9781422280751

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED why you have blue eyes like your mother or why your sister’s hair is curly like your uncle’s? Many of our features are determined by genes —the parts of a cell that control the characteristics of a living thing—which we inherit from our parents and even grandparents. To put it simply, genes are bits of chemicals that are like instructions. They tell a living thing how to grow, survive, and carry out its life processes. Scientists are learning more and more about genetics, and with their growing knowledge comes the ability to change, or “engineer” genes to produce specific features— not only in people but in other species too. We can now work directly with genes, adding, chapte r INTRODUCTION TO GENETICS

removing, and modifying them to make the types of plants and animals we want. This is called genetic engineering or genetic modification. We can “cut and paste” genes within a single species or even between species—taking a gene from a fish and puing it into a plant cell, for example. In this book, we will look at how people are working with genetic information and think about some of the difficult but critical questions this science raises. There may be no “right” answers in many cases, but they are issues we must all consider if we are to play an effective role as citizens in the future of genetics. This book will not tell you what to think. It will give you some scientific background and present many different views and questions to consider. Then you can think about and discuss the issues, forming your own opinions which you will be able to explain and defend.

Many of your physical features are inherited—that’s why you share characteristics with other members of your birth family.

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