News Articles #1 and #2 Questions

1) describe the objective of dr. mark underwood's research team.

2) what are probiotics and prebiotics?
3) in what way mothers enrich the probiotics in their babies' guts?
4) what is the discovery of UC Davis' Dr. Calito Lebrilla (actually a prominent
filipino-american scientist with roots from mindoro)?
5) prematurely born babies are especially vulnerable to what?
6) Briefly describe what is necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC).
7) what is the result of the nine clinical trials around the world and what is it's
flaw?
8)What is the name of the scientific name of the probiotic bacteria that feed on
the indigestible component of a mothers' milk?
9)describe that indigestible component of a mothers' milk, what makes it a
protective barrier for the infant?
10) what is alpha-lactalbumin.
Synthetic Biology Questions
1.Who created the first "synthetic cell" and what is his definition?
2.The acronym JCVI stands for what?
3.About what percent of the dry weight of the bacterial cell is its genome?
4.What is the grand challenge in synthetic biology?
5.Testing billions of genome combinations and the technique by JCVI, these
would enable researchers to do what?
6.What is your opinion on the section "The end of vitalism"?
7.The sequences of the genomes of extinct ancestral Mycoplasma species might
beinferred from the sequences of various modern mycoplasmae,including M.
capricolum. The new synthetic technology allows resurrection of such ancient
bacteria, whose behaviour should inform us about what?
8.What does Dr. Venter mean in his statementgoing from reading our genetic
code to the ability to write it.
9.Should a species with a programmed synthetic genome one day become useful,
it would probably be contained in specific production environments. If it were
ever to face a natural ecosystem, it would be what? They would be subject to
what?
10.The JCVI team actually used pre-existing designs and structures in synthetic
biology. Briefly described how inserting functional genes into bacteria goes back
to the early 1970s, when recombinant DNA was invented.
11.Do you agree that synthetic biology have shattered the theory that 'life arises
from life'? Why?
12.After reading all the experts' opinions, is synthetic biology ethical or
unethical? Why? (this is a subjective question).