TED Talks: Viral Pandemics Nathan Wolfe

I never knew how or where HIV originated. In 1929 in Africa hunters contracted HIV. HIV was contracted by bush meat hunters. Primates are the most common type of bush meat and primate also have many viruses. Thus when you hunt an animal that has a deadly virus, you are likely to contract it. Nathan Wolfe traveled to Africa for ten years to catch viruses before they could be transferred to humans. When it comes to viruses humans are always reacting instead of preventing. If we could find a way to find and prevent viruses from spreading to humans then a lot of future lives could be saved.
There have been a lot of viruses that started out in animals then spread to humans. For example Rabies, Ebola, Yellow fever, Influenza, and HIV. If we would have found these viruses before they started spreading we could have saved a lot of lives. In my opinion this project should be a huge priority, viruses need to be given more attention because they are a big deal. Over all viruses should be caught and stopped.

Chimps' Fate Ignites Debate

"These animals have been used to an extensive degree," says John Gluck, an emeritus professor of psychology at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque."Is there a sense that we owe them something for that? I think we do."
I think we do too.
This article, Chimps' Fate Ignites Debate, talks about a group of chimps that are being called back into duty after an unofficial 10 year retirement. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has decided the chimps will be sent back into the lab by the end of 2011. I don't agree with this, I think the chimps should be able to stay at the sanctuary they are at and not have to go back to the labs. These chimps have been used already, they have served there time as our research pets and I think we do owe them something. I think that using animals for medical research is better than using humans, but this, this is cruel. These chimps have lived through a lot and deserve a peaceful life. The practice of using chimps for medical research was finally banned by the European Union, why haven't we banned it yet? They should find a better solution to finding vaccinations then using chimps. Over all I think that using animals for medical research is animal cruelty and should be stopped.

Cancer shouldn't be killed?

In Biology class we watched a video on this 19 year old girl talking about cancer. She talked about how our skeletol mucles don't get cancer very often or are even immune to it. She talked about how cancer should be manipulated not killed because it is a natural thing your body does to repair itself, it just gets out of control. This makes a lot of sense to me. It even seems like common sense now that she spelled it out. Though, was she the first one to start making connections like this? If so, medical doctors now seem a little bit more less intelegent to me. This is really interesting it could be the cure for cancer in the future. I never looked at cancer in this way before. It's not a virus or an invador, it's our bodies natural response to damage, so maybe killing it isn't the answer. Maybe we damage ourselves more by trying to kill it then if we tried to harness it. It's a really interesting idea and I enjoyed learning it in class.

Should Violent Felons Receive Organ Transplants?

"Now, I can imagine situations where denying basic medical care to a prisoner would indeed be cruel and unjust. We may not keep antibiotics or painkillers from prisoners and still call ourselves a compassionate, civilized society."

Watching someone die a slow death and doing nothing when something can be done is not compassionate, at all. However, there should be consequences to being a felon, they should not have the same rights as a contributing member of society. I'm torn on this issue because I feel every one has the same right to life but at the same time if my sister needed a liver and a convicted felon needed a liver then my sister should get the liver. She hasn't threatened the lives of innocent people, she's not in jail.

My name is Jenna a.k.a Sherpa and I am a student of Animas High School. I like chocolate and pizza rolls. This blog is a biology blog. I am going to be posting things pertaining to what I learn in my biology class. Please enjoy.