Word: molecular
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...tempest in a test tube, but it has mightily agitated the scientific community and is now being debated in Congress. The question at issue: Is it dangerous, and possibly sacrilegious, to tamper with the genetic codes that control life? This week's cover story explains how some molecular biologists have become genetic engineers, and it details the controversy that surrounds their experiments. The story aims at providing a thorough understanding of the issues involved in deciding if steps are needed to curb, or stop altogether, the work being done in creating genetic hybrids...
...author of the story is Associate Editor Frederic Golden, who has long followed with "fascination" the developments in molecular biology. He acknowledges that "there is a certain natural awe, fear and hostility that some people have toward scientists. And many scientists remain aloof. We hope this story will help to bridge the gap between the world inside the laboratory and the world outside...
...Molecular biology's wizards have managed to cross that obstacle in their work with bacteria. Unlike higher organisms, bacteria are single-celled creatures that usually reproduce not by sexual mating but by simply dividing. Thus their ability to acquire new and possibly advantageous genes would seem to be highly limited. But the tiny creatures have devised a cunning alternative. Besides their single, large, ringed chromosome (which is the repository of most of their genes), they possess much smaller closed loops of DNA, called plasmids-which consist of only a few genes. This extra bit of DNA-genetic small change...
Observing these bacterial tricks, molecular biologists began isolating various restriction enzymes. They had already discovered another type of bacterial enzyme, called a ligase (from the Latin word meaning to bind), which acted as a form of genetic glue that could reattach severed snatches of DNA. Using their new biochemical tools, the scientists embarked upon some remarkable experiments. As usual, they turned to their favorite guinea pig, a lab strain of E. coli, and soon they had learned to insert with exquisite precision new genetic material from other, widely differing organisms into the bacteria (see diagram...
...Newspapers, which had until then paid scant attention to the story of recombinant DNA, erupted with scare headlines, alarming the nation with exaggerated doomsday prophecies. Two months later, Ted Kennedy held his first hearings on the new genetics. Some scientists, joined by politicians, began questioning whether the molecular biologists should do their own policing. Said one: "This is probably the first time in history that the incendiaries formed their own fire brigade...