being a massive conspiracy that was not discovered until generations had passed.[66] He also felt that this approach would make the books consistent with the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Future's End" in which the crewmembers travel in time to the same period of Earth's history as the Eugenics Wars, but find no such wars taking place.[66] A further version of the Eugenics Wars was presented in the Star Trek: Khan comic book mini-series.[54]

The Enterprise season four episodes "Borderland", "Cold Station 12" and "The Augments" showed a further group of genetic superpeople produced from embryos produced in the same era as Khan and his crew.[27][67][68] This was a deliberate link by the producers of Enterprise to both "Space Seed" and The Wrath of Khan, and was one of several plots during the fourth season of the show to include elements of Star Trek: The Original Series in the hope that this would boost ratings.[67][69]

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Ageing – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ageing, also spelled aging, is the process of becoming older. In the narrow sense, the term refers to biological ageing, especially of human beings and many animals (whereas for example bacteria, perennial plants and some simple animals are potentially immortal). In the broader sense, ageing can refer to single cells within an organism which have ceased dividing (cellular senescence) or to the population of a species (population ageing).

In humans, ageing represents the accumulation of changes in a human being over time,[1] encompassing physical, psychological, and social change. Reaction time, for example, may slow with age, while knowledge of world events and wisdom may expand. Ageing is among the greatest known risk factors for most human diseases:[2] of the roughly 150,000 people who die each day across the globe, about two thirds die from age-related causes.

The causes of ageing are unknown; current theories are assigned to the damage concept, whereby the accumulation of damage (such as DNA breaks or oxidised bases) may cause biological systems to fail, or to the programmed ageing concept, whereby internal processes (such as DNA telomere shortening) may cause ageing.

The discovery, in 1934, that calorie restriction can extend lifespan by 50% in rats has motivated research into delaying and preventing ageing.

Human beings and members of other species, especially animals, necessarily experience ageing and mortality. In contrast, many species can be considered immortal: for example, bacteria fission to produce daughter cells, strawberry plants grow runners to produce clones of themselves, and animals in the genus Hydra have a regenerative ability with which they avoid dying of old age.

Even within humans and other mortal species, there are arguably cells with the potential for immortality: cancer cells which have lost the ability to die when maintained in cell culture such as the HeLa cell line, and specific stem cells such as germ cells (producing ova and spermatozoa).[3] In artificial cloning, adult cells can be rejuvenated back to embryonic status and then used to grow a new tissue or animal without ageing.[4] Normal human cells however die after about 50 cell divisions in laboratory culture (the Hayflick Limit, discovered by Leonard Hayflick in 1961).

After a period of near perfect renewal (in humans, between 20 and 35 years of age), ageing is characterised by the declining ability to respond to stress, increasing homeostatic imbalance and the increased risk of disease. This currently irreversible series of changes inevitably ends in death.

A number of characteristic ageing symptoms are experienced by a majority or by a significant proportion of humans during their lifetimes.

Dementia becomes more common with age.[15] About 3% of people between the ages of 6574 have dementia, 19% between 75 and 84 and nearly half of those over 85 years of age.[16] The spectrum includes mild cognitive impairment and the neurodegenerative diseases of Alzheimer's disease, cerebrovascular disease, Parkinson's disease and Lou Gehrig's disease. Furthermore, many types of memory decline with ageing, but not semantic memory or general knowledge such as vocabulary definitions, which typically increases or remains steady until late adulthood[17] (see Ageing brain). Intelligence may decline with age, though the rate may vary depending on the type and may in fact remain steady throughout most of the lifespan, dropping suddenly only as people near the end of their lives. Individual variations in rate of cognitive decline may therefore be explained in terms of people having different lengths of life.[18] There are changes to the brain: after 20 years of age there is a 10% reduction each decade in the total length of the brain's myelinated axons.[19]

Age can result in visual impairment, whereby non-verbal communication is reduced,[20] which can lead to isolation and possible depression. Macular degeneration causes vision loss and increases with age, affecting nearly 12% of those above the age of 80.[21] This degeneration is caused by systemic changes in the circulation of waste products and by growth of abnormal vessels around the retina.[22]

A distinction can be made between "proximal ageing" (age-based effects that come about because of factors in the recent past) and "distal ageing" (age-based differences that can be traced back to a cause early in person's life, such as childhood poliomyelitis).[18]

Ageing is among the greatest known risk factors for most human diseases.[2] Of the roughly 150,000 people who die each day across the globe, about two thirds100,000 per daydie from age-related causes. In industrialised nations, the proportion is higher, reaching 90%.[23][24][25]

At present, the biological basis of ageing is unknown, even in relatively simple and short-lived organisms. Less still is known about mammalian ageing, in part due to the much longer lives in even small mammals such as the mouse (around 3 years). A primary model organism for studying ageing is the nematode C. elegans, thanks to its short lifespan of 23 weeks, the ability to easily perform genetic manipulations or suppress gene activity with RNA interference, and other factors.[26] Most known mutations and RNA interference targets that extend lifespan were first discovered in C. elegans.[27]

Factors that are proposed to influence biological ageing[28] fall into two main categories, programmed and damage-related. Programmed factors follow a biological timetable, perhaps a continuation of the one that regulates childhood growth and development. This regulation would depend on changes in gene expression that affect the systems responsible for maintenance, repair and defence responses. Damage-related factors include internal and environmental assaults to living organisms that induce cumulative damage at various levels.[29]

There are three main metabolic pathways which can influence the rate of ageing:

It is likely that most of these pathways affect ageing separately, because targeting them simultaneously leads to additive increases in lifespan.[31]

The rate of ageing varies substantially across different species, and this, to a large extent, is genetically based. For example, numerous perennial plants ranging from strawberries and potatoes to willow trees typically produce clones of themselves by vegetative reproduction and are thus potentially immortal, while annual plants such as wheat and watermelons die each year and reproduce by sexual reproduction. In 2008 it was discovered that inactivation of only two genes in the annual plant Arabidopsis thaliana leads to its conversion into a potentially immortal perennial plant.[32]

Clonal immortality apart, there are certain species whose individual lifespans stand out among Earth's life-forms, including the bristlecone pine at 5062 years[33] (however Hayflick states that the bristlecone pine has no cells older than 30 years), invertebrates like the hard clam (known as quahog in New England) at 508 years,[34] the Greenland shark at 400 years,[35] fish like the sturgeon and the rockfish, and the sea anemone[36] and lobster.[37][38] Such organisms are sometimes said to exhibit negligible senescence.[39] The genetic aspect has also been demonstrated in studies of human centenarians.

In laboratory settings, researchers have demonstrated that selected alterations in specific genes can extend lifespan quite substantially in yeast and roundworms, less so in fruit flies and less again in mice. Some of the targeted genes have homologues across species and in some cases have been associated with human longevity.[40]

Caloric restriction and exercise are two ways to activate autophagy and inhibit mTOR which can help resolve common age-related health problems.[citation needed]

Caloric restriction substantially affects lifespan in many animals, including the ability to delay or prevent many age-related diseases.[80] Typically, this involves caloric intake of 6070% of what an ad libitum animal would consume, while still maintaining proper nutrient intake.[80] In rodents, this has been shown to increase lifespan by up to 50%;[81] similar effects occur for yeast and Drosophila.[80] No lifespan data exist for humans on a calorie-restricted diet,[54] but several reports support protection from age-related diseases.[82][83] Two major ongoing studies on rhesus monkeys initially revealed disparate results; while one study, by the University of Wisconsin, showed that caloric restriction does extend lifespan,[84] the second study, by the National Institute on Ageing (NIA), found no effects of caloric restriction on longevity.[85] Both studies nevertheless showed improvement in a number of health parameters. Notwithstanding the similarly low calorie intake, the diet composition differed between the two studies (notably a high sucrose content in the Wisconsin study), and the monkeys have different origins (India, China), initially suggesting that genetics and dietary composition, not merely a decrease in calories, are factors in longevity.[54] However, in a comparative analysis in 2014, the Wisconsin researchers found that the allegedly non-starved NIA control monkeys in fact are moderately underweight when compared with other monkey populations, and argued this was due to the NIA's apportioned feeding protocol in contrast to Wisconsin's truly unrestricted ad libitum feeding protocol. [86] They conclude that moderate calorie restriction rather than extreme calorie restriction is sufficient to produce the observed health and longevity benefits in the studied rhesus monkeys.[87]

In his book How and Why We Age, Hayflick says that caloric restriction may not be effective in humans, citing data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging which shows that being thin does not favour longevity.[need quotation to verify][88] Similarly, it is sometimes claimed that moderate obesity in later life may improve survival, but newer research has identified confounding factors such as weight loss due to terminal disease. Once these factors are accounted for, the optimal body weight above age 65 corresponds to a leaner body mass index of 23 to 27.[89]

Alternatively, the benefits of dietary restriction can also be found by changing the macro nutrient profile to reduce protein intake without any changes to calorie level, resulting in similar increases in longevity.[90][91] Dietary protein restriction not only inhibits mTOR activity but also IGF-1, two mechanisms implicated in ageing.[52] Specifically, reducing leucine intake is sufficient to inhibit mTOR activity, achievable through reducing animal food consumption.[92][93]

The Mediterranean diet is credited with lowering the risk of heart disease and early death.[94][95] The major contributors to mortality risk reduction appear to be a higher consumption of vegetables, fish, fruits, nuts and monounsaturated fatty acids, i.e., olive oil.[96]

The amount of sleep has an impact on mortality. People who live the longest report sleeping for six to seven hours each night.[97][98] Lack of sleep (<5 hours) more than doubles the risk of death from cardiovascular disease, but too much sleep (>9 hours) is associated with a doubling of the risk of death, though not primarily from cardiovascular disease.[99] Sleeping more than 7 to 8 hours per day has been consistently associated with increased mortality, though the cause is probably other factors such as depression and socioeconomic status, which would correlate statistically.[100] Sleep monitoring of hunter-gatherer tribes from Africa and from South America has shown similar sleep patterns across continents: their average sleeping duration is 6.4 hours (with a summer/winter difference of 1 hour), afternoon naps (siestas) are uncommon, and insomnia is very rare (tenfold less than in industrial societies).[101]

Physical exercise may increase life expectancy.[102] People who participate in moderate to high levels of physical exercise have a lower mortality rate compared to individuals who are not physically active.[103] Moderate levels of exercise have been correlated with preventing aging and improving quality of life by reducing inflammatory potential.[104] The majority of the benefits from exercise are achieved with around 3500 metabolic equivalent (MET) minutes per week.[105] For example, climbing stairs 10 minutes, vacuuming 15 minutes, gardening 20 minutes, running 20 minutes, and walking or bicycling for 25 minutes on a daily basis would together achieve about 3000 MET minutes a week.[105]

Avoidance of chronic stress (as opposed to acute stress) is associated with a slower loss of telomeres in most but not all studies,[106][107] and with decreased cortisol levels. A chronically high cortisol level compromises the immune system, causes cardiac damage/arterosclerosis and is associated with facial ageing, and the latter in turn is a marker for increased morbidity and mortality.[108][109] Stress can be countered by social connection, spirituality, and (for men more clearly than for women) married life, all of which are associated with longevity.[110][111][112]

The following drugs and interventions have been shown to retard or reverse the biological effects of ageing in animal models, but none has yet been proven to do so in humans.

Evidence in both animals and humans suggests that resveratrol may be a caloric restriction mimetic.[113]

As of 2015 metformin was under study for its potential effect on slowing ageing in the worm C.elegans and the cricket.[114] Its effect on otherwise healthy humans is unknown.[114]

Rapamycin was first shown to extend lifespan in eukaryotes in 2006 by Powers et al. who showed a dose-responsive effect of rapamycin on lifespan extension in yeast cells.[115] In a 2009 study, the lifespans of mice fed rapamycin were increased between 28 and 38% from the beginning of treatment, or 9 to 14% in total increased maximum lifespan. Of particular note, the treatment began in mice aged 20 months, the equivalent of 60 human years.[116] Rapamycin has subsequently been shown to extend mouse lifespan in several separate experiments,[117][118] and is now being tested for this purpose in nonhuman primates (the marmoset monkey).[119]

Cancer geneticist Ronald A. DePinho and his colleagues published research in mice where telomerase activity was first genetically removed. Then, after the mice had prematurely aged, they restored telomerase activity by reactivating the telomerase gene. As a result, the mice were rejuvenated: Shrivelled testes grew back to normal and the animals regained their fertility. Other organs, such as the spleen, liver, intestines and brain, recuperated from their degenerated state. "[The finding] offers the possibility that normal human ageing could be slowed by reawakening the enzyme in cells where it has stopped working" says Ronald DePinho. However, activating telomerase in humans could potentially encourage the growth of tumours.[120]

Most known genetic interventions in C. elegans increase lifespan by 1.5 to 2.5-fold. As of 2009[update], the record for lifespan extension in C. elegans is a single-gene mutation which increases adult survival by tenfold.[27] The strong conservation of some of the mechanisms of ageing discovered in model organisms imply that they may be useful in the enhancement of human survival. However, the benefits may not be proportional; longevity gains are typically greater in C. elegans than fruit flies, and greater in fruit flies than in mammals. One explanation for this is that mammals, being much longer-lived, already have many traits which promote lifespan.[27]

Some research effort is directed to slow ageing and extend healthy lifespan.[121][122][123]

The US National Institute on Aging currently funds an intervention testing programme, whereby investigators nominate compounds (based on specific molecular ageing theories) to have evaluated with respect to their effects on lifespan and age-related biomarkers in outbred mice.[124] Previous age-related testing in mammals has proved largely irreproducible, because of small numbers of animals and lax mouse husbandry conditions.[citation needed] The intervention testing programme aims to address this by conducting parallel experiments at three internationally recognised mouse ageing-centres, the Barshop Institute at UTHSCSA, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and the Jackson Laboratory.

Several companies and organisations, such as Google Calico, Human Longevity, Craig Venter, Gero,[125]SENS Research Foundation, and Science for Life Extension in Russia,[126] declared stopping or delaying ageing as their goal.

Prizes for extending lifespan and slowing ageing in mammals exist. The Methuselah Foundation offers the Mprize. Recently, the $1 Million Palo Alto Longevity Prize was launched. It is a research incentive prize to encourage teams from all over the world to compete in an all-out effort to "hack the code" that regulates our health and lifespan. It was founded by Joon Yun.[127][128][129][130][131]

Different cultures express age in different ways. The age of an adult human is commonly measured in whole years since the day of birth. Arbitrary divisions set to mark periods of life may include: juvenile (via infancy, childhood, preadolescence, adolescence), early adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood. More casual terms may include "teenagers," "tweens," "twentysomething", "thirtysomething", etc. as well as "vicenarian", "tricenarian", "quadragenarian", etc.

Most legal systems define a specific age for when an individual is allowed or obliged to do particular activities. These age specifications include voting age, drinking age, age of consent, age of majority, age of criminal responsibility, marriageable age, age of candidacy, and mandatory retirement age. Admission to a movie for instance, may depend on age according to a motion picture rating system. A bus fare might be discounted for the young or old. Each nation, government and non-governmental organisation has different ways of classifying age. In other words, chronological ageing may be distinguished from "social ageing" (cultural age-expectations of how people should act as they grow older) and "biological ageing" (an organism's physical state as it ages).[132]

In a UNFPA report about ageing in the 21st century, it highlighted the need to "Develop a new rights-based culture of ageing and a change of mindset and societal attitudes towards ageing and older persons, from welfare recipients to active, contributing members of society."[133] UNFPA said that this "requires, among others, working towards the development of international human rights instruments and their translation into national laws and regulations and affirmative measures that challenge age discrimination and recognise older people as autonomous subjects."[133] Older persons make contributions to society including caregiving and volunteering. For example, "A study of Bolivian migrants who [had] moved to Spain found that 69% left their children at home, usually with grandparents. In rural China, grandparents care for 38% of children aged under five whose parents have gone to work in cities."[133]

Population ageing is the increase in the number and proportion of older people in society. Population ageing has three possible causes: migration, longer life expectancy (decreased death rate) and decreased birth rate. Ageing has a significant impact on society. Young people tend to have fewer legal privileges (if they are below the age of majority), they are more likely to push for political and social change, to develop and adopt new technologies, and to need education. Older people have different requirements from society and government, and frequently have differing values as well, such as for property and pension rights.[134]

In the 21st century, one of the most significant population trends is ageing.[135] Currently, over 11% of the world's current population are people aged 60 and older and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that by 2050 that number will rise to approximately 22%.[133] Ageing has occurred due to development which has enabled better nutrition, sanitation, health care, education and economic well-being. Consequently, fertility rates have continued to decline and life expectancy have risen. Life expectancy at birth is over 80 now in 33 countries. Ageing is a "global phenomenon," that is occurring fastest in developing countries, including those with large youth populations, and poses social and economic challenges to the work which can be overcome with "the right set of policies to equip individuals, families and societies to address these challenges and to reap its benefits."[136]

As life expectancy rises and birth rates decline in developed countries, the median age rises accordingly. According to the United Nations, this process is taking place in nearly every country in the world.[137] A rising median age can have significant social and economic implications, as the workforce gets progressively older and the number of old workers and retirees grows relative to the number of young workers. Older people generally incur more health-related costs than do younger people in the workplace and can also cost more in worker's compensation and pension liabilities.[138] In most developed countries an older workforce is somewhat inevitable. In the United States for instance, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that one in four American workers will be 55 or older by 2020.[138]

Among the most urgent concerns of older persons worldwide is income security. This poses challenges for governments with ageing populations to ensure investments in pension systems continues in order to provide economic independence and reduce poverty in old age. These challenges vary for developing and developed countries. UNFPA stated that, "Sustainability of these systems is of particular concern, particularly in developed countries, while social protection and old-age pension coverage remain a challenge for developing countries, where a large proportion of the labour force is found in the informal sector."[133]

The global economic crisis has increased financial pressure to ensure economic security and access to health care in old age. In order to elevate this pressure "social protection floors must be implemented in order to guarantee income security and access to essential health and social services for all older persons and provide a safety net that contributes to the postponement of disability and prevention of impoverishment in old age."[133]

It has been argued that population ageing has undermined economic development.[139] Evidence suggests that pensions, while making a difference to the well-being of older persons, also benefit entire families especially in times of crisis when there may be a shortage or loss of employment within households. A study by the Australian Government in 2003 estimated that "women between the ages of 65 and 74 years contribute A$16 billion per year in unpaid caregiving and voluntary work. Similarly, men in the same age group contributed A$10 billion per year."[133]

Due to increasing share of the elderly in the population, health care expenditures will continue to grow relative to the economy in coming decades. This has been considered as a negative phenomenon and effective strategies like labour productivity enhancement should be considered to deal with negative consequences of ageing.[140]

In the field of sociology and mental health, ageing is seen in five different views: ageing as maturity, ageing as decline, ageing as a life-cycle event, ageing as generation, and ageing as survival.[141] Positive correlates with ageing often include economics, employment, marriage, children, education, and sense of control, as well as many others. The social science of ageing includes disengagement theory, activity theory, selectivity theory, and continuity theory. Retirement, a common transition faced by the elderly, may have both positive and negative consequences.[142] As cyborgs currently are on the rise some theorists argue there is a need to develop new definitions of ageing and for instance a bio-techno-social definition of ageing has been suggested.[143]

With age inevitable biological changes occur that increase the risk of illness and disability. UNFPA states that,[136]

"A life-cycle approach to health care one that starts early, continues through the reproductive years and lasts into old age is essential for the physical and emotional well-being of older persons, and, indeed, all people. Public policies and programmes should additionally address the needs of older impoverished people who cannot afford health care."

Many societies in Western Europe and Japan have ageing populations. While the effects on society are complex, there is a concern about the impact on health care demand. The large number of suggestions in the literature for specific interventions to cope with the expected increase in demand for long-term care in ageing societies can be organised under four headings: improve system performance; redesign service delivery; support informal caregivers; and shift demographic parameters.[144]

However, the annual growth in national health spending is not mainly due to increasing demand from ageing populations, but rather has been driven by rising incomes, costly new medical technology, a shortage of health care workers and informational asymmetries between providers and patients.[145] A number of health problems become more prevalent as people get older. These include mental health problems as well as physical health problems, especially dementia.

It has been estimated that population ageing only explains 0.2 percentage points of the annual growth rate in medical spending of 4.3% since 1970. In addition, certain reforms to the Medicare system in the United States decreased elderly spending on home health care by 12.5% per year between 1996 and 2000.[146]

Positive self-perception of health has been correlated with higher well-being and reduced mortality in the elderly.[147][148] Various reasons have been proposed for this association; people who are objectively healthy may naturally rate their health better than that of their ill counterparts, though this link has been observed even in studies which have controlled for socioeconomic status, psychological functioning and health status.[149] This finding is generally stronger for men than women,[148] though this relationship is not universal across all studies and may only be true in some circumstances.[149]

As people age, subjective health remains relatively stable, even though objective health worsens.[150] In fact, perceived health improves with age when objective health is controlled in the equation.[151] This phenomenon is known as the "paradox of ageing." This may be a result of social comparison;[152] for instance, the older people get, the more they may consider themselves in better health than their same-aged peers.[153] Elderly people often associate their functional and physical decline with the normal ageing process.[154][155]

The concept of successful ageing can be traced back to the 1950s and was popularised in the 1980s. Traditional definitions of successful ageing have emphasised absence of physical and cognitive disabilities.[156] In their 1987 article, Rowe and Kahn characterised successful ageing as involving three components: a) freedom from disease and disability, b) high cognitive and physical functioning, and c) social and productive engagement.[157]

The ancient Greek dramatist Euripides (5th century BC) describes the multiply-headed mythological monster Hydra as having a regenerative capacity which makes it immortal, which is the historical background to the name of the biological genus Hydra. The Book of Job (c. 6th century BC) describes human lifespan as inherently limited and makes a comparison with the innate immortality that a felled tree may have when undergoing vegetative regeneration.[158]

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Hackensack, New Jersey – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hackensack, New Jersey City City of Hackensack Motto: A City in Motion[1] Location of Hackensack within Bergen County, New Jersey. Census Bureau map of Hackensack, New Jersey Coordinates: 405322N 740245W / 40.889398N 74.045698W / 40.889398; -74.045698Coordinates: 405322N 740245W / 40.889398N 74.045698W / 40.889398; -74.045698[2][3] Country United States State New Jersey County Bergen Settled 1665 (as New Barbadoes) Incorporated October 31, 1693 (as New Barbadoes Township) Reincorporated November 21, 1921 (as a city under current name) Government[7] Type 1923 Municipal Manager Law Body City Council Mayor John P. Labrosse, Jr. (term ends June 30, 2017)[4] City manager Stephen Lo Iacono[5] Clerk Debbie Heck[6] Area[2] Total 4.346sqmi (11.256km2) Land 4.180sqmi (10.826km2) Water 0.166sqmi (0.430km2) 3.82% Area rank 287th of 566 in state 16th of 70 in county[2] Elevation[8] 20ft (6m) Population (2010 Census)[9][10][11] Total 43,010 Estimate(2014)[12] 44,519 Rank 46th of 566 in state 1st of 70 in county[13] Density 10,290.0/sqmi (3,973.0/km2) Densityrank 36th of 566 in state 10th of 70 in county[13] Time zone Eastern (EST) (UTC-5) Summer (DST) Eastern (EDT) (UTC-4) ZIP code 07601[14][15] Area code(s) 201[16] FIPS code 3400328680[2][17][18] GNIS feature ID 885236[2][19] Website http://www.hackensack.org

Hackensack is a city in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, and serves as its county seat.[20][21] It was officially named New Barbadoes Township until 1921, but it was informally known as Hackensack. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 43,010,[9][10][11] reflecting an increase of 333 (+0.8%) from the 42,677 counted in the 2000 Census, which had, in turn, increased by 5,628 (+15.2%) from the 37,049 counted in the 1990 Census.[22]

An inner suburb of New York City, Hackensack is located approximately 12miles (19km) northwest of Midtown Manhattan and about 7miles (11km) from the George Washington Bridge.[23] From a number of locations, the New York City skyline can be seen.[23]

The Metropolitan Campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University borders the Hackensack River in both Hackensack and Teaneck. Hackensack is also the home of the New Jersey Naval Museum and the World War II submarine USS Ling. Astronaut Walter Schirra is perhaps Hackensack's most famous native son.

The city is known for a great diversity of neighborhoods and its land uses very close to one another. Within its borders are the prominent Hackensack University Medical Center, a trendy high-rise district about a mile long, classic suburban neighborhoods of single-family houses, stately older homes on acre-plus lots, older two-family neighborhoods, large garden apartment complexes, industrial areas, the Bergen County Jail, a tidal river, Hackensack River County Park, Borg's Woods Nature Preserve, various city parks, large office buildings, a major college campus, the Bergen County Court House, a vibrant small-city downtown district, and various small neighborhood business districts.[24]

The first inhabitants of the area were the Lenni Lenape, an Algonquian people (later known as the Delaware Indians) who lived along the valley of what they called the Achinigeu-hach, or "Ackingsah-sack", meaning stony ground (today the Hackensack River).[25] A representation of Chief Oratam of the Achkinhenhcky appears on the Hackensack municipal seal. The most common explanation is that the city was named for the Native American tribe,[26][27] though other sources attribute it to a Native American word variously translated as meaning "hook mouth", "stream that unites with another on low ground", "on low ground" or "land of the big snake",[28][29] while another version described as "more colorful than probable" attributes the name to an inn called the "Hock and Sack".[30]

Settlement by the Dutch West India Company in New Netherland on west banks of the North River (Hudson River) across from New Amsterdam (present-day lower Manhattan) began in the 1630s at Pavonia, eventually leading to the establishment of Bergen (at today's Bergen Square in Jersey City) in 1660.[31]

Oratam, sachem of the Lenni Lenape, deeded the land along mid-Hackensack River to the Dutch in 1665. The area was soon taken by the English in 1667, but kept its Dutch name. Philip Cartaret, governor of what became the proprietary colony of East Jersey granted land to Captain John Berry in the area of Achter Kol[32] and soon after took up residence and called it "New Barbadoes," after having resided on the island of Barbadoes. In 1669, a deed was confirmed for the 2,260acres (9.1km2) tract that had been given earlier by Oratem to Sarah Kiersted in gratitude for her work as emissary and interpreter.[33][34] Other grants were given at the English Neighborhood.[35][36][37]

In 1675, the East Jersey Legislature established the administrative districts: (Bergen, Essex, Middlesex, and Monmouth). In 1683, Bergen (along with the three other counties) was officially recognized as an independent county by the Provincial Assembly.[38]The seal of Bergen County bearing this date includes an image of an agreement between the settlers and the natives.

New Barbadoes Township, together with Acquackanonk Township, were formed by Royal charter on October 31, 1693.[39][40]

In 1700, the village of Hackensack was little more than the area around Main Street from the Courthouse to around Anderson Street. New Barbadoes Township included what is now Maywood, Rochelle Park, Paramus and River Edge, along with those portions of Oradell that are west of the Hackensack River. These areas were all very sparsely populated and consisted of farm fields, woods and swamplands. The few roads that existed then included the streets now known as Kinderkamack Road, Paramus Road/Passaic Street and Essex Street. The southernmost portions of what is now Hackensack were not part of New Barbadoes Township at that time.[citation needed]

The neighborhood that came to be known as the village of Hackensack (today the area encompassing Bergen County's municipal buildings in Hackensack) was a part of Essex County until 1710, when Bergen County, by royal decree of Queen Anne of Great Britain, was enlarged and the Township of New Barbadoes was removed from Essex County and added to Bergen County.[41]

In 1710, the village of Hackensack in the newly formed Township of New Barbadoes was designated as being more centrally located and more easily reached by the majority of the Bergen Countys inhabitants, and hence was chosen as the county seat of Bergen County, as it remains today. The earliest records of the Bergen County Board of Chosen Freeholders date back to 1715, at which time agreement was made to build a courthouse and jail complex, which was completed in 1716.[42]

During the American Revolutionary War, George Washington headquartered in the village of Hackensack in November 1776 during the retreat from Fort Lee via New Bridge Landing and camped on 'The Green' across from the First Dutch Reformed Church on November 20, 1776. A raid by British forces against Hackensack on March 23, 1780, resulted in the destruction by fire of the original courthouse structure.[43]

The Hackensack Improvement Commission was incorporated by an Act of the state legislature approved on April 1, 1868, within New Barbadoes township and including the village of Hackensack, with authority to develop sewers and other improvements in Hackensack.[44]

The New Jersey Legislature passed the Township School Act in 1894, under which each village, borough, town, or city in New Jersey was delegated responsibility for its own public schools through the office of the county superintendent. Hackensack established a local board of education in 1894, as required by the new law, which took over operation of schools located in the township and established Hackensack High School.[45] The 1894 act allowed local residents, by petition, to change municipal boundaries at will, setting off fearsome political battles statewide.

Portions of the township had been taken to form Harrington Township (June 22, 1775), Lodi Township (March 1, 1826), Midland Township (March 7, 1871) and Little Ferry (September 20, 1894).[39] After these departures, secessions, and de-annexations, all that was left of New Barbadoes Township was the village of Hackensack and its surrounding neighborhoods of Fairmount, Red Hill and Cherry Hill. In 1896, New Barbadoes acquired a portion of Lodi Township covering an area south of Essex Street from the bend of Essex Street to the Maywood border. That same year the Hackensack Improvement commission was abolished and the City of Hackensack and New Barbadoes Township became coterminous.[46][47]

The final parcel lost by New Barbadoes Township was the northeastern corner of what is now Little Ferry, which was incorporated in September 1894.[48]

An act of the State Legislature incorporated the Fairmount section of New Barbadoes with the Hackensack Improvement Commission, and eliminated New Barbadoes Township as a political entity. On November 21, 1921, based on the results of a referendum held on November 8, 1921, New Barbadoes Township received its charter to incorporate as a city and officially took on its name Hackensack, a name derived from its original inhabitants, the Lenni Lenape, who named it "Ackingsah-sack".[39]

In 1933, Hackensack adopted the Manager form of government under the terms of the 1923 Municipal Manager Law, with five Council persons all elected at-large and a mayor selected by the council from among its members.[49]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city had a total area of 4.346square miles (11.256km2), including 4.180square miles (10.826km2) of land and 0.166square miles (0.430km2) of water (3.82%).[2][3]

The city is bordered by Paramus, River Edge, Teaneck, Bogota, Ridgefield Park, Little Ferry, South Hackensack, Hasbrouck Heights, Lodi, and Maywood.[50]

There are many houses of historic value, and some of these were identified in the 1990 Master Plan. The city does not have any registered historic districts, or any restrictions on preserving the historic facade in any portions of the city. Areas considered suburban single-family residential neighborhoods account for about one third of the city's area, mostly along its western side.

Unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the city include Fairmount and North Hackensack.[51]

As the initial destination for many immigrants to Bergen County from around the globe, Hackensack's ethnic composition has become exceptionally diverse. As of 2013, approximately 38.9% of the population was foreign-born. In addition, 2.5% were born in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico or abroad to American parents. 51.7% of the population over the age of five speak only English in their household, while 32.5% of the population speaks Spanish at home.[65] The South Asian and East Asian populations have increased most rapidly in Hackensack since 2000, with nearly 2,000 Indian Americans, over 1,000 Filipino Americans, and over 600 Korean Americans represented in the 2010 United States Census.[66] Hackensack's Hispanic population has also risen rapidly, to over 15,000 in 2010;[66]Ecuadoreans, Dominicans, and Colombians have become the top Hispanic groups in northern Hackensack.[67] The Black population dropped as a percentage although minimally in absolute numbers between 2000 and 2010.[66] The city lost approximately 10% of its Caucasian population between 2000 and 2010, which has stabilized and resumed growth since 2010 and has remained substantial, at over 20,000 in 2010.[66] The city has also witnessed greatly increasing diversity in its non-Hispanic white segment, with large numbers of Eastern Europeans, Eurasians, Central Asians, and Arabic immigrants offsetting the loss in Hackensack's earlier established Italian American, Irish American, and German American populations.

At the 2010 United States Census, there were 43,010 people, 18,142 households, and 9,706 families residing in the city. The population density was 10,290.0 per square mile (3,973.0/km2). There were 19,375 housing units at an average density of 4,635.4 per square mile (1,789.7/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 46.67% (20,072) White, 24.44% (10,511) Black or African American, 0.56% (241) Native American, 10.30% (4,432) Asian, 0.02% (10) Pacific Islander, 13.59% (5,844) from other races, and 4.42% (1,900) from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 35.31% (15,186) of the population.[9]

There were 18,142 households, of which 23.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 34.1% were married couples living together, 13.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 46.5% were non-families. 39.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.30 and the average family size was 3.11.[9]

In the city, 18.7% of the population were under the age of 18, 8.3% from 18 to 24, 34.6% from 25 to 44, 26.1% from 45 to 64, and 12.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37.5 years. For every 100 females there were 98.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.4 males.[9]

The Census Bureau's 2006-2010 American Community Survey showed that (in 2010 inflation-adjusted dollars) median household income was $57,676 (with a margin of error of +/- $3,577) and the median family income was $66,911 (+/- $5,433). Males had a median income of $45,880 (+/- $4,012) versus $42,059 (+/- $1,681) for females. The per capita income for the city was $32,036 (+/- $1,809). About 8.9% of families and 10.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.2% of those under age 18 and 11.7% of those age 65 or over.[68]

Same-sex couples headed 145 households in 2010, an increase from the 112 counted in 2000.[69]

As of the 2000 United States Census[17] there were 42,677 people, 18,113 households, and 9,545 families residing in the city. The population density was 10,358.3 people per square mile (3,999.4/km2). There were 18,945 housing units at an average density of 4,598.2 per square mile (1,775.4/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 52.61% White, 24.65% African American, 0.45% Native American, 7.45% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 9.71% from other races, and 5.08% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 25.92% of the population.[63][64]

There were 18,113 households out of which 21.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 34.8% were married couples living together, 13.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 47.3% were non-families. 39.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.26 and the average family size was 3.08.[63][64]

In the city the population was spread out with 18.2% under the age of 18, 8.6% from 18 to 24, 38.4% from 25 to 44, 22.3% from 45 to 64, and 12.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 98.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.5 males.[63][64]

The median income for a household in the city was $49,316, and the median income for a family was $56,953. Males had a median income of $39,636 versus $32,911 for females. The per capita income for the city was $26,856. About 6.8% of families and 9.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9.1% of those under age 18 and 10.3% of those age 65 or over.[63][64]

Hackensack operates under the 1923 Municipal Manager Law form of New Jersey municipal government. The City Council consists of five members who are elected to four-year terms on a concurrent basis in a non-partisan election held every four years in May.[7] This form of government separates policy making (the work of the mayor and city council) from the execution of policy (the work of the city manager). This maintains professional management and a City-wide perspective through: nonpartisan election, at-large representation, concentration of executive responsibility in the hands of a professional manager accountable to the Mayor and Council, concentration of policy making power in one body: a five-person Mayor and Council. In the several decades in which the City has used the Municipal Manager form of government, Hackensack has had only nine City Managers.

As of 2015[update], the mayor of the City of Hackensack is John P. Labrosse, Jr., whose term of office as mayor ends June 30, 2017, along with those of all other councilmembers.[70][71] Other members of the Hackensack City Council are Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino, Leonardo 'Leo' Battaglia, Deborah Keeling-Geddis (elected to serve an unexpired term) and David Sims.[71][72][73] John Labrosse, who had served as councilman since 2009, and the entire council were elected in May 2013 under the "Citizens for Change" party, which replaced the mayor and three council members who had been supported by the Zisa family. The mayor and deputy mayor will serve four-year terms. In the previous council, mayors and deputy mayors served one-year rotating terms.[71][74]

In April 2015, the city council selected Jason Some on an interim basis to fill the vacant seat of Rose Greenman, who had resigned the previous month citing claims that her council colleagues had discriminated against her.[75] In the November 2015 general election, Deborah Keeling-Geddis was elected to serve the balance of the term of office, edging interim councilmember Jason Some by 24 votes in the final count.[76]

In a move to eliminate past Zisa family political influence, the 2013 city council did not reappoint Joseph Zisa, the city attorney; Richard Salkin, the municipal prosecutor; and Scirocco Insurance Group, the citys insurance broker where former city mayor Jack Zisa is an insurance agent.[71]

City Council candidate Joseph DeFalco, principal of Hackensack High School, died of a heart attack the day of the municipal election in 2005, but was elected despite his death.[77] His running mates agreed to create a rotation under which each of the four surviving members of the New Visions for Hackensack slate would serve for a year as Mayor, creating a series of firsts for the City. Townes took office in 2005 as the city's first black mayor, and Sasso became the first female mayor in 2006. Meneses became Hackensack's first Hispanic mayor when he was sworn in on July 1, 2007, and Melfi took the reins as mayor in 2008.[78] Four of the same five officials were re-elected in 2009 (Townes, Melfi, Sasso, Meneses), along with one opposition candidate, LaBrosse. The city council continued to rotate the mayor's seat, with the exception of Labrosse, and Melfi became mayor again in 2012.

Frank Zisa served as mayor from 1977 to 1981,[79] Fred Cerbo from 1981 to 1989,[80] and John F. "Jack" Zisa (son of Frank Zisa) from 1989 to 2005.[81]

Former Assemblyman Charles "Ken" Zisa served as chief of the Hackensack Police Department from his 1995 appointment to replace John Aletta until May 2010 when he was suspended without pay on charges of official misconduct and insurance fraud. Tomas Padilla was appointed the acting police chief while the police department was being monitored by the Bergen County Prosecutors office. In May 2012, a judge ordered Zisa out of his position as police chief, a decision that cost him his police retirement benefits.[82][83][84] In January 2013, Mike Mordaga was appointed the new civilian police director, which replaced the previous position of police chief.[85]

Hackensack is located in the 5th Congressional District[86] and is part of New Jersey's 37th state legislative district.[10][87][88] Prior to the 2010 Census, Hackensack had been part of the 9th Congressional District, a change made by the New Jersey Redistricting Commission that took effect in January 2013, based on the results of the November 2012 general elections.[89]

New Jersey's Fifth Congressional District is represented by Scott Garrett (R, Wantage Township).[90] New Jersey is represented in the United States Senate by Cory Booker (D, Newark, term ends 2021)[91] and Bob Menendez (D, Paramus, 2019).[92][93]

For the 20162017 session (Senate, General Assembly), the 37th Legislative District of the New Jersey Legislature is represented in the State Senate by Loretta Weinberg (D, Teaneck) and in the General Assembly by Valerie Huttle (D, Englewood) and Gordon M. Johnson (D, Englewood).[94] The Governor of New Jersey is Chris Christie (R, Mendham Township).[95] The Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey is Kim Guadagno (R, Monmouth Beach).[96]

Bergen County is governed by a directly elected County Executive, with legislative functions performed by a seven-member Board of Chosen Freeholders.[97] As of 2015[update], the County Executive is James J. Tedesco III (D, Paramus; term ends December 31, 2018).[98] The seven freeholders are elected at-large in partisan elections on a staggered basis, with two or three seats coming up for election each year, with a Chairman, Vice Chairman and Chairman Pro Tempore selected from among its members at a reorganization meeting held each January.[99] Bergen County's Freeholders are Freeholder Chairwoman Joan Voss (D, 2017; Fort Lee),[100] Vice Chairman Steve Tanelli (D, 2015; North Arlington)[101] Chairman Pro Tempore John A. Felice (R, 2016; River Edge),[102]David L. Ganz (D, 2017; Fair Lawn),[103] Maura R. DeNicola (R, 2016; Franklin Lakes)[104] Thomas J. Sullivan Jr., (D, Montvale, 2015; serving the unexpired term of office that had been occupied by James Tedesco before he was sworn in as County Executive)[105][106] and Tracy Silna Zur (D, 2015; Franklin Lakes).[107][108] Countywide constitutional officials are County Clerk John S. Hogan (D, Northvale),[109] Sheriff Michael Saudino (R)[110] and Surrogate Michael R. Dressler (D, Cresskill).[111][112][97]

As of March 23, 2011, there were a total of 19,123 registered voters in Hackensack, of which 8,630 (45.1% vs. 31.7% countywide) were registered as Democrats, 1,993 (10.4% vs. 21.1%) were registered as Republicans and 8,492 (44.4% vs. 47.1%) were registered as Unaffiliated. There were 8 voters registered to other parties.[113] Among the city's 2010 Census population, 44.5% (vs. 57.1% in Bergen County) were registered to vote, including 54.7% of those ages 18 and over (vs. 73.7% countywide).[113][114]

In the 2012 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 11,335 votes (78.6% vs. 54.8% countywide), ahead of Republican Mitt Romney with 2,835 votes (19.6% vs. 43.5%) and other candidates with 113 votes (0.8% vs. 0.9%), among the 14,428 ballots cast by the city's 20,971 registered voters, for a turnout of 68.8% (vs. 70.4% in Bergen County).[115][116] In the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 11,711 votes (75.7% vs. 53.9% countywide), ahead of Republican John McCain with 3,498 votes (22.6% vs. 44.5%) and other candidates with 102 votes (0.7% vs. 0.8%), among the 15,461 ballots cast by the city's 20,616 registered voters, for a turnout of 75.0% (vs. 76.8% in Bergen County).[117][118] In the 2004 presidential election, Democrat John Kerry received 9,815 votes (71.0% vs. 51.7% countywide), ahead of Republican George W. Bush with 3,870 votes (28.0% vs. 47.2%) and other candidates with 88 votes (0.6% vs. 0.7%), among the 13,818 ballots cast by the city's 19,013 registered voters, for a turnout of 72.7% (vs. 76.9% in the whole county).[119]

In the 2013 gubernatorial election, Democrat Barbara Buono received 59.7% of the vote (4,268 cast), ahead of Republican Chris Christie with 39.0% (2,790 votes), and other candidates with 1.2% (89 votes), among the 7,327 ballots cast by the city's 19,506 registered voters (180 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 37.6%.[120][121] In the 2009 gubernatorial election, Democrat Jon Corzine received 6,247 ballots cast (70.9% vs. 48.0% countywide), ahead of Republican Chris Christie with 2,194 votes (24.9% vs. 45.8%), Independent Chris Daggett with 288 votes (3.3% vs. 4.7%) and other candidates with 31 votes (0.4% vs. 0.5%), among the 8,812 ballots cast by the city's 19,819 registered voters, yielding a 44.5% turnout (vs. 50.0% in the county).[122]

The Hackensack Public Schools serve students in Kindergarten through twelfth grade. As of the 2011-12 school year, the district's six schools had an enrollment of 5,166 students and 391.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a studentteacher ratio of 13.21:1.[123] Schools in the district (with 2011-12 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics[124]) are four K4 elementary schools Fairmount Elementary School[125] (633 students), Fanny Meyer Hillers School[126] (549), Jackson Avenue School[127] (451), and Nellie K. Parker School[128] (501) while Hackensack Middle School[129] serves grades 5-8 (1,292) and Hackensack High School[130] serves students in grades 912 (1,740).[131][132]

Hackensack High School serves high school students living in neighboring communities as part of sending/receiving relationships with the respective districts, including about 250 from Maywood, 120 from Rochelle Park and 250 from South Hackensack as of 2012.[133] In addition, Teterboro residents had been able to choose between Hackensack High School and Hasbrouck Heights School District's Hasbrouck Heights High School.[citation needed]

Public school students from the borough, and all of Bergen County, are eligible to attend the secondary education programs offered by the Bergen County Technical Schools, which include the Bergen County Academies in Hackensack and the Bergen Tech campus in Teterboro or Paramus. The district offers programs on a shared-time or full-time basis, with admission based on a selective application process and tuition covered by the student's home school district.[134][135]

The First Baptist Church runs Hackensack Christian School, a K-12 school that was established in 1973 and is located at Union Street and Conklin Place.[136]

The YCS George Washington School is a nonprofit private school for classified students ages 514 in grades K-8 who are experiencing behavioral and/or emotional difficulties. Its population consists of students who reside at the YCS Holley Child Care and Development Center in Hackensack and students within the surrounding communities whose needs cannot be adequately met in special education programs within their districts.[137]

Padre Pio Academy is a defunct K-8 school that had operated under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark until its closure at the end of the 2012-13 school year in the wake of declining enrollment and a deficit approaching $350,000.[138] The school had been formed in 2009 by the diocese through the merger of St. Francis of Assisi School with Holy Trinity.[139]

The Metropolitan Campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University straddles the Hackensack River in both Hackensack and Teaneck.[140]

Bergen Community College has a location in Hackensack. The Philip Ciarco Jr. Learning Center, is located at 355 Main Street at the corner of Passaic Street.[141]

Eastwick College is located at 250 Moore Street.[142]

As of May 2010[update], the city had a total of 79.69 miles (128.25km) of roadways, of which 62.10 miles (99.94km) were maintained by the municipality, 15.10 miles (24.30km) by Bergen County and 2.49 miles (4.01km) by the New Jersey Department of Transportation.[143]

Interstate 80, Route 17, Route 4, and County Route 503 cross Hackensack, while there are many other main roads in Hackensack. Several bridges, including the Court Street Bridge and the Midtown Bridge span the Hackensack River.

The city is served by three train stations on New Jersey Transit's Pascack Valley Line, two of them in Hackensack, providing service to Hoboken Terminal, with connecting service to Penn Station New York and other NJ Transit service at Secaucus Junction.[144]Anderson Street station[145] serves central Hackensack while Essex Street station[146] serves southern portions of the city. The New Bridge Landing station,[147] located adjacent to the city line in River Edge also serves the northernmost parts of Hackensack, including The Shops at Riverside.

New Jersey Transit buses include lines 144, 157, 162, 163, 164, 165 and 168 serving the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan; the 175, 178 and 182 to the George Washington Bridge Bus Station; the 76 to Newark; the 83 route to Jersey City; and local service on the 709, 712, 751, 752, 753, 755, 756, 762, 770, 772 and 780 lines.[148] Many of the bus routes stop, originate and terminate at the Hackensack Bus Terminal, a regional transit hub.[149] Route 1X jitney of Fordham Transit originates/terminates at the bus terminal with service Inwood, Manhattan via Fort Lee Road.

The Passaic-Bergen Rail Line is a planned light-rail system that will have two stops in Hackensack.[150]

The City of Hackensack is protected by a force of 99 paid, professional firefighters of the city of Hackensack Fire Department (HFD).[151] The HFD was first established on April 1, 1871 as Bergen Hook & Ladder Co. 1. In 1911, the full-time fire department was organized.[152] The Hackensack Fire Department responds to, approximately, 5,600 emergency calls annually.[153]

The Hackensack Ford dealership fire on July 1, 1988, resulted in the deaths of five firefighters after a bowstring truss roof collapsed. A message issued a minute before the collapse ordering firefighters out was never received due to defective communications equipment and two firefighters who had survived the initial collapse could not be rescued as their calls for help were not received.[154]

Nine firefighters from Hackensack have died in the line of duty.[152]

The Hackensack Fire Department currently operates out of four Fire Stations, located throughout the city, under the command of a Deputy Chief/Tour Commander per shift. The HFD also operates a fire apparatus fleet of four Engines, one Ladder, one Rescue, one USAR Collapse Shoring Unit, two Special Operations Units, one Air Cascade Unit, two fireboats, one Fire Alarm Maintenance Bucket Truck, two Reserve Engines, one Reserve Ladder, a Reserve Rescue, as well as several other special and support units.[152][155]

The Hackensack Volunteer Ambulance Corps provides emergency medical services to Hackensack and other nearby towns through mutual aid agreements. The Corps operates nightly from 6pm to 6am, and 24 hours on Saturday and Sundays.[156] Daytime EMS is provided seven days a week by the Hackensack University Medical Center's ambulance service, overlapping volunteer coverage on weekends. Both the Hackensack University Medical Center and Hackensack Volunteer Ambulance Corps are dispatched by MICCOM, the Northern New Jersey Mobile Intensive Care Communications. MICCOM provides dispatch and emergency medical call taking with pre-arrival instructions and updates.

The city historian is Albert Dib. Walking tours are conducted of historic markers in downtown Hackensack, in and around The Green and lower Main Street, and a virtual historic walking tour is available as far north as the Pascack Valley Line crossing at Main Street.[157][158]

The First Dutch Reformed Church (Church on The Green) was built in 1696. In 1696 Major Berry donated land for the First Dutch Reformed Church,[159] erected in that same year, which still stands in Hackensack today as the oldest church in Bergen County and the second oldest church in New Jersey. The following is list of notable people buried in the Church's adjoining cemetery:

Bergen County's largest newspaper, The Record, a publication of the North Jersey Media Group, had called Hackensack its home until moving to Woodland Park. Its 19.7-acre (8.0ha) campus is largely abandoned and has been sold to be redeveloped for a mixed-use commercial project that would include 500 residential apartments and a hotel, in associated with the river walkway project.[164]

The New Jersey Naval Museum is home to the World War II submarine USS Ling, a Balao class submarine, and several smaller water vessels and artifacts. The museum is open select weekdays for group tours.[165]

The Hackensack Cultural Arts Center, located at 39 Broadway, is the city's leading theater arts institution and houses many local arts groups such as the Teaneck Theater Company and the Hackensack Theater Company. The facility also serves as the summer indoor location for the Hudson Shakespeare Company in case of rain. Otherwise, the group performs outdoors at Staib Park, with two "Shakespeare Wednesdays" per month for each month of the summer.[166]

The Shops at Riverside (formerly known as Riverside Square Mall), is an upscale shopping center located at the intersection of Route 4 and Hackensack Avenue at the northern edge of the city along the Hackensack River near its border with River Edge to the north and with Teaneck across the river. The mall, which has undergone a significant expansion, is anchored by a number of high-end department stores and restaurants, including Bloomingdale's, Saks Fifth Avenue, Tiffany & Co., Pottery Barn and Barnes & Noble, offering a gross leasable area of 674,416 square feet (62,655.3m2).[167] The mall is known for its marble floors, and attracts a great many upper income shoppers from Manhattan and Northern Bergen County.

Hackensack's Main Street is devoted to shopping and includes some of the city's iconic landmarks, including the United Jersey Bank headquarters building and the former Woolworth site that is now a housewares store. The only remaining major store on Hackensack's Main Street is Sears Roebuck and Co. The historic Sears building is located on the corner of Main and Anderson Street and is still in operation today. The site is close to the Anderson Street train station, and has been open since the 1930s.[168]

Bergen County Jail is a detention center for both sentenced and unsentenced prisoners. It is located on South River Street. The County is in the process of moving the County Police from the northern end of the city to a new site across from the Jail. The former site will be redeveloped as a "transit village" complex associated with the New Bridge Landing rail station in adjoining River Edge.[169]

The city's Johnson Public Library at 274 Main Street is a member of the Bergen County Cooperative Library System. The library opened in 1901 using a gift from State Senator William M. Johnson.[170]

Ice House is a complex with four full-sized skating rink that opened in 1996, which is home to the New Jersey Avalanche mainstreamed and special needs hockey teams and several high school hockey teams, in addition to being the home rink of gold medalists Sarah Hughes, Elena Bereznaia and Anton Sikharulidze.[171]

Other points of interest within the city include the Hackensack University Medical Center, Hackensack River County Park, Bowler City Bowling Lanes, Borg's Woods Nature Preserve and the Bergen County Court House and the Bergen Museum of Art & Science.

Radio station WNYM at 970 AM, is licensed to Hackensack and has its transmitter in the city. The station is currently owned by Salem Communications with a Conservative Talk format.[172] During the 1970s, it played a Top 40 music radio format for several years, competing (unsuccessfully) with Top 40 powerhouse 77 WABC (AM).

Hackensack has been mentioned in the lyrics of songs by several musical artists, many of whom have lived in New Jersey or New York City. The town was home to the original Van Gelder recording studio at 25 Prospect Avenue[173] where the jazz musicians Sonny Rollins and Thelonious Monk recorded some of their landmark work. Monk recorded a tribute to Rudy Van Gelder entitled "Hackensack". Other notable examples of Hackensack in songs include:

Hackensack also appears in movies, books and television.

People who were born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with Hackensack include:

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History of biotechnology – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Biotechnology is the application of scientific and engineering principles to the processing of materials by biological agents to provide goods and services.[1] From its inception, biotechnology has maintained a close relationship with society. Although now most often associated with the development of drugs, historically biotechnology has been principally associated with food, addressing such issues as malnutrition and famine. The history of biotechnology begins with zymotechnology, which commenced with a focus on brewing techniques for beer. By World War I, however, zymotechnology would expand to tackle larger industrial issues, and the potential of industrial fermentation gave rise to biotechnology. However, both the single-cell protein and gasohol projects failed to progress due to varying issues including public resistance, a changing economic scene, and shifts in political power.

Yet the formation of a new field, genetic engineering, would soon bring biotechnology to the forefront of science in society, and the intimate relationship between the scientific community, the public, and the government would ensue. These debates gained exposure in 1975 at the Asilomar Conference, where Joshua Lederberg was the most outspoken supporter for this emerging field in biotechnology. By as early as 1978, with the synthesis of synthetic human insulin, Lederberg's claims would prove valid, and the biotechnology industry grew rapidly. Each new scientific advance became a media event designed to capture public support, and by the 1980s, biotechnology grew into a promising real industry. In 1988, only five proteins from genetically engineered cells had been approved as drugs by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but this number would skyrocket to over 125 by the end of the 1990s.

The field of genetic engineering remains a heated topic of discussion in today's society with the advent of gene therapy, stem cell research, cloning, and genetically modified food. While it seems only natural nowadays to link pharmaceutical drugs as solutions to health and societal problems, this relationship of biotechnology serving social needs began centuries ago.

Biotechnology arose from the field of zymotechnology or zymurgy, which began as a search for a better understanding of industrial fermentation, particularly beer. Beer was an important industrial, and not just social, commodity. In late 19th century Germany, brewing contributed as much to the gross national product as steel, and taxes on alcohol proved to be significant sources of revenue to the government.[2] In the 1860s, institutes and remunerative consultancies were dedicated to the technology of brewing. The most famous was the private Carlsberg Institute, founded in 1875, which employed Emil Christian Hansen, who pioneered the pure yeast process for the reliable production of consistent beer. Less well known were private consultancies that advised the brewing industry. One of these, the Zymotechnic Institute, was established in Chicago by the German-born chemist John Ewald Siebel.

The heyday and expansion of zymotechnology came in World War I in response to industrial needs to support the war. Max Delbrck grew yeast on an immense scale during the war to meet 60 percent of Germany's animal feed needs.[3] Compounds of another fermentation product, lactic acid, made up for a lack of hydraulic fluid, glycerol. On the Allied side the Russian chemist Chaim Weizmann used starch to eliminate Britain's shortage of acetone, a key raw material in explosives, by fermenting maize to acetone. The industrial potential of fermentation was outgrowing its traditional home in brewing, and "zymotechnology" soon gave way to "biotechnology."

With food shortages spreading and resources fading, some dreamed of a new industrial solution. The Hungarian Kroly Ereky coined the word "biotechnology" in Hungary during 1919 to describe a technology based on converting raw materials into a more useful product. He built a slaughterhouse for a thousand pigs and also a fattening farm with space for 50,000 pigs, raising over 100,000 pigs a year. The enterprise was enormous, becoming one of the largest and most profitable meat and fat operations in the world. In a book entitled Biotechnologie, Ereky further developed a theme that would be reiterated through the 20th century: biotechnology could provide solutions to societal crises, such as food and energy shortages. For Ereky, the term "biotechnologie" indicated the process by which raw materials could be biologically upgraded into socially useful products.[4]

This catchword spread quickly after the First World War, as "biotechnology" entered German dictionaries and was taken up abroad by business-hungry private consultancies as far away as the United States. In Chicago, for example, the coming of prohibition at the end of World War I encouraged biological industries to create opportunities for new fermentation products, in particular a market for nonalcoholic drinks. Emil Siebel, the son of the founder of the Zymotechnic Institute, broke away from his father's company to establish his own called the "Bureau of Biotechnology," which specifically offered expertise in fermented nonalcoholic drinks.[5]

The belief that the needs of an industrial society could be met by fermenting agricultural waste was an important ingredient of the "chemurgic movement."[6] Fermentation-based processes generated products of ever-growing utility. In the 1940s, penicillin was the most dramatic. While it was discovered in England, it was produced industrially in the U.S. using a deep fermentation process originally developed in Peoria, Illinois. The enormous profits and the public expectations penicillin engendered caused a radical shift in the standing of the pharmaceutical industry. Doctors used the phrase "miracle drug", and the historian of its wartime use, David Adams, has suggested that to the public penicillin represented the perfect health that went together with the car and the dream house of wartime American advertising.[7] In the 1950s, steroids were synthesized using fermentation technology. In particular, cortisone promised the same revolutionary ability to change medicine as penicillin had.

Even greater expectations of biotechnology were raised during the 1960s by a process that grew single-cell protein. When the so-called protein gap threatened world hunger, producing food locally by growing it from waste seemed to offer a solution. It was the possibilities of growing microorganisms on oil that captured the imagination of scientists, policy makers, and commerce.[8] Major companies such as British Petroleum (BP) staked their futures on it. In 1962, BP built a pilot plant at Cap de Lavera in Southern France to publicize its product, Toprina.[9] Initial research work at Lavera was done by Alfred Champagnat,[10] In 1963, construction started on BP's second pilot plant at Grangemouth Oil Refinery in Britain.[10]

As there was no well-accepted term to describe the new foods, in 1966 the term "single-cell protein" (SCP) was coined at MIT to provide an acceptable and exciting new title, avoiding the unpleasant connotations of microbial or bacterial.[9]

The "food from oil" idea became quite popular by the 1970s, when facilities for growing yeast fed by n-paraffins were built in a number of countries. The Soviets were particularly enthusiastic, opening large "BVK" (belkovo-vitaminny kontsentrat, i.e., "protein-vitamin concentrate") plants next to their oil refineries in Kstovo (1973) [11][12][13] and Kirishi (1974).[14]

By the late 1970s, however, the cultural climate had completely changed, as the growth in SCP interest had taken place against a shifting economic and cultural scene (136). First, the price of oil rose catastrophically in 1974, so that its cost per barrel was five times greater than it had been two years earlier. Second, despite continuing hunger around the world, anticipated demand also began to shift from humans to animals. The program had begun with the vision of growing food for Third World people, yet the product was instead launched as an animal food for the developed world. The rapidly rising demand for animal feed made that market appear economically more attractive. The ultimate downfall of the SCP project, however, came from public resistance.[15]

This was particularly vocal in Japan, where production came closest to fruition. For all their enthusiasm for innovation and traditional interest in microbiologically produced foods, the Japanese were the first to ban the production of single-cell proteins. The Japanese ultimately were unable to separate the idea of their new "natural" foods from the far from natural connotation of oil.[15] These arguments were made against a background of suspicion of heavy industry in which anxiety over minute traces of petroleum was expressed. Thus, public resistance to an unnatural product led to the end of the SCP project as an attempt to solve world hunger.

Also, in 1989 in the USSR, the public environmental concerns made the government decide to close down (or convert to different technologies) all 8 paraffin-fed-yeast plants that the Soviet Ministry of Microbiological Industry had by that time.[14]

In the late 1970s, biotechnology offered another possible solution to a societal crisis. The escalation in the price of oil in 1974 increased the cost of the Western world's energy tenfold.[16] In response, the U.S. government promoted the production of gasohol, gasoline with 10 percent alcohol added, as an answer to the energy crisis.[7] In 1979, when the Soviet Union sent troops to Afghanistan, the Carter administration cut off its supplies to agricultural produce in retaliation, creating a surplus of agriculture in the U.S. As a result, fermenting the agricultural surpluses to synthesize fuel seemed to be an economical solution to the shortage of oil threatened by the Iran-Iraq war. Before the new direction could be taken, however, the political wind changed again: the Reagan administration came to power in January 1981 and, with the declining oil prices of the 1980s, ended support for the gasohol industry before it was born.[17]

Biotechnology seemed to be the solution for major social problems, including world hunger and energy crises. In the 1960s, radical measures would be needed to meet world starvation, and biotechnology seemed to provide an answer. However, the solutions proved to be too expensive and socially unacceptable, and solving world hunger through SCP food was dismissed. In the 1970s, the food crisis was succeeded by the energy crisis, and here too, biotechnology seemed to provide an answer. But once again, costs proved prohibitive as oil prices slumped in the 1980s. Thus, in practice, the implications of biotechnology were not fully realized in these situations. But this would soon change with the rise of genetic engineering.

The origins of biotechnology culminated with the birth of genetic engineering. There were two key events that have come to be seen as scientific breakthroughs beginning the era that would unite genetics with biotechnology. One was the 1953 discovery of the structure of DNA, by Watson and Crick, and the other was the 1973 discovery by Cohen and Boyer of a recombinant DNA technique by which a section of DNA was cut from the plasmid of an E. coli bacterium and transferred into the DNA of another.[18] This approach could, in principle, enable bacteria to adopt the genes and produce proteins of other organisms, including humans. Popularly referred to as "genetic engineering," it came to be defined as the basis of new biotechnology.

Genetic engineering proved to be a topic that thrust biotechnology into the public scene, and the interaction between scientists, politicians, and the public defined the work that was accomplished in this area. Technical developments during this time were revolutionary and at times frightening. In December 1967, the first heart transplant by Christian Barnard reminded the public that the physical identity of a person was becoming increasingly problematic. While poetic imagination had always seen the heart at the center of the soul, now there was the prospect of individuals being defined by other people's hearts.[19] During the same month, Arthur Kornberg announced that he had managed to biochemically replicate a viral gene. "Life had been synthesized," said the head of the National Institutes of Health.[19] Genetic engineering was now on the scientific agenda, as it was becoming possible to identify genetic characteristics with diseases such as beta thalassemia and sickle-cell anemia.

Responses to scientific achievements were colored by cultural skepticism. Scientists and their expertise were looked upon with suspicion. In 1968, an immensely popular work, The Biological Time Bomb, was written by the British journalist Gordon Rattray Taylor. The author's preface saw Kornberg's discovery of replicating a viral gene as a route to lethal doomsday bugs. The publisher's blurb for the book warned that within ten years, "You may marry a semi-artificial man or womanchoose your children's sextune out painchange your memoriesand live to be 150 if the scientific revolution doesnt destroy us first."[20] The book ended with a chapter called "The Future If Any." While it is rare for current science to be represented in the movies, in this period of "Star Trek", science fiction and science fact seemed to be converging. "Cloning" became a popular word in the media. Woody Allen satirized the cloning of a person from a nose in his 1973 movie Sleeper, and cloning Adolf Hitler from surviving cells was the theme of the 1976 novel by Ira Levin, The Boys from Brazil.[21]

In response to these public concerns, scientists, industry, and governments increasingly linked the power of recombinant DNA to the immensely practical functions that biotechnology promised. One of the key scientific figures that attempted to highlight the promising aspects of genetic engineering was Joshua Lederberg, a Stanford professor and Nobel laureate. While in the 1960s "genetic engineering" described eugenics and work involving the manipulation of the human genome, Lederberg stressed research that would involve microbes instead.[22] Lederberg emphasized the importance of focusing on curing living people. Lederberg's 1963 paper, "Biological Future of Man" suggested that, while molecular biology might one day make it possible to change the human genotype, "what we have overlooked is euphenics, the engineering of human development."[23] Lederberg constructed the word "euphenics" to emphasize changing the phenotype after conception rather than the genotype which would affect future generations.

With the discovery of recombinant DNA by Cohen and Boyer in 1973, the idea that genetic engineering would have major human and societal consequences was born. In July 1974, a group of eminent molecular biologists headed by Paul Berg wrote to Science suggesting that the consequences of this work were so potentially destructive that there should be a pause until its implications had been thought through.[24] This suggestion was explored at a meeting in February 1975 at California's Monterey Peninsula, forever immortalized by the location, Asilomar. Its historic outcome was an unprecedented call for a halt in research until it could be regulated in such a way that the public need not be anxious, and it led to a 16-month moratorium until National Institutes of Health (NIH) guidelines were established.

Joshua Lederberg was the leading exception in emphasizing, as he had for years, the potential benefits. At Asilomar, in an atmosphere favoring control and regulation, he circulated a paper countering the pessimism and fears of misuses with the benefits conferred by successful use. He described "an early chance for a technology of untold importance for diagnostic and therapeutic medicine: the ready production of an unlimited variety of human proteins. Analogous applications may be foreseen in fermentation process for cheaply manufacturing essential nutrients, and in the improvement of microbes for the production of antibiotics and of special industrial chemicals."[25] In June 1976, the 16-month moratorium on research expired with the Director's Advisory Committee (DAC) publication of the NIH guidelines of good practice. They defined the risks of certain kinds of experiments and the appropriate physical conditions for their pursuit, as well as a list of things too dangerous to perform at all. Moreover, modified organisms were not to be tested outside the confines of a laboratory or allowed into the environment.[18]

Atypical as Lederberg was at Asilomar, his optimistic vision of genetic engineering would soon lead to the development of the biotechnology industry. Over the next two years, as public concern over the dangers of recombinant DNA research grew, so too did interest in its technical and practical applications. Curing genetic diseases remained in the realms of science fiction, but it appeared that producing human simple proteins could be good business. Insulin, one of the smaller, best characterized and understood proteins, had been used in treating type 1 diabetes for a half century. It had been extracted from animals in a chemically slightly different form from the human product. Yet, if one could produce synthetic human insulin, one could meet an existing demand with a product whose approval would be relatively easy to obtain from regulators. In the period 1975 to 1977, synthetic "human" insulin represented the aspirations for new products that could be made with the new biotechnology. Microbial production of synthetic human insulin was finally announced in September 1978 and was produced by a startup company, Genentech.,[26] although that company did not commercialize the product themselves, instead, it licensed the production method to Eli Lilly and Company. 1978 also saw the first application for a patent on a gene, the gene which produces human growth hormone, by the University of California, thus introducing the legal principle that genes could be patented. Since that filing, almost 20% of the more than 20,000 genes in the human DNA have been patented.[27]

The radical shift in the connotation of "genetic engineering" from an emphasis on the inherited characteristics of people to the commercial production of proteins and therapeutic drugs was nurtured by Joshua Lederberg. His broad concerns since the 1960s had been stimulated by enthusiasm for science and its potential medical benefits. Countering calls for strict regulation, he expressed a vision of potential utility. Against a belief that new techniques would entail unmentionable and uncontrollable consequences for humanity and the environment, a growing consensus on the economic value of recombinant DNA emerged.

With ancestral roots in industrial microbiology that date back centuries, the new biotechnology industry grew rapidly beginning in the mid-1970s. Each new scientific advance became a media event designed to capture investment confidence and public support.[28] Although market expectations and social benefits of new products were frequently overstated, many people were prepared to see genetic engineering as the next great advance in technological progress. By the 1980s, biotechnology characterized a nascent real industry, providing titles for emerging trade organizations such as the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO).

The main focus of attention after insulin were the potential profit makers in the pharmaceutical industry: human growth hormone and what promised to be a miraculous cure for viral diseases, interferon. Cancer was a central target in the 1970s because increasingly the disease was linked to viruses.[29] By 1980, a new company, Biogen, had produced interferon through recombinant DNA. The emergence of interferon and the possibility of curing cancer raised money in the community for research and increased the enthusiasm of an otherwise uncertain and tentative society. Moreover, to the 1970s plight of cancer was added AIDS in the 1980s, offering an enormous potential market for a successful therapy, and more immediately, a market for diagnostic tests based on monoclonal antibodies.[30] By 1988, only five proteins from genetically engineered cells had been approved as drugs by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA): synthetic insulin, human growth hormone, hepatitis B vaccine, alpha-interferon, and tissue plasminogen activator (TPa), for lysis of blood clots. By the end of the 1990s, however, 125 more genetically engineered drugs would be approved.[30]

Genetic engineering also reached the agricultural front as well. There was tremendous progress since the market introduction of the genetically engineered Flavr Savr tomato in 1994.[31] Ernst and Young reported that in 1998, 30% of the U.S. soybean crop was expected to be from genetically engineered seeds. In 1998, about 30% of the US cotton and corn crops were also expected to be products of genetic engineering.[31]

Genetic engineering in biotechnology stimulated hopes for both therapeutic proteins, drugs and biological organisms themselves, such as seeds, pesticides, engineered yeasts, and modified human cells for treating genetic diseases. From the perspective of its commercial promoters, scientific breakthroughs, industrial commitment, and official support were finally coming together, and biotechnology became a normal part of business. No longer were the proponents for the economic and technological significance of biotechnology the iconoclasts.[32] Their message had finally become accepted and incorporated into the policies of governments and industry.

According to Burrill and Company, an industry investment bank, over $350 billion has been invested in biotech since the emergence of the industry, and global revenues rose from $23 billion in 2000 to more than $50 billion in 2005. The greatest growth has been in Latin America but all regions of the world have shown strong growth trends. By 2007 and into 2008, though, a downturn in the fortunes of biotech emerged, at least in the United Kingdom, as the result of declining investment in the face of failure of biotech pipelines to deliver and a consequent downturn in return on investment.[33]

There has been little innovation in the traditional pharmaceutical industry over the past decade and biopharmaceuticals are now achieving the fastest rates of growth against this background, particularly in breast cancer treatment. Biopharmaceuticals typically treat sub-sets of the total population with a disease whereas traditional drugs are developed to treat the population as a whole. However, one of the great difficulties with traditional drugs are the toxic side effects the incidence of which can be unpredictable in individual patients.

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History of biotechnology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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