Some Introductions to research essays / English 103 / Fall 2003 / Bill Stobb:
"Human Cloning: Neat Idea, but..."
Almost five years ago scientists successfully completed what was thought to be impossible: the cloning of a mammal. Many probably remember Dolly the sheep; she was the first successful animal clone in the world. To scientists around the globe this was HUGE news! This act demonstrated that it is indeed possible to reprogram the nuclear material of an adult cell (Meilanender).
When this miraculous event occurred I was only thirteen years old, I knew little about science and next to nothing about cloning. I do remember sitting in class after discussing Dolly and thinking how cool it would be to have a human clone of all my friends and myself. If my best friend Tamara was busy on Friday night I could ask her clone to sleep overnight instead. If it was my turn to do the dishes I could just have my clone take care of it. Wow, would that ever be cool! I guess it’s safe to say that at age thirteen I was completely in favor of cloning and in many ways hoping it would advance to a level where they could clone humans. It all sounded pretty good to me.
"Should the Drinking Age be Changed?"
Should the drinking age be lowered or stay the same? This is a question that is always being brought up but nothing is ever done about it because it is always shut down right away. This paper is to research and dig deep into why this country won’t change the drinking age. Why this wonderful country of ours will let us die for our country and fight at age eighteen but won’t let us touch a sip of alcohol until the absurd age of twenty-one. Personally I am interested in this issue because I have seen and participated in illegally drinking. You can see a person that has a problem when at parties and you can tell that with some people that they probably won’t even drink when they actually reach twenty-one. I hope that in this essay I will learn why the country will not change the drinking age and why this is a good or bad idea.
But first in order to discover why this issue is such a big debate we need to find out where alcohol came from and how long that it has been a much needed commodity in not only the United States but also the whole world.
“The Ethics of Paylean”
The morning has a brisk, fall feel as I step outside the door. The sun has not broken the horizon yet and I can see the outline of our old wooden barn. When I stop to listen I can hear the squeal of hogs as they awake for their morning feed. My sister steps to my side and we begin our chores. As we step into the barn we greet each sow by her name (hogs are very intelligent creatures and understand when they’re being spoken to). They step against the railing to watch as we gather their morning meal.
Our family farm has always been a significant part of our life because it brings the family together. I remember one summer when our sows were birthing and we camped in the barn to care for the newborns. I also remember one litter that was being born and the sow had trouble pushing out one of her piglets. My mother had to reach inside of her and turn the baby around because it was backwards. She then had to help her by carefully pulling on the baby every time the mother sow would push.
Though we have a strong connection with our animals they are also our main source of economic well-being. We take good care of our swine both because it’s right to do so and because it’s important that we produce healthy hogs for market sale. Because of this our decisions about what to feed our pigs are very significant. Although hogs will eat alomost any food modern swine feed is nutritionally balanced to produce a rapid healthy growth. Feed contains a balance of minerals vitamins and antibiotics.
With technology advancing constantly there are many more ways to produce healthy animals. One product that helps hogs develop faster is on the market now: it’s a feed additive known as Paylean.