Medical Fiction(medicine, genetics & biotechnology)

Shailee AdkeTXD401

Medical fiction is a subject in science fiction whose events center upon a medical environment. It also deals with biotechnology and experiments in genetics.

A lot of science fiction books, movies & TV shows are based on the biological sciences.

It includes cloning, genetic engineering, mutant monsters, longevity treatments, pathology and other biological areas.

During the early twentieth century, science fiction writers began to consider the possible alteration of human beings and other species, either through the natural alteration of genes or by the use of deliberate genetic engineering, mutation.

The science of chromosomes:

The human genome is best defined as the full possible range of genes in a typical human. These genes are divided among 24 different chromosomes: 22 autosomes, which are numbered, and two sex chromosomes, labelled as X and Y.

Males have both an X and a Y chromosome; females have two X chromosomes. We all have two copies of chromosomes 1 to 22, giving us a total of 46 chromosomes.

Each chromosome is made up of two identical ‘sister chromatids’, joined together at a point called the centromere.

Each chromatid is essentially a very long, incredibly tightly coiled strand of DNA. It is in this DNA that our genes are located.

A gene mutation is a permanent change in the DNA sequence that makes up a gene. Mutations range in size from a single DNA building block (DNA base) to a large segment of a chromosome.

Gene mutations occur in two ways: they can be inherited from a parent or acquired during a person’s lifetime. 

Recombinant DNA is a form of DNA that does not exist naturally, which is created by combining DNA sequences that would not normally occur together.

In terms of genetic modification recombinant DNA (rDNA) is introduced through the addition of relevant DNA into an existing organismal DNA, such as the plasmids of bacteria, to code for or alter different traits for a specific purpose, such as antibiotic resistance.

Some Medical Fiction Authors:

Robin Cook (Chromosome 6, Coma, Mutation, etc)

Michael Crichton (The terminal man, The Andromeda strain)

Joe Connelly (Bringing out the dead)

Ann Benson (The plague tales)

Richard Dooling (Critical Care)

Jodi Picoult (My Sister’s Keeper)

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