Rachel+Jungkind

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='Playing God' with the climate?=  This article focus on the growing field of geo-engineering, which may give way to new technology that will attempt to reverse some of the effects humans have had on the earth. Dr. Craig Venter proposed the creation of CO2 sucking bugs that would eliminate some of the CO2. This will need to be explored ethically, if it is morally correct to use robots to clean up our destruction. Other ideas are explored in this article, including new ideas aboout creating clouds from ocean water to reflect sunlight.

=Week 3 =

=Will Humans Speciate? =

[] Generally, speciation (the creation of two species from one because they are genetically unique) is thought to be caused by geographic separation. Especially with our technology and easy methods of transportation, our world is more and more in contact, instead of secluded. Therefore, our species is not likely to speciate because of geographic separation. This article explores the speciation of one species of butterflies, without geographic isolation. So how did this occur? The butterflies naturally had either one of two types of markings on their wings, splitting them into two "teams." This led the butterflies to only breed with species of their own team. Over time this had created speciation, and the one species split into two.

How does this relate to humans?
This could reflect what could happen in the human species. While we are becoming more interconnected and in contact, it is interbreeding that prevents speciation. Humans could be in contact, and still speciate because they don't interbreed. Discrimination plays a role here, because if humans discriminate based on race, we may have a fate similar to those butterflies and speciate.