Haley Conroy October 18th - Biotechnology

I  chose to do my blog post from today’s class on October 18th. Laura presented chapter 25 from the Ecology of Eden titled: the tree  of life. Laura provided a great explanation about the various themes and I want to highlight a few! This chapter explores a major theme: biotechnology, particularly in the farming realm. Prompting the questions: what are the issues & how we can find solutions? These types of questions seem to be a constant throughout Eisenberg’s analysis in the entirety of his book. A couple major ideas that stood out to me from the chapter include: monopolizing off of genetic defects and a ‘quick fix’ mindset of splicing genes. Overall, I certainly think this second aspect will not be beneficial in the long run and it will result in a back and forth between the virus and the scientist. Laura called what I  just explained a metaphor: the ping pong game. Then the next excerpt titled: adapted to a twig, explores genetic diversity and how it is necessary for the fighting off of mutating pests and changing conditions. Certainly there are necessary genes in plants that allow them to adapt/survive. That is just the basis of nature. However it is important to acknowledge that biotechnology does not increase genetic diversity. This was a very interesting and clear differentiation from this chapter. This represents the theme of how little effort can I put into something to maximize it to its full potential. Overall, Eisenberg's overall message in this chapter is that we're not taking enough time to learn about nature and how it works which i certainly agree with.

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