INDELIBLE SCIENCE

CHAPTER THREE

Indelible science

T

he impact of science on man can never be overemphasize considering the fact that in antiquity man was relegated to the background but with the coming of science man now discover various ways of conquering the universe, a typical example is the scientific weapon now in place in some western countries. This weaponry has no doubt give man the tendency to be superior over one another, having said this, many people will condemn science for bringing destruction and poverty to man. Indeed some people will see science that way, from the creation of atomic bomb, nuclear weapon, ballistic missile etc. An evident of this is the Hiroshima destruction by the Americans, which render the land and the entire vicinity uninhabitable; recently as well there is political tension between the east and west, with a lot of accusation and counter accusation from both parties. Europe and North America threaten North Korea from going ahead with their nuclear weapon programmed, people in the west must have realize that if North Korea should continue with their nuclear weapon programmed they will break the status quo of the western countries, however the Koreans are not relenting on this issue because they are bent on having a change if for nothing to be among the world most powerful nations. The Koreans are not the only country under the watchful eyes of the Americans countries like Iran, India, Iraq, venture their resources in making nuclear weapon which led to the invasion of the latter country by united state, though there are claim from the Arab world that U.S is using their propaganda to invade Iraq as we are made to believe that Iraq have no nuclear weapon in their country, in fact America action in Iraq further prove that their (US) story was fabricated in other to chase out the notorious leader of  Iraq in the person of sad dam Hussein. The united state of America obviously accomplish their mission in Iraq by disseminating false information about Iraq nuclear weapon, but the continue stay of united state troop in the oil reach region has been describe as a tactic to kill two birds with one stone, as they now focus on Iran that have undeniably tested their own nuclear warheads to the condemnation of international organization, some powerful nations have actually describe Iran nuclear planned as a threat to humanity as it was believe in some quarter that Iran are using their nuclear weapon to make atomic bombs, but according to the Iranian president Mahmoud ahmadinejad  “ they are all fabricated bunch of papers continuously being forged and disseminated by the American government”¹ he further told the U.S. network that the reports that Iran is working on a bomb trigger are fundamentally not true² Ahmadinejad said. To further protect their argument Iran’s official claim that its uranium ( a parts of a neutron initiator, a device that floods the core of highly enriched uranium with subatomic particles to set off the chain reaction of a nuclear explosion ) enrichment program is aimed at generating electricity so that it can export more gas and oil³. The west doesn’t agree to this information because of Iran record of nuclear secrecy, the west believes Iran want to make atomic bombs. Even if that is the case the Americans should tread with caution because all’s fair in love and war, with their so – called allegations that intend to bring the cosmic environment into a state of despair that can lead to catastrophic war. 

By and large the two countries have been pointing accusing fingers to each other, but like in Latin language that says ceteris paribus i.e. all things being equal, Iran produce their own scientific cum technological weapon of mass destruction or as they put it only a break through to help their power supply and the Americans can also produce theirs and every body will be content that is if the Americans will let sleeping dogs lie if not we wait until the fat lady sings. The outcome of science and technology in this first phase is definitely more of a curse to say the least.

On the other hand science makes a significant break through with the DNA a deoxyribonucleic acid that is present in all living cells. The trio that work on the DNA James Watson, Francis crick and Maurice Wilkins come together and developed a model for a structure of DNA, which they publish in 1953, for their effort they were rewarded with the Nobel prize in medicine in 1962. Though before the work on DNA in 1953, the previous one discover was disputed by Rosalind Franklin this discovery she pointed out to them, that their first model that contains the phosphates was obviously wrong. Franklin’s understanding of basic chemistry was very helpful, she was able to indicate that the hydrophilic phosphate containing backbones of the nucleotide chains of DNA had to be positioned in order to interact with water molecules on the outside of the molecule while the hydrophobic bases should be packed into the core. Crick and Watson attributed their first failure of the structure of DNA to Franklin in to not in cooperate terms and work towards finding a molecular of DNA and of course as Watson rightly put it succinctly that their haste to produce a model of deoxyribonucleic acid structure was because they were competing against Linus pauling which resulted in the failure of the first DNA. In spite of this failure Watson and Crick later come together alongside Franklin to make a second attempt to discover the structure of DNA, this time they came out with a double helix pattern unlike pauling’s work that only has alpha helix; this particular discovery remind one of what science is embedded with which is the incompatibility of their theories and research. Certainly if we look back over the years, it is evident that scientific understanding has been advancing at a rapid and accelerating pace. Phlogiston theory for instance has been replaced by modern chemistry, and Newtonian mechanics and physics has superseded by the theory of relativity and quantum theory. This shows that, whole new field of scientific knowledge has been discovered and opened up; this means there is every reason to believe that scientific knowledge will continue to develop with time. In other word current scientific theories are almost certain to be superseded and discarded. In the case of pauling his research was superseded by that joint effort of franklin, Watson and crick by working together they came out with a X- ray diffraction images that franklin had in the progress reports, crick was confident that the X- ray diffraction progress reports of franklin that has a double helix with anti- parallel chains will lead them to the conclusion of the DNA structure. As a result franklin was asked to give up her work on DNA by willingly sharing her data with Watson and Crick, with the hope that they could find a good model of DNA. Franklin X – ray diffraction data for DNA and her systematic analysis of DNA’s structural features was useful to Watson and crick in guiding them towards a correct molecular model⁴.

Another key finding to the correct structure of DNA was the experimentally determined ratios of the nucleotide subunits of DNA: the amount of guanine is equal to cytosine and the amount of adenine is equal to thymine. The significance of these ratios for the structure of DNA was not recognized until Watson, persisting in building structural models, realizes that A: T and C: G pairs are structurally similar. In particular, the length of each base pair is the same. The base pair are held together by hydrogen bonds, the same non – covalent interaction that stabilizes the protein α – helix⁵. After the discovery of the hydrogen bonded A : T and C : G pairs, Watson alongside Crick came into the scene with their double helix model of DNA through the help of the hydrogen bonds which is at the core of the helix did undoubtedly provide a way to the two complementary strands for easy replication. In actual fact the scientific research of DNA have certainly ameliorate doctors, scientist and individual alike a safe haven, the advent of DNA has brought succor to individual since without this DNA structure it will be difficult to ascertain the level of gene in our body that are replicated from the parents body i.e. a molecule that produce exact copies of itself. Undeniably science has made some remarkable achievement but to say the least science is definitely an indelible science.

References

                                                                             

1.  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, (2009) “forged Iran nuclear trigger report, Daily sun.

2.                 Ibid, p.12

3.  Mahmoud ahmadinejad US forged Iran nuclear trigger report op. cit. p. 12

4.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/francis_crick