My Sister's Keeper is a 2004 novel written by Jodi Picoult. Set in Rhode Island, it tells the story of a 13-year-old girl named Anna Fitzgerald, a "savior sibling", who sues her parents so that they can no longer legally control her medical decisions once she learns she is expected to donate a kidney to her older sister Kate, who is dying from leukemia, cancer of the blood and bone marrow. It is written in first person, from the perspectives of several main characters. In 2008, the book was adapted into a movie.
Anna Fitzgerald's older sister, Kate, suffers from acute promyelocytic leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. When Anna's parents learn about Kate's diagnosis, they decide to conceive Anna through artificial selection and in vitro fertilization because nobody in the family is a genetic match to donate organs to Kate. Once Anna is born, her umbilical chord blood was used in treatments for Kate to save her life. Although the treatment was initially successful, Kate relapsed (became sick again). Since then, Anna had been used as a donor for any other bodily substance needed to treat Kate, who continues to swing between remission and relapse as she grows up.
Oracle
An oracle (in ancient Greek times) was a person who was seen as a messenger for the gods. The Oracle of Delphi was the most famous. Oracles would answer questions about the future, and would often speak in riddles. In Ancient Greece oracles lived in temples and people travelled many miles to visit them and seek their advice. The oracles were a part of Greek religion.
Ichthyornis
Ichthyornis (meaning "fish bird") was a tern-like bird which lived 93-83.5 million years ago in the Upper Cretaceous. It lived in flocks, nested on shorelines, and hunted for fish in the Western Interior Seaway, a huge inland sea in what is now North America.
"Ichthyornis" was about 8 inches (20 cm) long. It had a large head, toothed jaws, and a long beak. This powerful flyer is the oldest-known bird that had a keeled breastbone (sternum) similar to that of modern birds.
"Ichthyornis" was originally found in 1872 in Kansas by Benjamin Franklin Mudge, a professor from Kansas State Agricultural College. Othniel C. Marsh of Yale University described and named the first fossils. Fossils of the bird have been found in Kansas, Texas and Alberta.
Designer baby
The term designer baby is used sometimes, but its meaning is not clear or simple. It means something like "influencing the quality of a child which is not yet born". By this is meant not just health care. The idea is to change the nature, usually the genetics, of the child for the better. There are many technical, social, moral and legal issues connected to this idea. Society has scarcely begun to think about these issues. However, it is now certain that some of these ideas can, in principle, be done.
The following is a brief survey of what might be done. It is not a list of what should or will be done. Some elements are already happening in some parts of the world.
In some parts of the world there is a strong preference for male children. If that were widely gratified, it would probably have considerable unplanned effects on those societies. However, technically, it is simple to arrange so long as a good local health service is present.
The technique is as follows. A sample of the father's sperm is spun in a centrifuge. Sperms carrying an X-chromosome are heavier than sperm carrying a Y-chromosome. The male-causing sperm end up at the top of the plug of sperm in the test-tube. Sperm from the top of the tube are inserted into the mother. This greatly increases the chance of the mother conceiving a male child.
Another method is to conceive normally, but abort any foetus which is female. The sex of a baby is discovered by recovering cells from the sac covering the foetus. This procedure is standard, and is called amniocentesis.
Recent studies have discovered that amniotic fluid is a rich source of stem cells.
A benefit of getting amniotic stem cells is that risk to the foetus is low. These stem cells would also, if used to treat the same individual they came from, sidestep the donor/recipient issue which has so far stymied all attempts to use donor-derived stem cells in therapies.
Artificial heart valves, working tracheas, as well as muscle, fat, bone, heart, neural and liver cells have all been engineered through use of amniotic stem cells. Tissues got from amniotic cell lines show promise for patients suffering from congenital diseases/malformations of the heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, and cerebral tissue.
The first amniotic stem cells bank in the US is active in Boston, Massachusetts. The relevance of this is that a stock of stem cells creates the possibility of surgical corrections or replacements during the life of the individual.
The one area where there is, on balance, a consensus is the need to identify serious defects in a foetus before birth. This is now routine in many countries. The definition of "serious" would certainly include defects which make life of the foetus (if born) so defective that its life would be troubled and short. Some conditions, like triple-21 Down's syndrome, are often not that serious. In many cases, the parents' wishes decide whether or not an abortion will be carried out.
A complete sequence analysis of an individual's DNA is possible, and costs about $5,000 US dollars. It is not yet done routinely, but it is going to become widespread. If the genetics of both parents is well understood, the possibilities for the foetus are well defined. Already, counselling is given to parents who have already had a defective baby. DNA analysis would allow problems to be spotted in advance.
Already, from the cells recovered by amniotic contuses, chromosome defects like triple-21 can be seen under the microscope. DNA analysis takes this a step further. The only limitation to the analysis is our ability to understand the function of the various genes. Our understanding is limited at present, but we do understand in great detail the causes of "some" important genetic defects.
Until recently, the only practical action was to offer abortion to the mother. This is a legal alternative in some countries. However, the coming of genetic engineering offers the potential for actually fixing the defects in the genes of a foetus.
Ways are being developed to change the genetic make-up of a living being. Several Nobel prizes have been awarded in the last ten or so years research related to this idea. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for:
Heron
Herons are wading birds in the "Ardeidae" family. There are 64 recognised species in this family. Some are called egrets or bitterns instead of herons.
In the family, all members of the genera "Botaurus" and "Ixobrychus" are called bitterns: they are a monophyletic group within the Ardeidae.
On the other hand, egrets are not a biologically distinct group. They are called egrets because they are mainly white and/or have decorative plumes. Although egrets have the same build as the larger herons, they tend to be smaller.
The classification of the individual heron/egret species is difficult, and there is no clear consensus about the placement of many species into either of the two major genera, "Ardea" and "Egretta".
Although herons look like birds in some other families, such as the storks, ibises and spoonbills, they differ from these in flying with their necks retracted, not outstretched. They are also one of the bird groups that have 'powder down'.
Some members of this group nest colonially in trees; others, notably the bitterns, use reedbeds.
Other examples:
Debbie Gibson