|
|
| (12 intermediate revisions by 3 users not shown) |
| Line 1: |
Line 1: |
| − | == The iGem Journal. ==
| |
| | | | |
| − |
| |
| − | '''10th may 2010'''
| |
| − |
| |
| − | It all started with weird notions like spontaneous generation where people believed that living beings came into being spontaneously out of thin air. Better an idiotic start then no start at all! I once read in this book called “Between Eternities” that saying that life as it is now on earth happened just by chance without a designer/creator is like saying that ink was spilled on paper and beautiful poetry came out of nowhere when there was no ink and paper to begin with.
| |
| − |
| |
| − | And to look at the present scenario it is like “Whoa!!” Carrying out experiment after experiment to prove guesswork seems like one tedious and draining task. If one is not passionate enough it is better not to set sail in this ocean.At least I wouldn’t dare to.
| |
| − |
| |
| − | '''11th may 2010'''
| |
| − |
| |
| − | We now know that the basic building blocks of living matter are proteins which are organic compounds made of amino acids arranged in a liner chain and folded into a globular form.
| |
| − |
| |
| − | The studies started with the discovery of microorganisms when Robert Hooke invented the first microscope which detected these tiny organisms. Based on these studies Hooke published Micrographia which had amazing illustrations of these tiny creatures. Brilliant artwork.
| |
| − | Then there was Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek who was the first person to observe and study single celled organisms. He studied sperm cells and according to him there were tiny human beings inside sperms which grow up to be a full sized human being. Quite a male chauvinistic pig, I must say.
| |
| − |
| |
| − | '''13th may 2010'''
| |
| − |
| |
| − | Charles Darwin held deep interest in living beings and went on to study them in their natural habitats to find out where all of us have come from. This led to the theory of evolution”. But he never found out whether the chicken came first or the egg.
| |
| − |
| |
| − | Meanwhile Gregor Mendel started his experiments with pea plants to see how characteristics are transferred from one generation to the next. He found out that there were some dominant characteristics and some recessive. And these were carried by genes from generation to generation transferring characteristics while in the process never changing their form. It must be strange for people in those times to even think about comparing themselves with peas, let alone accepting the fact that certain processes in the human body are similar to pea plants like gene transfer.
| |
