And the new knowledge and technologies are raising provocative questions. By Misty Edgecomb '99 S trand by strand, scientists are unraveling the double helix of DNA, slowly but steadily revealing the most fundamental knowlege about our genetic makeup. As a result, genetic engineering, the branch of modern biology that gives our society the potential to cure diseases or grow vegetables fortified with a drugstore's worth of vitamins and antibiotics, is changing the way we traditionally think about organisms and species. Provocative new issues are surfacing, and in the process, science is merging with philosophy. And at the University of Maine, this dynamic field is capturing researchers' imaginations.
Scientists identify the segment using specific enzymes and then remove it.
It could be DNA that codes for something undesirable, like Down's syndrome in humans, or the segment of DNA that produces something desirable, like additional Vitamin A in rice. Millions of copies of the DNA segment can be reproduced in test tubes in a matter of hours. Vayda goes on to explain that the selected genetic material can then be inserted into the cell of another organism. He notes that inserting the material is easy but knowing which genes will successfully receive the information is proving much more difficult. Brave New World Traditional breeding techniques, which cross related organisms thousands of times to produce an offspring with the exact combination of traits that is the most desirable, has been de rigeur for agronomists since Gregor Mendel planted his peas.