We Have the Power of God in our Hands, or at least the Power to Make Stuff Glow...

Relatively recent technology has given humans the power to change the our own genetic code, to mold humans, to screw up "Gods Creation". In the 1970s this process was only being discovered and much controversy arose from its birth. Its is morally acceptable to physically change our own DNA?  Where must the line be drawn in terms of how much we can change? While some uses of this technology seem extremely useful, like creating insulin for people with diabetes, other times genetically modifying organism can seem evil, like Monsanto and their monopoly over the food market due to "superior goods." In this lab we will be continuing the practice of genetically altering organisms as we extract the gene that makes bio luminescent jellyfish glow. The procedure is called Genetic transformation. which literally means change by genes and involves the insertion of a gene into a organism in order to change its trait.  We will move this gene to another organism with the use of a plasmid., which plasmid DNA usually contains genes for one more traits that may be beneficial to bacterial survival. Our task is to do that genetic transformation and to determine if we succeeded in our efforts to genetically modify an organism.