Musings of a BIOL463 Student

Animals in research has always been very important in the advancements in science. There is a large amount of research conducted in embryo development; however, there are major ethical issues with studying using human fetuses. Using animals is the closest model to humans that scientists can study without raising major ethical issues. There is a continual drive for scientists to understand more about the world in order to better our society. With our intellect, it is a way of evolution. We have a competitive advantage over other living organisms because our intellect allows us to improve our living conditions to foster a better society. The use of animals in developmental biology allows us to study a similar system to human embryonic development. Allowing us to understand the mechanism of development, scientists would be able to predict malformations and perhaps find ways to prevent these malformations from happening. In the end, scientist strive to pass on this information to the next generation to aid in their survival. This is almost the basis of any cell in the world. Changes in the genetic material of the cell get passed on to the next generation. If this change helps the next generation survive better, the information is then passed on. In the end, you would get information that is highly optimize to survive in that particular environment.

With the growing of technology, we may perhaps be able to reduce the number of animals sacrificed for our progression in science. There is a starting trend in using computers to model these animal systems. We may be able to use computer simulations to conduct experiments instead. However, we will only be able to model what we have already observed from the real animal model systems. This method may reduce the number of animals sacrificed; however, the continual use of animals in research will be important to explore more of the unknowns of the world in developmental biology.