7/30/2019 En - Benefits of Science - Mada's Point of View

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Task:

You have collected the headlines below as part of a class project on the way in which natural

processes are being modified as a result of advances in science. For the project, your tutor

has also asked you to write an essay about either the advantages or disadvantages of such

modifications.

Advances in science better life or slow death?

In the last ten years, science has begun to develop at a rate never seen before. As the

time passes, new discoveries are being made in all domains, discoveries that are expected to

improve our lives. But not always the effects are the ones that are supposed to be. The fact

that the new technologies are at their incipient stage raises a question mark on how much

good and how much bad results from them. The big genetic discoveries that tend to become a

symbol of the 21st century science development are not yet totally safe.

For example crop yields show dramatic increase as pests reduced. For obtaining those

results, scientists have developed a new kind of pesticides; more powerful ones that attack

only specific types of organisms and help the plant grow faster. The advantage is that the

production has increased providing more food and more profits for the producers. But those

products have a big disadvantage: after being used several years on the same surface, the

terrain needs to recover before being used again. The pesticides annihilate from the soil a

substance needed by pests to live. At the same time, annihilating this substance creates a big

gap in the chemical balance of the soil, making it impossible to be used until the substance is

being regenerated.

Another method to increase the production is by creating genetically modified plants.

The purpose of this research is creating stronger plants that can resist great changes in

temperature, that can face the lack of water and that can survive less fertile soils. Lets take

for example corn. Genetically modified corn loses less water and its accelerated metabolism

generates more nutrients. The main disadvantage of genetically modified corn is that the plantgenerates larger quantities of some substances. Those substances are harmless to people in

small quantities, but when the dose is increased, combined with other substances and factors

(such as weather conditions or humans sensibility to them) can lead to diseases.

The new discoveries made our lives longer. Transplants are now more accessible as

the new organs can be grown in laboratories. This discovery has a big advantage because

many diseases can be cured now by simply replacing the damaged organ. Of course, a lot of

tests are to be made before the artificial organ transplants to be perfectly safe. At this time, the

major problems scientist encountered are the early ageing of the artificially created organ and

the incompatibility with the new organism.

Nowadays even childrens physical and psychological profile can be decided by

parents before the conception to take place. This discovery has a main disadvantage becausewill affect human diversity. In a society where all people are adopting stereotype models, it is

likely that more then one children to have the same characteristics.

As long as we live science will continue to develop new technologies. We only have to

separate the good ones from the bad ones and not make any compromises.

Elev: Zamfir Mdlin

Clasa a XI-a CProf: Andronache Georgeta