FEATURES & DETAILS:
- Copyright: 2006
- Language: English
- Color
- Animated
- MARC records, Catalog Card Kit and Single Main Entry Cards are available
- Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
- Features: Chapter Select, Interactive Menu
- Technical: Single Layer, Single Sided, Full Screen
- DVD Region: 1
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PRODUCT SUMMARY
Students will look at the genetic modification of plants and animals, and how it has impacted society since the beginning of agriculture. Visual illustrations and computer animations help students understand difficult concepts relating to genes and cloning. Watch how genetic engineers are able to construct genes for plants and how technology is able to screen out animals with diseases.
EDITORIAL REVIEWS
"
...recommended." - Video Librarian (Jan/Feb 2008)"...briskly paced, information-packed...computer animation makes difficult concepts easy to understand..." - School Library Journal (Dec 2007)
FULL REVIEWS
Video Librarian (January 2008)
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"Although genetics might seem like a very modern science, the truth is that mankind has been practicing genetic modification for thousands of years. Ever since the ancients started picking out specific grain seeds to plant—thus domesticating wild wheat—humans have been trying to create bigger, stronger, and better plants and animals. Genes and Cloning traces the history of genetic modification, beginning with modern selective breeding during the 18th century and ending with the brave new world opened up by the successful cloning of Dolly the sheep. Although vocabulary-heavy (the program assumes a basic knowledge of cellular biology), the intrinsically complex ideas here are presented in a logical, articulate manner, backed by excellent computer graphics and animation sequences that aid the viewer in understanding concepts such as back crossing, recombinant DNA, and somatic cell nuclear transfer. The controversies surrounding cloning and genetically modified (GM) food are briefly mentioned but not discussed (the program appears to take the view that these foods are safe and beneficial). Still, as an overview of the history of genetic modification, this is recommended.