Deep Blue Sea Blog Post

Intro

Deep Blue Sea is a Sci-Fi film that attempts to answer the "age-old question"... what if sharks were smarter, faster, bigger and stronger? Deep Blue Sea poses this question and completely delivers an answer. A research team led by Dr. Susan McAlester are performing research at an underwater facility in the middle of the ocean aptly named 'Aquatica' on mako sharks with the goal of using the shark's protein as a means to reverse brain deteriorating diseases such as Alzheimer's since sharks seem to never develop brain diseases or get cancer. After a shark escapes from Aquatica and nearly eats a couple of teenagers partying on a catamaran, the research team's integrity is called into question. Dr. McAlester with the threat of losing funding makes a plea to the head of Chimera Pharmaceuticals, Russell Franklin. She remarks to Franklin that they are on the brink of success and he only needs to see for himself to change his mind. Franklin decides to visit Aquatica and is very impressed with the size and depth to which the facility goes. Susan, one of the researchers tells Franklin that the shark's brains had been increased by using a "hormonal enhancer" because gene therapy is against Chimera Policy. In reality, Dr. McAlester has secretly genetically engineered the sharks in every way in order to increase the size of the grey matter of the sharks. This, however, has adverse consequences. The sharks become smarter and gain knowledge that is essential on hunting the humans studying them. The main cast and audience are first made aware of the gain in intelligence when one of the sharks swims backward. Susan makes it abundantly clear that "SHARKS CANT SWIM BACKWARD ITS IMPOSSIBLE." The shark is then sedated and brought into the lab in order to harvest the protein made in the brain in order to test the protein on Alzheimer's brain cells. When the protein is added to the human cells, we see the brain cells start interacting with each other again. The audience believes that all is well and the scientists have found a cure for degenerative neural diseases. This is when the movie takes its fatal turn. The shark awakens from its anesthesia and promptly rips the arm off of one of the doctors. After releasing the shark, they call in a helicopter to come pick up the doctor while a major storm is hitting the base. When the helicopter winch fails, the doctor falls into the water where the sharks are. The shark grabs a hold of the doctor's stretcher underwater and proceeds to pull the helicopter into the above ground area of Aquatica causing massive damage and uses the doctor's body to break the glass in the main chamber of Aquatica. This causes flooding where sharks are able to take out the crew one by one until Preacher and Carter Blake are left in ruins to be picked up after taking out the last shark.

Fact or Fiction?

Deep Blue Sea has to be one of the most scientifically lenient movies I've ever seen. The first inaccuracy I want to point out is that no matter how intelligent you make a shark, that shark will never be able to swim backward due to their physiological nature. (http://www.sharkfriends.com/sharks/info6.html) Unless the bodies were changed as well, no gain of brain matter could allow the sharks to move backward. Instead, they use this as a glaring warning to the audience that there is something different with these sharks. They also view sharks as invaluable research material because of their invulnerability to cancer and degenerative neural diseases. This, however, is false because in 2013 a Great White shark was found to have a tumor on its lower jaw. (https://www.livescience.com/41655-great-white-shark-cancer.html) Gene therapy can work in increasing brain size but as of right now that's impossible in 2018 so it definitely was impossible in 1999. I also have a problem with the sharks gaining grey matter mass equals sharks gaining knowledge that they never had before. If you increased my brain mass somehow, I wouldn't automatically know theoretical physics, much like a shark wouldn't know to herd the research team in unknown corridors. I'm also confident that in 1999, one couldn't extract protein from an animal's brain while keeping it alive. I do believe however that blowing up the shark, in the end, is 100% accurate and refuse to believe anything else due to the sheer awesomeness that takes place. With gene therapy advancements being made daily, I'm sure that there might be an animal in the near future with enhanced neural capabilities. If we can use CRISPR on us, why can't we use it on other animals?

Personal Reaction

Personally, I liked the movie. I absolutely loved the scene where Russell Franklin is eaten mere seconds after giving such a powerful speech. It was a nice twist to a movie that relied on unknown actors which I think added to the suspense of the movie. I don't agree with us being able to use raw protein from a sharks brain in order to revitalize damaged human cells. But I do believe that even though the science of the movie is wack, I believe that an organization could very well be conducting illegal research for the sake of bettering the human race. I think that's already been done and will continue to be done. I also believe that cosmetic gene therapy is unethical for humans then gene therapy is unethical for animals like sharks. I also think Susan McAlester is stupid for jumping completely in the water instead of just splashing the water with her bloody hand. She's solely responsible for everyone's death and I'm glad she died even though she died in the most unnecessary way possible.

GATTACA Blog Post

Intro

GATTACA is a sci-fi film that covers the topic of eugenics. In this future society, embryos are genetically modified to give babies only the best genes from both parents. The movie follows Vincent Anton Freeman is a natural born person, free of genetic editing. This leaves him with a high risk of a heart condition. Because of his "inferior" genetics, he is labeled as an "in-valid" or one who is unfit on a genetic level to be apart of the space program, GATTACA. His dream is to venture into the final frontier of space but is unable to attain his dream because of the probability of his heart condition. Vincent is a man ambition though so he decides to take on the identity of a man named Jerome Jarre who is genetically superior in every way Jerome broke his back which left him wheelchair bound. Jerome decides to sell his identity to Vincent by a black market dealer since he has no use for his body anymore. Vincentt's road to becoming Jerome is an arduous one. He has surgery that lengthens his height, has to learn to write with this right hand and thoroughly cleans his skin every single morning so as to not leave any genetic traces of his in-valid genetics at the company that could out him. He also uses the blood of Jerome in finger pricks to bypass security checks and Jerome's urine to bypass physicals given by Dr. Lamar. After many twists and turns including a murder investigation, Vincent is reunited with his genetically superior brother, Anton who is now a detective working the homicide case at GATTACA. When they were younger Vincent beat Anton in a swimming competition even though, Anton should've won because of his genetic advantages. This introduces the theme of fate into the movie. We see Vincent, a left handed ADD kid who should have a heart condition is the top employee at GATTACA and is due to leave for the moon Titan in a week. After many events we see Jerome getting his real urine tested by Dr. Lamar mere minutes before he is supposed to leave for Titan. Dr. Lamar tells Vincent about his son, who is genetically inferior and wished he had a role model to look up to. That no matter what hand your dealt, you can overcome any obstacle. Because Vincent doesn't have Jerome's urine, he has to test his own. Dr. Lamar remarks during the testing that his son is "not everything they promised" but then says "but then again who knows what he could do." It is revealed that Dr. Lamar knew Vincent was in-valid the whole time but was inspired by him because he reminds him of his son. Dr. Lamar changes his test to valid and allows Vincent to achieve his dream of space travel.

Fact or Fiction?

I think that additional science is needed to explain the film. We can already sequence DNA as I have when I spit into a vial for 23andme. But to efficiently identify someone from urine is something that we can't due just yet. The lack of DNA in urine provides a poor and inefficient way to use in identification according to Amy Smuts in her article "DNA from Urine as a Potential Source of Identification" [https://www.promega.com/-/media/files/resources/conference-proceedings/ishi-10/poster-abstracts/38smuts.pdf?la=en]. We already have a window into the future of editing genomes with efficiency but we aren't there yet. Deleting and replacing faulty genes with desirable ones using the CRISPR-CAS9  has already been done to embryos in 2015 by Chinese researchers. [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13238-015-0153-5/fulltext.html] But we are still unable to delete any and every gene at will to replace with only the most successful genes given by both parents. There's also the case for the 12 fingered pianist being genetically engineered to play the song that requires 12 fingers. Scientists have already engineered mice to process a protein that glows under flourescnet light so being able to genetically engineer a human to add a couple fingers can't be far off. I would be willing to bet in 50 years that we will see more Captain America type humans being made in order to limit unwanted genetic disorders.

Personal Reaction

I personally didn't agree with the ethics of choosing people on a purely genetic basis. As we see in the movie, Vincent beats his genetically superior brother in a swimming race twice which shouldn't be possible. This just goes to show that a being as complicated as a human shouldn't be limited to the information prescribed to them at birth. I see this discrimination happening at very low levels already. A 6'6" baskeball player is usually going to be preferred over a 6'1" basketball player. Because of the increased height which is purely genetic as the saying goes "you can't teach height". However there are many Vincent's in basketball who have the skillset to overcome genetic hurdles such as Chris Paul (6'0") and Allen Iverson (6'0") or Muggsy Bogues (5'3"). These men carved out Hall of Fame careers in the NBA by dominating other players who are 6-8 inches taller than them. This goes to show that just because a person is genetically superior doesn't mean they are superior in skill or ambition. A man who is gifted with a photographic memory but doesn't work will never best a man with moderate intelligence who works his butt off. This movie also gives me hope in that even a wreck like me can succeed as a doctor if I work hard enough. Great movie. Loved the helix staircase that represented DNA. 11 Adenines out of 10 Thymines.

The Boyz from Brasil Blog Post

Intro

In the film, 'Boys from Brazil', the movie takes place in both Europe, Paraguay, and America in the 1970s. The main character, Ezra Lieberman is a Nazi hunter who hears a tip from a young boy that there is a plot being schemed by Nazi's who have found sanctuary in Paraguay, South America. The main antagonist is the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele has developed a plot to recreate Adolph Hitler by inserting Hitler's DNA into 94 different mothers eggs and then growing the babies in vivo. Thinking that DNA isn't enough, Dr. Mengele attempts to recreate Hitler's childhood by replicating their surrounding environments as accurately he could. All 94 children were growing up with a smothering lovable mother and a civil servant father who gave the children tough upbringings. To further enforce the environment, he hires assassins to kill all fathers at a certain age. To consolidate, Ezra discovers the plot and in the end, comes face to face with Mengele at a North American "Hitler child's" home. After Mengele is killed by the boy, and after promising the boy not to reveal to the police of what the boy had done, Ezra is transferred to a hospital to recover. Ezra also had a list of the location of all 94 children while hospitalized. After meeting another Nazi hunter who wants the list to expose the plot to the world, in an effort to end another Hitler being raised, Ezra burns the list. His reason being that they are only children, deeming them innocent.

Fact or Fiction?

I do agree that additional science is needed to explain the film. Mostly because even as I type this, don't have all the information in order to make a perfect Human clone. Scientists in China only recently were able to clone a Rhesus monkey. (https://www.sciencealert.com/monkeys-cloned-for-the-first-time-somatic-cell-nuclear-transfer-dolly) This after 100 failed attempts, however. Just imagine how many failed Human attempts needed to be had in order to even get an embryo past its first few divisions. The ethical implications regardless if the science was there is enough for this to be outlawed. I did enjoy however that Dr. Mengele didn't stop at nuclear transfer but also knew that a similar nurture habitat was needed in order to increase the chances of success. A flaw, however, was the use of nuclear transfer in order to develop identical children. After reading the article Cloning Myths, (http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/cloning/cloningmyths/) I learned that using nuclear transfer won't reproduce genetically identical clones. We get our mitochondrial DNA from our mothers which reside in the egg. As the embryo develops they retain their mothers mitochondrial DNA which leads to genetically different children. I do agree that if the science was correct that Dr. Mengele did take the proper precautions of producing 94 children. Even Dr. Mengele realized that no matter how identical the DNA and the environment the child is still its own person. Because of the lack of understanding of the science and the mishandling of the cloning process, I believe that this could have never taken place in 1978. Maybe they can make another movie in 25-50 years by making 94 baby Trumps in order to rule the world. 

Personal Reaction

I personally didn't agree with the ethics of growing babies for a specific purpose. I also disagree with growing a twin for the sole purpose of helping the original child who is in need of an organ. To clone a human for a purpose that is not to live a full life deemed on their own is unethical in my opinion and most governments agree on my side. I also agreed with the choice that Ezra made in burning the list. Allowing the already 14-year-old children the right to life was the correct decision to make as they are deemed innocent. Creating life for a purpose and taking a life for an unthecal purpose in my book is strictly taboo. As Natasha Beddingield once said, "The future is still unwritten."