I do natural sciences, and this is a compulsory module in the third year. At first I was a bit confused why I had to do this module, since it doesn’t have a lot to do with what I usually study. In fact, up until a couple of months ago I thought the compulsory module would be ‘Life in the Cosmos’ which I was really excited to do. However, after attending the introductionary lecture, I am beginning to appreciate that this module will draw from a variety of disciplines and will give me insights into other subjects. I am particularly interested in the ethics lectures since this is not something that I have studied before.
In Natural Sciences I am free to choose modules from a variety of courses- for me that’s mainly biology and marine biology. Right now I am doing a project looking at the protein prophenoloxidase in crustaceans, which is part of their immune system.
One type of replacement body part that I have seen in practice is lens replacement surgery which my mum had a few years ago to treat cataracts. It was really cool to watch how someone who had relied heavily on glasses and contact lenses for over forty years suddenly be able to have the freedom to be able to see clearly without anything. Even something as simple as washing her face without having to worry about getting her contact lens wet has made a huge difference to her life.
My name is Yifan, and the course I take is Business Management. There are two main reason for my choice of this module. First, limb prosthetic interests me the most from all the biology aspects of the module. Mainly deriving from the fictional works of all types I was exposed to. Moreover, thinking of the benefits of a limb prosthetic that is able to mimic the full functions of a real limb is beyond my imagination. The type of pain of a person’s daily life brought by accidents or genetic issues is imaginable. So if a seamless technology become available to offer to those in need, it would bring the world a ton more joy. Secondly, the ethical theory application to the module interested me as well. This is mainly because of the ethics module undertaken last semester. It would be interesting to make that connection and see how different theories debate with each other when applied to different situations. For example, if I am correct about the main content of the ethical part of this module, which is about consent, this can be applied to many ethical theories such as Kantian’s and JS Mill’s. Also, it would be interesting to see how some of the practices can be justified or condemned based on deontology and utilitarianism views.
dont rlly know what to write…anyways I’m so tired right now. Karaoke was fun last night WOOOOO!
why did i pick this module? probs coz its 40% exam lol (sike it actually sounds cool)
my hobbies are gaming, art, dance (street dance) and volleyball. basically any sport sounds fun i guess. LOVE mgmt and their music…low-key getting into nirvana at the moment.
i am writing this hungover how am i supposed to live laugh love in these conditions
cafe parfait is kinda mid ngl
anyway, this module seemed interesting, which is why i picked it! i do biomed and this seemed like a really interesting extension of the content i’m currently learning
did you guys know there’s a protein named after sonic the hedgehog? that’s pretty cool
the sonic hedgehog protein is a signalling molecule that helps regulate embryonic morphogenesis in all animals
a bit about me: i like tennis, reading and music, mostly indie. i’m currently trying to listen to all of radiohead’s discography in chronological order; i’m up to a moon shaped pool
cheese.
i’m realising this post is just non sequitur after non sequitur i’m sorry lmao
Targeted drug delivery has always been a keen interest of mine. Having seen first hand the effect of chemicals such as chemotherapy drug being delivered to the whole body rather than just the tumour, I am excited by the possibility of being able to prevent these drugs from affecting healthy tissue. Microbubbles have been used widely in targeted drug delivery and contrast imaging. However, their relative instability is a key disadvantage. Enter the nanodroplet: a particle of diameter ~200nm with a perfluorocarbon core and phospholipid shell. The smaller size allows them to be more stable and less likely to be removed by the immune system.
Structure of a nanodroplet
It has been shown that the superheated stability of nanodroplets enables them to undergo acoustic droplet vaporisation (ADV) to become a microbubble. ADV occurs due to an applied ultrasonic sound wave. Sound waves occur due to changes in pressure in the surrounding media. Areas of increased pressure occur as a result of the particles being compressed together. Areas of decreased pressure occur due to the particles spreading further apart in a phenomenon known as rarefaction. Rarefaction results in a decrease in pressure in the nanodroplet. If the pressure drop is enough then the required vaporisation temperature will reduce to the surrounding temperature allowing the nanodroplet to vaporise into a microbubble of diameter roughly 2.5-3.5 times the diameter of the original nanodroplet. If the peak negative pressure is large enough, the resulting microbubble is able to undergo inertial cavitation where the microbubble diameter doubles then violently collapses due to the inertia of the surrounding fluid which increases delivery of gases dissolved in the encapsulated perfluorocarbon by either increasing “leakage” from the microbubble or increasing permeability though the endothelium.
Diagram demonstrating what is meant by rarefaction
Overall, I feel nanodroplets are a promising new technology in the field of targeted drug delivery. They have the unique ability to solve the challenges posed by current microbubble therapy without completely redesigning the wheel.
Following our lecture on stem cells and the ethics workshop, the topic of embryonic stem cells and surrounding ethics stood out to me. Being the product of IVF my embryonic stem cells were once in a position where they could have either been used for research or been implanted and allowed to develop into me! This has made me consider the possibility of not existing today.
This image represents the basic processes of IVF. Showing how female sex cells are obtained, fertilisation and transfer of the embryo.
IVF (In Vitro Fertilisation) is a technology, which assists women in becoming pregnant. The sex cells (sperm and egg) are collected from the donors, mixed in a test tube and are monitored for fertilisation.
From a fertilised egg cell division begins, the image below shows stages of division. The cells are transferred to the uterus at the blastocyst or cleavage stage. Hopefully implantation occurs resulting in pregnancy!
I am very grateful for IVF, without it I wouldn’t be here! It provides an opportunity for couples that could not conceive naturally to become parents. An argument against IVF is the expense of having the procedure through a private clinic. This can be £5,000 or more, which could change the perceptions of a child. I somewhat agree, the expense of conceiving a child could place more value on the accomplishments of the child, with the parents ‘getting value for money’. Contrary to this, can the expenses of IVF compete with the value of the life created? No one should be disallowed from conceiving due to the lack of money, I feel that this is a natural human right that cannot be denied. IVF is available on the NHS if certain criterion are met, making it more available to a wider range of people and also reducing the impact of commercialisation of the technology.
This image shows the stages of early embryonic development.
Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are a type of stem cells derived from early embryos from the IVF process. ESCs are transient in nature, the cells are pluripotent meaning they can be grown indefinitely and differentiate into all cell types. When these are obtained the embryo is destroyed. The image below shows the process of isolating ESCs.
Stages Required to Isolate Embryonic Stem Cells and grown new cell types.
Stem cells can be used in tissue engineering, developing biological substitutes that restore, maintain, or improve tissue function or a whole organ. Sheets of cultured skin can be used for skin grafts, bladder lining replacement and urethra reconstruction. Using stem cells means that skin doesn’t need to be removed from elsewhere on the patient. Using ESCs over adult cells has also been investigated, showing evidence of a reduced immune response.
ESCs can be used to help replace or replenish cell types. Parkinsons disease symptoms could be eased by the replacement of substantia nigra in the brain!
This video discusses the ethics of ESCs with a participant of IVF (my father) and myself.
Have you ever wondered how a computer program could write a blog post? Well, you’re reading one right now! This post was generated by a language model AI developed by OpenAI. The model was trained on a massive corpus of text and can generate human-like writing based on the prompt it receives.
AI Generated image
The advancement of AI in the field of natural language processing (NLP) has opened up new possibilities in writing and content creation. AI-generated content can be used to create articles, reports, and even books, freeing up time for human writers to focus on more creative tasks. AI can also be used to generate new ideas, research information, and even edit existing text.
However, it’s important to note that AI-generated writing is not perfect and still requires human editing and oversight. The language model is only as good as the data it was trained on and may produce content that is incorrect, repetitive, or lacks coherence. Nevertheless, AI-generated content has the potential to revolutionize the way we produce and consume information in the future.
In conclusion, the development of AI in writing and content creation is a testament to the advancements in technology and the possibilities that lie ahead. While it’s still in its early stages, the future of AI-generated content is promising, and it will be exciting to see how it continues to evolve and impact the writing industry.
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