okay so in my Gen Chem 2 class for my lab my professor want\'s the class to crit

Question

okay so in my Gen Chem 2 class for my lab my professor want's the class to critique an academic journal that someone wrote and is posted either on science journals, concerning anything that has to do with science (not limited to anything) and i can't think of anysubject to read about/write about.... for example my friend is going to reaserch Evolution since that is what she is learning in her biology 2 class ...so i was wondering if you could please help me come up with a topics to reserch about that i would be able to find in the General Science Collection journals and write a brief summary (just so i know what your talking about) about it if you would be so kind. any help will be greatly appreciated :D

Explanation / Answer

Wow! 'Anything to do with science' - that's a pretty broad choiceof subject matter! My suggestion would be to look up some of theNobel Prize discoveries, as these works are groundbreaking and highimpact. For example, if you're into biology, you might want to lookat the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which was the discovery ofGreen Fluorescent Protein (GFP). This is a protein discovered injellyfish that has allowed researchers to visualise cellularcomponents, develop new assay techniques and do a lot of other coolstuff. For example, by engineering the amino acid sequence thatencodes GFP onto the end of a protein of interest, scientists canstudy where a protein is used in the cell, where it gets made, whatinteractions it participates to - basically its lifecycle. This isobviously advantageous in furthering our knowlege of what proteinsshould do, and what they do differently in a diseased state. Sincethe discovery of GFP, other fluorescent proteins have also beenmade - e.g. yellow (YFP) - which has allowed visulisation of twoproteins at once. The complications of this type of technique arealso many. For example, by engineering a fluorescent 'tag' onto theend of the protein, are you changing the way it folds? This mightmake it non-functional or might change its function, causingincorrect conclusions to be made. A little more research on thissubject will probably give you more information. OK. So that summary was not so brief. Sorry =P Other topics that might be interesting:      The Human Genome Project - The humangenome project was essentially completed some time ago now, in2003. This is an invaluable tool for geneticists and otherresearchers. You might like to consider the ethical considerations(use / abuse of the databse), what it might be used for in thefuture, etc. Look over a few papers - do you think the informationhas been as useful or is as widely used as it was made out to be?Was it a waste of money? etc...     Global warming / Climate change. Yeah. Tonnes ofinfo on this. VERY topical at the moment.     Are you into physics? Maybe you could dosomething on fibre optics / lasers and how these have changedtechnology.     Genetically modified food - Is it worth theexpense? Is it worth the risk of long-term side effects that areyet to be discovered? You might even incorporate something aboutthe obesity crisis and how GM food could impact this.     Renewable energy - what technology do you thinkwill be the one to dominate? Fossil fuels (fast running out!)?Nuclear power? Solar (expensive)? Wind? Hydro? You could link thiswith the global warming/climate change debate too, if youwanted.     The space race - No one really knows what's outthere, do they? Does it matter what's beyond our own back-yard,considering the HUGE costs associated with launching space probes?Will Man eventually settle on the moon or Mars? Do you agree withthe new 'Pluto is not a planet' statement? Does it really matter? Iwould advise on staying away from aliens and otherworldly life,though - that's probably a little too much science fiction =P Anyway, hope some of this is useful to you. If none of it grabsyou, I strongly recommend checking out either the Nobel Prizewebsite or any of the Nature Journal articles. Go with whatinterests you and you'll find it easy to write about.

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