Everyone will live up to 150 years: 10 most important stages of genetics
On March 12, a 7-episode popular science film about genetics and geneticists is released on Channel One.The well-known popularizer of science, the president of the TV and radio company "Civilization" Lev Nikolaev released "Code of Life" - a TV movie about genetics and geneticists in the crucial years of the development of this science - in the beginning and middle of the last century.
The author of the film told the observer of the Week Peter Obraztsov about the little-known pages of the discovery of the basis of life - the DNA molecule - and about the prospects of the popular science genre.
- This is our second multi-part film about science. The first "big" film was "The Brotherhood of the Bomb" - about scientists from various countries who participated in the discovery of nuclear fission and the use of atomic energy for military purposes. We were very worried about how this fundamentally new format of the program, with a lot of information about specific researchers, would be accepted by the audience. But it turned out that with each subsequent episode, our rating increased.
Then we decided to make another "unhurried" TV movie. And genetics was taken because today it presses on us with some terrible details. Everyone knows about genetic engineering, genetically modified products...
Next to the word "genetics" there is always the word "fear". Thanks to this science, it will be possible to "remove" one of the genes, and the villain will turn into a good person. But you can do the opposite! The villain will use the achievements of genetics for his own purposes and create, for example, armies of human robots, insensitive killers. The possibility of manipulation is inherent in all the discoveries of science. Remember the famous joke: "No matter what scientists do, they still get weapons."
Science, of course, is always aimed at the benefit of humanity, but sometimes it leads to quite dangerous consequences. This topic - a scientific breakthrough and the consequences that discoveries have sometimes led to and may still lead to - is one of the main ones in our project.
In the process of preparing the film, the film crew traveled to many institutes and laboratories around the world. In particular, I visited Novosibirsk, where a unique transgenic carrot is grown. A human protein gene is embedded in a vegetable familiar to everyone. It is worth eating such a carrot - and the person who ate it awakens the immune system. And then, perhaps, the medicinal carrot will be able to defeat both hepatitis and tuberculosis.
So far, the carrot has been tested on mice. Then it will be consumed by monkeys, and only then the test will take place in humans. It is difficult to say how long it will take for all of us to overcome the most dangerous diseases by eating carrots: transgenic products undergo very long and thorough checks.
Other discoveries are waiting for us in the near future. We will gradually write down the responsibility of each gene, and 150 years of life will become something natural and normal. This will happen much sooner than many people think. We'll have time to see it.
10 most important stages of genetics
1. In 1865, the founder of modern genetics, the Austrian monk Gregor Mendel, proved for the first time that there is a unit of heredity (now it is called a gene) and that a new organism receives from each parent one gene that determines this trait.
2. In 1869, Johann Mischer isolated deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from cell nuclei (nuclei).
3. In 1922-1925, Phoebus Levin found out that DNA consists of the sugar deoxyribose (hence the name), a phosphate group and four nitrogenous bases - thymine, guanine, cytosine and adenine (T, G, C, A).
4. In 1948, Erwin Chargaff determined that in a DNA molecule, the amount of T = A and the amount of G = C.
5. In 1951, Linus Pauling showed that long molecules can twist into spirals, and Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin found out that this is exactly the structure of DNA.
6. In 1952, Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase prove that hereditary information is transmitted not by proteins, but by DNA molecules. One step remained - and it was made in 1953.
7. Francis Crick and James Watson were able to build a three-dimensional model of DNA and understand how this molecule is copied during cell division. The DNA double helix unwinds into two linear molecules to which the bases T, G, C and A floating in the liquid medium of the cell "stick". Crick, Watson and Wilkins received the Nobel Prize, and Rosalind Franklin had died of cancer by that time and did not receive the prize - it is not given posthumously.
8. 1958. The central dogma of molecular biology: one gene in a DNA molecule (a sequence of pairs of T-A and G-C) encodes (determines the composition) of a protein that determines one chemical reaction in a cell. These reactions are life.
9. 1961. The genetic code has been deciphered (how exactly T, A, G and C encode proteins).
10. 2000. The complete sequence of bases T, G, C and A in human DNA - the human genome - has been determined. It turned out that human DNA contains 30-50 thousand genes...
Stalin and the problems of improving the breed
Interesting facts from the film by Lev Nikolaev
* Gregor Mendel, a priest from Brunn, in the XIX century, crossed two types of sweet peas daily for eight years. He was tormented by the question: in which generation there are more yellow, and in which - green peas? As a result, the law of constancy of strong and weak traits in heredity was derived, from which, in fact, the science of genetics emerged.
However, the priest died unrecognized and disappointed. The only scientist in the world who was interested in Mendel's works sent him the seeds of a hawk. And he wrote: if everything you described on the example of a pea is confirmed by experiments with a hawk, I will take off my hat to you. Alas, it was not possible to repeat the experience. The irony of fate was that the hawk refers to plants that reproduce in a different way. But then no one knew about it yet...
* Herman Meller was worried about the idea of improving the human breed. In 1936, he wrote a letter to Joseph Stalin, in which he proposed to set up an experiment. He wanted to artificially inseminate the best Soviet women with the sperm of the most advanced, ideologically savvy figures of science and culture of the Soviet Country. And thus, a few years later, to raise a generation of geniuses in the USSR. Stalin, although a villain, did not respond to this letter.
* One of the "great" adventurers from genetics was Trofim Lysenko. The "People's Academician" promised Stalin to feed a hungry country by breeding unique varieties of grain in the shortest possible time. Scientists tried to question this possibility, because it took years for what Lysenko promised. But Lysenko showed the country's leaders, who are very vaguely familiar with science, one trick. He brought two bundles of ears in his briefcase: in one the ears were weak and sluggish, in the other - strong and full-fledged. And he said: here, they say, such excellent ears appeared as a result of my scientific work, and soon they will grow in all fields of the Soviet Homeland.
Behind the flurry of applause that the listeners awarded Lysenko, no one heard the real academics anymore. Trofim Denisovich never fed the country, but he ruined his teacher, the outstanding scientist Nikolai Vavilov, accusing him of anti-Sovietism. Vavilov was afraid to be shot, but was sentenced to 20 years of labor camps.
We really hope that the film will be at least a little more scientific than this announcement :)
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru10.07.2009