Hi! This blog has been created as a project for our English Class. We are students of Biotechnology Engineering, and we will continue updating information in the next months.
We want to create a blog about mexican biotechnology, if you are interested you must be in touch with this blog.
The Umbrella Corporation, one of the most powerful companies in the world, has its success based on a secret undergriund laboratory, called "The Hive", where viral weapons are made. A new virus escapes and turns hundred of scientists into zombies and releasing the mutated Lab "Animals" that they were studying. A special task force is sent in to shut down the main computer and quarantine the deadly virus. What awaits them is beyond ordinary procedure.
Resident Evil Series
The video game series Resident Evil involves the creation of genetically engineered viruses which turn humans and animals into organisms such as zombies, the Tyrants or Hunters by a worldwide pharmaceutical company called the Umbrella Corporation.
Trivia.
When Matt's arm begins to mutate there are no digital effects until the very end.
Even though they're everywhere, the word "zombie" is never spoken in this film.
The presidents of Capcom Japan and America have cameos as zombies. Capcom created the Resident Evil series.
This film was originally titled 'Resident Evil: Ground Zero', but the title was changed after the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the USA.
Like in the games, after something is switched on/off, something else happens elsewhere. When the Red Queen is deactivated for the first time, all doors elsewhere are opened.
“Resident Evil” was the second movie based on a video game directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. The first was Mortal Kombat.
The movie has connections to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Anna Bolt learned how to scuba dive in order to portray the drowned research scientist who revives underwater.
A baby is diagnosed with an exaggerated form of Werner syndrome, as stated by Dr. Benfante and Dr. Lin. According to them, as this very rare autosomal recessive disorder progresses, Jack Powell will age at a rate four times faster than normal children due to his internal clock that seems to be developing faster.
Ten years later, Jack is seen as a 10-year-old boy in the body of a 40-year-old man. Fearing ridicule from the outside world, Jack's parents have kept him secluded in their home, which they have stocked with every toy a young boy could want. But toys can't take the place of the real friends which Jack craves.
His tutor, Lawrence Woodruff, introduces the idea that he should go to public school. When he first attends school, he is exploited by the other kids to win at basketball against bullies, and eventually to get adult magazines. As time goes by, he is accepted by them, having new adventures.
The disease is real.
Werner syndrome (also known as "adult progeria") is a very rare, autosomal recessive disorder characterized by the appearance of premature aging. Werner syndrome more closely resembles accelerated aging than any other segmental progeria, so it is often referred to as a progeroid syndrome, as it partly mimics the symptoms of progeria. Werner syndrome is an autosomal recessive disorder. The WRN gene associated with Werner Syndrome lies on chromosome 8 in humans and it is the only gene known to be associated with Werner syndrome. The disease is caused by a mutation in the WRN gene, which codes a DNA helicase.
Trivia
Tom Hanks was the original choice for the lead role because of his performance in Big
In a classroom scene when Jack is being introduced to the class, it is possible to spot the mic. This also happens in a scene at the cafeteria
Francis Ford Coppola gave Robin Williams camping gear to spend the night in his backyard and $10 to spend at Toys R Us before shooting the film.
When Jack is talking with Dolores, he puts his hands up his shirt and you can see the wire for the Lavalier microphone.
Peter Parker is a student who was abandoned by his parents as a boy, leaving him with his uncle and aunt so they raise him. As a high shooler, he is trying to find a way with his crush, Gwen Stacy. Everything changes when Peter discovers a briefcase which belonged to his father and decides to investigate his parents' dissapereance. This leads him to Oscorp, where he infiltrates; there. he finds his father's former partner, Curt Connors, who's in a research about adapting other species' genes into the human body in order to cure sicknesses. Before leaving Oscorp, a spider biteshis neck, which causes his body to mutate. Everything goes wrong when Connors injects himself with lizard genes (based on a successful past experiment with mice) to recover his arm, but instead, turns into a huge reptile: The Lizard.
Trivia
T-shirts depicting the film's Spider-Man to help the cause for Stand Up to Cancer are being sold.
The Kellogg Company and the Keebler Company teamed up with Sony for a marketing campaign to access clips from the film.
A teaser trailer was leaked on the Internet and aired at San Diego's Comic-Con International in July 2011, attached to the superhero film Captain America: The First Avenger.
Genetics in the movie.
Perhaps the biggest plot hole in the film comes after Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans), with the assistance of Peter Parker, figures out a new formula to merge lizard DNA with other species in order to help them regenerate cells and heal themselves, something important to Conners who is missing his right arm. Once a lab mouse shows promising results, Connors' superior Rajit Ratha (played by Irrfan Khan) wants him to jump straight to human trials and threatens to can Connors if he doesn't follow through. There's allusions to a similar stand that Parker's father took which may have led to his demise as well, but no more details are given. Here the thread to Parker's past and the different origin story to his becoming Spider-Man begins. However, after Connors decides to test the new formula on himself, he learns Ratha is already on his way to a veterans hospital to test the formula on a different subject. Before he can stop him, Connors transforms into The Lizard and wreaks havoc across the city trying to stop Ratha.
Dr. Josef Mengele, an infamous Auschwitz doctor, secluded several surrogate mothers in a Brazilian clinic and fertilized them with ova each carrying a sample of Hitler's DNA preserved since World War II. Ninety-four perfect clones of Hitler had then been born and sent to different parts of the world for adoption.
Lieberman, a man that discovered the complot, is encouraged by an American Nazi-hunter to expose Mengele's scheme to the world. Lieberman is asked to turn over the list identifying the names and whereabouts of the other "boys from Brazil" from around the world, so that they can be systematically killed before growing up to become bloody tyrants. Lieberman objects on the grounds that they are mere children. He burns the list before anyone can read it.
In the final scene, Bobby, one of the clones, is shown in his dark room, absorbed and excited by photographs he has taken of Mengele's body after it has been savaged by dogs. Bobby is unaware that, as a boy his own age, Adolf Hitler had a related interest as an amateur artist.
Trivia
The real Josef Mengele was still alive in Brazil while the movie was being made. He died shortly after ther movie's release
Bruno Ganz (who played Dr. Bruckner) played himself the role of Adolf Hitler several years later
The character Ezra Liebermann was called Yakov Liebermann in the original book
Gregory Peck felt his role as Josef Mengele was the only unsympathetic role he's ever made
After Kohler's death, you can see him blink in a scene afterwards.
In the year 2019, Lincoln Six-Echo lives in a Utopian, but contained facility. Like all the inhabitants, Lincoln hopes to be chosen to go to "the Island", apparently, the last uncontaminated spot on the planet. However, he soon discovers that his whole life has been a lie. He and his friend, Jordan Two-Delta escape the facility while being persued by the forces of the institute that housed them. The head of the facility hires mercenaries to tack them down before they have the chance to reveal his secret to the world.
Did you know?...
The phone used by Tom Lincoln is the Nokia 8800/8801 model. At the time of the movie filming this was a concept phone; it was subsequently mass released.
During the filming of the scene when Scarlett Johansson and Ewan McGregor are running from the censors out of the atrium the camera operator was running with them for a tracking shot. He tripped on the dolly track, onto the camera, and was badly injured.
Michael Bay drove behind a flatbed truck carrying train wheels on the highway leaving Palmdale, and, noticing how dangerous it looked, was inspired to create a destructive chase scene involving one.
Robert S. Fiveson, director of “The Clonus Horror”, brought a copyright infringement suit against the makers of this film.
Scarlett Johansson wanted to show her breasts in the love scene with Ewan McGregor but director Michael Bay declined.
True or false?
The movie is based on the idea that, sometime in the near future, the wealthy citizens of the world might pay a private corporation to grow replacement body parts. A private corporation is selling this organ-replacement service, and telling them the organs are grown in a laboratory. But in reality, the corporation is cloning these wealthy clients and growing entire adult organisms, and then "harvesting" those humans when the replacement organs are needed.
There's talk today of not only growing human organs for precisely this purpose, there is also talk about using animals as hosts for human organs. There are plans to genetically modify pigs so that they can grow human hearts that could then be surgically taken out of the pig and implanted into customers.
The script of "The Island" is insightful, as it explores the issue of corporate and medical ethics.
Jurassic Park is an epic science fiction film. The film centers on the fictional Isla Nublar near Costa Rica, where a billionaire philanthropist and a small team of genetic scientists have created an amusement park of dinosaurs cloned from the DNA extracted from insects preserved in prehistoric amber.
To verify that the island is safe, three experts are invited: Dr. Ian Malcolm, Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Ellie Sattler. The three of them engage in an intense philosophical debate about the ethics of having cloned extinct dinosaurs.
Problems start when one of the parks own workers attempt to steal the dinosaurs embryos, and have to shut down all the electricity in the process. It's now a race for survival with everyone located all over the island.
Real life...
60 Minutes' Lesley Stahl spoke about Paleontologist Jack Horner's controversial theory that chickens can become dinosaurs through "reverse evolution."
Trivia
All shots of full dinosaurs were made digitally, while shots of parts of them were done using animatronics
The full-sized animatron of the tyrannosaurus rex weighed about 13,000 to 15,000 pounds
In order to study the movement of the Gallimimus, the digital artists had to run along a stretch of road with some obstacles and with their hands next to their chest
Briefly held the box office record until it was beaten by Titanic
Both the film and the book generated so much interest in dinosaurs that the study of paleontology has had a record increase in students
For the scene where the T-Rex catches a Galliminus and shakes it in his mouth, the sound was taken from a dog shaking a toy in its mouth
When the T-Rex comes through the glass roof in the first attack to the Explorer, the glass was not meant to break. This generated genuine screams from the children
The real species called Velociraptor was much smaller than the animals in the film and were believed to have feathers
The sound made by the Dilophosaurus was a combination of the sounds of howler monkey, hawk, , rattlesnake and swan.
The Velociraptor's sounds were a combination of the sounds of elephant seal pups, dolphin and walrus
The T-Rex's roars are a combination of dog, tiger, penguin, alligator and elephant sounds
The sounds made by the Brachiosaurs were a combination of whale and donkey sounds
There are no opening credits after the title has been shown
Today is a beautiful day and we are very happy, so we want to share some jokes about science and genetics that we think are so funny that you´ll fell down from your computer.
The answer to cardiovascular genetics
The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
On the other hand, the French eat a lot of fat and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
The Japanese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
The Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
Conclusion:
Eat and drink what you like. It is speaking English that kills you.
Is it true that if you clone yourself four times, one will be Chinese
It´s a remake of the 1958 film "The Fly", but retains only the idea of a scientist merging with a housefly during a teleportation experiment. Seth Brunble is an accentric researcher who creates a project that will change the world: a set of "Telepods" that allows instantaneous teleportation of an object from one pod to another.
To prove the efectiveness of his project, Brundle teleports himself, unaware that a common housefly is in the pod with him. Brundle emerges from the receiving pod, seemingly normal. However, he soon becomes violent, and eventually realizes that something went horribly wrong when his fingernails begin falling off. Brundle checks his computer's records, and discovers that the Telepod computer, confused by the presence of two separate life-forms in the sending pod, merged him with the fly at the molecular-genetic level. Over the next few weeks, Brundle continues to deteriorate, losing various body parts and becoming progressively less human in appearance. He theorizes that he is slowly becoming a hybrid creature that is neither human nor insect .
Trivia
There were plenty of scenes which were filmed but cut from the final release. For example, a scene were Brundle sends a cat and a baboon through the telepods. This results in a hybrid creature Brundle beats to death with a pipe.
It took almost five hours to apply the makup to the actor Jef Goldblum
The original director was suposed to be Tim Burton
The line: "I'm saying I'm an insect who dreamt he was a man and loved it, but now that dream is over and the insect is awake," is a reference to Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis"
"The Fly" was the first theatrical film to have its broadcast premiere on the Fox television network
Two pupeteers were located underneath the floor for the cat-baboon scene and a third one pumped blood. The rest of the crew would sometimes have a break for lunch, forgeting about the three underneath the floor.
There were at least 20 versions of the "space bug" (Brundle's final mutated form)
The fly's vomit was made from honey, milk and eggs
Hello! Today we are happy to show you a movie that changed our perspective of the ethics in genetical science.
Scientists Clive Nicoli and Elsa Kast became famous for their experiments in genetics, obtaining hybrid animals by splicing together DNA from other animals. But the next step in their experiments was to use human DNA despite the fact that the company (N.E.R.D.) that funds their research forbids it.
The name of their creation was Dren, who begins to grow and learn things at an accelerate rate. Because of this growth, Clive and Elsa are not able to keep the creature in secrecy at their laboratory, so they move to Elsa's late mother's farm. In the meanwhile, one of the other creatures they created suddenly changed it's gender from female to male without Clive and Elsa knowing because they were too focused in Dren, who developed certain features they never expected. When Dren reaches adulthood, Clive and Elsa learn they have a serious problem that threatens not only their careers and the company where they work, but also their safety.
Trivia
· N.E.R.D. is the laboratory where both Clive and Elsa work (it stands for Nucleic Exchange Research & Development). The name is the word NERD in reverse.
· The two genetically spliced organisms introduced in the beginning of the film, Fred and Ginger, are references to the classic singing and dancing duo Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
· The gestation cell that Clive and Elsa use to splice Dren has the acronym BETI placed on the front of the machine. BETI stands for Biomechanical Extroutero Thermal Incubator. However, interestingly the word "BETI" means daughter in Urdu and Hindi.
How real is the science behind “Splice”?
Splice is a film that explores the ethical and scientific conundrums of biotechnology. The writer-director tried to keep the science of the film as plausible as possible, incorporating real elements, such as a cloning technique called SCNT (somatic cell nuclear transfer).
We don´t have enough knowledge to create an hybrid like Dren, but in 2008 was created a human-pig chimera, which showed the existence of hybrid human-pig cells. So it could be possible in the future.
The film also explores the corporate motivations that drive much of today’s research. Last year, for example, ExxonMobil invested $300 million in Craig Venter’s firm Synthetic Genomics to look for ways of making biofuels from algae.
The first film to be showed in this blog is Gattaca. Released in october 24, 1997, Gattaca is a science fiction, romance and drama film which is about a sterile, genetically-enhanced world where babies are "designed" in order to avoid diseases and imperfections.
Vincent is the last natrually born baby in this society, and therefore, full of imperfections. He is born with a heart condition, and in consequence, he is only useful in menial jobs. However, Vincent has a dream: travel to space.
In order to do this, he asumes the identity of Jerome Morrow, a genetically perfect man who's paraplegic as consequence of a car accident. Vincent manages to deceive DNA and urine sample tests, but when he is finally scheduled to go to the space, the program director is murdered and the protagonist is one of the suspects. The police begins an investigation, probably threatening his secret.
Trivia
The name "Gattaca" is composed of the letters used to label the nucleotide bases of DNA: adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine.
As part of the marketing campaign for the movie, there were adverts for people to call and have their children genetically engineered. The worst part is that thousands of people actually called.
Urma Thurman and Ethan Hawke (the two main characters) became couple during the filming and eventually married.
The film's name was originally going to be "The Eighth Day" as reference to the Biblical creation story, which states that the earth was created in six days and on the seventh day, God rested.
miércoles, 6 de junio de 2012
Hi, welcome to this wonderful blog.
You will have the opportunity to discover the great world of genetics in sci-fi movies.
You´ll read curious topics about this kind of films, such as the synopsis, background, what is real and what is false, interesting data, and videos.
We hope that after reading this blog, you have a realistic judgment of genetics and learn to love science.
