Blog #14: Life: The Book

1. I plan on writing my article on the "adulthood" stage of life for my article because of my personal connection and curiosity to the fatal disease ALS (or Lou Gehrig's disease). The genetic connection I plan on presenting and learning about in my article is if ALS is genetic or not and the information behind this hypothesis.

2. One relevant government agency is the National Institute of Health. This government agency is relevant to ALS because a branch of them has recently taken an interest in the research and development of the cure for ALS.

Some current news on my topic is actually what I will be writing about possibility explains the genetics behind how ALS is (or most likely is) passed down from one generation to the next. Researchers have found that since when a child is conceived they receive one chromosome from their mom and one chromosome from their dad, someone who has ALS would have one gene with a mutation and one without a mutation. This means that a child of someone with ALS has a 50% chance to inherit the ALS gene mutation however this in no way means the child will have ALS.

Articles:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100825131441.htm

http://www.alsa.org/als/genetics.cfm

3. The Humanities aspect I would like to bring to this project would be about religion and its powers to keep a person going on their faith even through such a horrific disease like ALS after seeing my father go through the disease for five years has made me wonder at time how he kept going despite the definite result of death. Although he personally was not the most religious person, there must be many other people who are in fact religious and faith and trust in god is a primary factor in carrying them through difficult and torturous experiences or diseases. For example, Psalm 34:18 reads: "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." and this is what Karl, Walt, and Terry followed in order to come through their personal ordeals almost even better a person than before. This is what I would like to further research and look into for to humanities aspect of my article.

Articles:

http://www.cleveland.com/religion/index.ssf/2010/04/carrying_anothers_cross_can_ch.html

http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/2004_10_29_religion.htm

1. A second connection to biology that my article could have would be related to a different article that I found. The second article that I found was about how recent studies have found that in the immediate future, stem cells may be vehicles that can be sent to the damaged area and provide missing factors to help remaining cells survive. These stem cells could potentially be harvested from not only infants, but also adult have stem cells themselves that would be able to be used too.

2. One relevant government agency is the National Institute of Health. This government agency is relevant to ALS because a branch of them has recently taken an interest in the research and development of the cure for ALS.

Again some current news on my topic would be the news presented in the article I am referencing for this aspect of ALS genetic technology.

Articles:

http://www.alsa.org/research/article.cfm?id=715#adult

http://www.alsa.org/research/article.cfm?id=715#challenges

3. Again, religion can be tied into the humanities aspect of this topic as well because anything regarding the use of stem cell research and or usage is always bound to be in some way connected to religious views as well. The debate on the use of stem cells involves the religious view that, "if you think of doctrines like creation or even human sinfulness and the fall, it really encourages us to put the way we treat life against a bigger horizon and to be cautious about our own activity." (professor Lisa Sowle Cahill of Boston College).

Articles:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5454938/als_stem_cell_breakthroughs.html?cat=5

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week448/perspectives.html