Transgenic animals

A transgenic animal is one that carries a foreign gene that has been deliberately inserted into its genome. The foreign gene is constructed using recombinant DNA methodology. In addition to the gene itself, the DNA usually includes other sequences to enable it

• to be incorporated into the DNA of the host and
• to be expressed correctly by the cells of the host.

• Transgenic sheep and goats have been produced that express foreign proteins in their milk.
• Transgenic chickens are now able to synthesize human proteins in the "white" of their eggs.


These animals should eventually prove to be valuable sources of proteins for human therapy.

Read more about transgenic animals here. 

Human body. Human health

1. Our body is a physical housing for our life on earth, home for our organs, systems, mind, consciousness (сознание), emotions and soul. Our skeletal system of bones and joints, connects to a muscular system, then to a nervous system, a circulatory system, a lymphatic system, a respiratory system, an endocrine system, a digestive system, a urinary system and a reproductive system.

2. The human body is an amazing machine. The brain is the organ that makes us human, giving people the capacity for art, language, moral judgments, and rational thought. It's also responsible for each individual's personality, memories, movements, and how we sense the world. The heart is the body's engine room, responsible for pumping blood via a 97,000-kilometer-long network of vessels. Our lungs fuel us with oxygen, the body's life-sustaining gas. The digestive system is the series of tubelike organs that convert our meals into body fuel. In all there's about 9 meters of these pipeworks (трубопровод), starting with the mouth and ending with the anus. Body organs aren't all internal like the brain or the heart. There's one we wear on the outside. Skin is our largest organ—adults carry some 3.6 kilograms and 2 square meters of it.

3. From the physical and social well-being of an individual to the functioning of an ecosystem, health has many different meanings and applications (употреблений). More than just the absence of disease, health implies a state of well-being. Ever since the origin of life, physical, chemical and biological factors have impacted the health or biological status of living things. And in response life has evolved immune systems, detoxification systems and redundancies to stave off infection, disease, and toxicity.

4. As the world ‘health’ becomes more interconnected, and industrialized, diseases never seen in one part of the globe now threaten to devastate (опустошать) human, wildlife and plant populations, while industrial chemicals now contaminate life in the most remote regions. Maintaining health, whether ecosystem, human or microbial arguably presents one of the greatest challenges of the day.

Man as a living being

1. Man’s nature is different from all other life forms, including animals. This distinction is of great importance for two reasons. First, without this distinction, government can treat humans as though animals. Second, because man does not see, or understand the difference, he can see no escape from the tyranny he suffers.

That is why the ongoing debate about the ethic of cloning is a controversial one.

2. Twins are clones – two organisms that share the same genetic material – but not all clones are twins. If the cloned organisms are born at the same time, then they’re twins.There is no known technology that can create an instant copy of a living organism. Experiments are intergenerational (относящийся к разным поколениям), meaning the clone will be younger than the original.

3. Despite (вопреки) several high-profile claims (заявление) in the past, there is no scientific evidence that anyone has successfully delivered an artificially cloned human being. Researchers can apply for a licence to clone human embryos for stem cell research. It is illegal, however, for any of those embryos to be implanted into a surrogate mother. Human-animal hybrids – In 2008, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority approved research into ‘cytoplasmic’ hybrids, the transfer of human genetic material into a cow egg cell.

4. The man is fundamentally different from all other life forms by genus, yet within that family, is a precious and unique individual, is of fundamental importance to understanding ethics, morality, human rights, politics, the law and justice. It begs we fully understand that each individual’s relationship to others, in societal terms, not only must begin with study of the individual, it must also conclude with that satisfaction, because without individuals there is no societal aggregation. 

Should we eat bugs?

Do you know what Entomophagyis?
Entomophagy is the practice of eating insects - including arachnids (tarantulas) and myriapods (centipedes).

The word “entomophagy” derives from the Greek term éntomos, or éntomon, meaning, “insect(ed),” literally meaning “cut in two,” referring to an insect’s segmented body, and phăgein, “to eat.” Combined, the two terms mean, “insect eating.”

As a point of information the word itself is a rather new term. There’s no record of its coinage in the Oxford English Dictionary and its first usage to denote a human behavior may well be as recent as the 1950s.

There are no words equivalent to ‘entomophagy’ in the languages of the many ethnic groups that practice insect consumption, simply because these peoples never distinguished between insects and other varieties of food.

Why eat bugs?

Insects have served as a nutritional, tasty and safe food source for people for tens of thousands of years, all over the planet. Today insect eating is rare in the developed world, but eating insects is a common practice in over 13 countries. Insects remain a popular food in many developing regions of Central and South America, Africa, Australia and Asia. It’s only a matter of time till Eurocentric based cultures, like the United States, Canada and Europe catch on. Read more here.

Emma Bryce, one of Ted-Ed member created an interesting video lesson about the topic, click to watch: ed.ted.com