Unit Biology 1: Section 11.3
How do we use/abuse medical and recreational drugs?
People cannot make sensible decisions about drugs unless they know their full effects.
- Scientists are developing new drugs. These need to be thoroughly tested.
- When new medical drugs are devised, they have to be extensively tested and trialled before being used. Drugs are tested in the laboratory to find if they are toxic. They are then trialled on human volunteers to discover any side effects.
- Thalidomide is a drug that was developed as a sleeping pill. It was also found to be effective in relieving morning sickness in pregnant women. However, it had not been tested for this use. Unfortunately, many babies born to mothers who took the drug were born with severe limb abnormalities. The drug was then banned, but more recently is being used successfully to treat leprosy.
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Unit Biology 3: Section 13.6
What other useful substances can we make using micro-organisms?
- To interpret economic and environmental data relating to production of fuels by fermentation and their use
Their skills, knowledge and understanding of how science works should be set in these substantive contexts;
- To evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of given designs of biogas generator
- Fuels can be made from natural products by fermentation. Biogas, mainly methane, can be produced by anaerobic fermentation of a wide range of plant products or waste material containing carbohydrates
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Unit Biology 1: Section 11.6
Why are individuals of the same species different from each other? What new methods do we have for producing plants and animals with the characteristics we prefer?
Scientists can now add, remove or change genes to produce the plants and animals they want
- to interpret information about cloning techniques and genetic engineering techniques
- to make informed judgements about the economic, social and ethical issues concerning cloning and genetic engineering, including GM crops
- Modern cloning techniques include:
- Tissue culture using small groups of cells from part of a plant
- Embryo transplants splitting apart cells from a developing animal embryo before they become specialised, then transplanting the identical embryos into host mothers
- Fusion cell and adult cell cloning.
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Unit Biology 2: Section 12.8
Each person (apart from identical twins) has unique DNA. This can be used to identify individuals in process known as DNA fingerprinting
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Unit Biology 1: Section 11.3
How do we use/abuse medical and recreational drugs?
People cannot make sensible decisions about drugs unless they know their full effects.
- Scientists are developing new drugs. These need to be thoroughly tested.
- When new medical drugs are devised, they have to be extensively tested and trialled before being used. Drugs are tested in the laboratory to find if they are toxic. They are then trialled on human volunteers to discover any side effects.
- Thalidomide is a drug that was developed as a sleeping pill. It was also found to be effective in relieving morning sickness in pregnant women. However, it had not been tested for this use. Unfortunately, many babies born to mothers who took the drug were born with severe limb abnormalities. The drug was then banned, but more recently is being used successfully to treat leprosy.
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Unit Biology 2: Section 12.8
Some disorders are inherited:
- Huntington’s disease; a disorder of the nervous system is caused by a dominant allele of a gene and can therefore be passed on by only one parent who has the disorder
- Cystic fibrosis; a disorder of cell membranes must be inherited from both parents. The parents may be carriers of the disorder without actually having the disorder themselves. It is caused by a recessive allele of a gene and can therefore be passed on by parents, neither of whom has the disorder. (Attention is drawn to the potential sensitivity needed in teaching about inherited disorders.
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Unit Biology 1: Section 11.6
Why are individuals of the same species different from each other? What new methods do we have for producing plants and animals with the characteristics we prefer?
Scientists can now add, remove or change genes to produce the plants and animals they want
- to interpret information about cloning techniques and genetic engineering techniques
-
- to make informed judgements about the economic, social and ethical issues concerning cloning and genetic engineering, including GM crops
Their skills, knowledge and understanding of how science works should be set in these substantive context;
- In genetic engineering, genes from the chromosome of humans and other organisms can be ‘cut out’ using enzymes and transferred to cells of other organism
Genes can be also transferred to cells of animals or plants at an early stage in their development so that they develop with desired characteristics
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Unit Biology 2: Section 12.8
- to make informed judgements about the economic, social and ethical issues concerning embryo screening that they have studied or from information that is presented to them
- Embryos can be screened for the alleles that cause these and other genetic disorders
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Unit Biology 2: Section 12.8
- to make informed judgements about the economic, social and ethical issues concerning embryo screening that they have studied or from information that is presented to them
- Embryos can be screened for the alleles that cause these and other genetic disorders’.
Some disorders are inherited:
- Huntington’s disease; a disorder of the nervous system is caused by a dominant allele of a gene and can therefore be passed on by only one parent who has the disorder
- Cystic fibrosis; a disorder of cell membranes must be inherited from both parents. The parents may be carriers of the disorder without actually having the disorder themselves. It is caused by a recessive allele of a gene and can therefore be passed on by parents, neither of whom has the disorder. (Attention is drawn to the potential sensitivity needed in teaching about inherited disorders.)
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Unit Biology 1: Section 11.6
Why are individuals of the same species different from each other? What new methods do we have for producing plants and animals with the characteristics we prefer?
Scientists can now add, remove or change genes to produce the plants and animals they want
- to interpret information about cloning techniques and genetic engineering techniques
- to make informed judgements about the economic, social and ethical issues concerning cloning and genetic engineering, including GM crops
top
Unit Biology 1: Section 11.6
Why are individuals of the same species different from each other? What new methods do we have for producing plants and animals with the characteristics we prefer?
- In genetic engineering, genes from the chromosome of humans and other organisms can be ‘cut out’ using enzymes and transferred to cells of other organism
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Unit Biology 1: Section 11.1
- to evaluate the benefits of, and the problems that may arise from, the use of hormones to control fertility, including IVF
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Unit Biology 2: Section 12.8
- to make informed judgements about the economic, social and ethical issues concerning embryo screening that they have studied or from information that is presented to them
- Embryos can be screened for the alleles that cause these and other genetic disorders’.
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Unit Biology 2: Section 12.8
to make informed judgements about the social and ethical issues concerning the use of stem cells from embryos in medical research and treatments
- Most types of animal cells differentiate at an early stage whereas many plant cells retain the ability to differentiate throughout life. In mature animals, cell division is mainly restricted to repair and replacement. Cells from human embryos and adult bone marrow, called stem cells, can be made to differentiate into many different types of cells e.g. nerve cells. Treatment with these cells may help conditions such as paralysis.
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Unit Biology 1: Section 11.6
Scientists can now add, remove or change genes to produce the plants and animals they want.
- To interpret information about cloning techniques and genetic engineering techniques
- To make informed judgements about the economic, social and ethical issues concerning cloning and genetic engineering, including GM crops
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Unit Biology 3: Section 13.4
How do exchanges in the kidney help us to maintain the internal environment in mammals and how has biology helped us to treat kidney disease?
- To evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of treating kidney failure by dialysis or kidney transplant
- People who suffer from kidney failure may be treated either by using a kidney dialysis machine or by having a healthy kidney transplanted
- A kidney transplant enables a diseased kidney to be replaced with a healthy one from a donor. However, the donor kidney may be rejected by the immune system unless precautions are taken
- To prevent rejection of the transplanted kidney:
- A donor kidney with a 'tissue-type' similar to that of the recipient is used
- The recipient is treated with drugs that suppress the immune system.
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Unit Biology 1: Section 11.4
What causes infectious disease and how can our bodies defend themselves against them?
- to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of being vaccinated against a particular disease
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