On Genetics...

Ever wondered why on earth are we studying genetics when news are aplenty that we get no jobs when we graduate? Weekly practicals, tutorials and lab reports definitely aren't something worth looking forward or to be proud of. In fact, they drain the life out of us. Ask most bioscience students how they spent their weekends, the reply would be rather idiotic to guess: "I was rushing my report". Why didn't we opt for a change in course, like changing to major in engineering, business or even arts? Think for many, they would say, a science degree is the safest to obtain. But looking deeper, have you realised that genetics have in fact become part of us, or to a greater extent, already in us?

When was the last time you saw a short person and you attribute it to genes. This may seem like a touchy topic, but the texture of skin, pimples, sebaceous secretions....did you attribute them to genes too? Look at a plant, in place of green leaves it has purple...genes? Fat, slim, medium...aren't all these attributed to genes too? Even the degree of intellegience, blood type, or the way people act. In a word: Genes!

For people who have no biological or genetics background, genes are IN us! In secondary school science, we study about cells as the basic unit of life. In fact, in a cell, genes bring about all these processes carried out by cells. Genes are all around us, anything that is alive has genes. Viruses, bacteria, insects...all contains this miraculous thing called genes. Since the market for genes is never ending and ever so wide, when will humans be satisfied with their current knowledge?How can we bioscience graduates ever run out of job if man continue to seek more knowledge about the world we live in?

The following are some examples, some photos in fact with relation to genetics. I would never have realised genes played an important role until I studied them. If I knew nothing about genetics.....

This will just be a shark with webbed feet...it'll end up on the table somehow

This will just be a white bird amongst other black birds....

But since I learnt something, the shark may have inherited some gene mutation or simply it might be an "un-evolved" shark. Remember people, the theory was there was fish, then they crawled onto land, grew legs and became land creatures. "Mal-evolution" perhaps?

The bird...the normal colour is black but it's white. So I suppose white feathers are recessive alleles and this particular bird gets 2 of this recessive genes? What next? We can calculate the probability of this occurence...but..that's for another day. Just want to tell you people, or bring to your realisation the importance of genetics around us. Genetics is not useless!! Till then...