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THE FARM REVEALED

PROGRAMME 1: SELECTIVE BREEDING AND TRANSGENICS
ACITIVITES
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Selective breeding
Clip 1: 03:26 05:06

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> The Farm

Scientist Olivia Judson and
food critic Giles C oren take
a journey of discovery
through the strange new
world of GM
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Opens with the narrator saying, 'Giles C orin is on his way to

meet one of the most extraordinary'
C loses with the farmer saying, 'or the more muscle, on the
more muscle.'
These cattle have been bred in the time-honoured manner of selective
breeding.
In 1859, C harles Darwin published The Origin of Species. Did you know
that the first chapter of the book is about domestic pigeons? How did
the process of selective breeding inspire Darwin's theory of natural
selection? In what way are selective breeding and natural selection
similar?

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The Belgian Blue is a very extreme and strange looking animal. C an

you think of wild, undomesticated animals that are strange and freaky?
Why might they have evolved like that naturally?
Are you a super-taster?
Clip 2: 16:06 17:24
Opens with Dr C hris Smith saying, 'there are some more subtle
behaviours'
C loses with Dr C hris Smith saying, 'Still, nonetheless, a genetic
trait.'
Another behavioural trait that turns out to have a genetic basis is your
taste in food. Some people are born with more taste buds than others
and this makes them very sensitive to strong tastes. These people are
super-tasters and tend to be more fussy about food. They tend to
dislike anything that is even slightly bitter. They often don't like
Brussels sprouts.
Before doing the tongue test find out who likes Brussels sprouts and
strong coffee.
To test who is and who isn't a super-taster you need some blue food
colouring, some cotton wool and a piece of paper with a 7mm hole
punched in it. Swab some food colouring onto the front of the tongue.
You will see a blue tongue with pink dots on it. The pink dots are called
papillae and they contain taste buds. C ount how many papillae you can
see through the hole in the paper.
Non-tasters have less than 15 papillae
Average tasters have 15-35 papillae
Super-tasters have 35 and over papillae.
Super-tasters are the only people who can claim that their genes are
responsible for their dislike of Brussels sprouts!
Scientific research, led by US Professor Linda Bartoshuk, suggests
around a quarter of the population are non-tasters, 50% average
tasters, and the rest super-tasters.
What proportion of the class are super-tasters? Does this match the
population as a whole?
Some people don't like Brussels sprouts, but they turn out to be nontasters. Ask them what it is about sprouts that they don't like. Discuss
the complexity of human behavioural traits in relation to taste.
Food choices are based on psychological associations, mood, food
texture and colour and much, much more besides genetics. All human
behaviour is a complex mixture of genes and experience, or nature and
nurture.
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Eugenics
Read the article about the founder of the British Eugenics Society:
www.channel4.com/science/microsites/
S/science/life/biog_galton.html
Discuss the following:
What is eugenics and why was Francis Galton interested in the
subject?
Is it unethical? Why or why not?
Is eugenics a realistic possibility?
C ould we really breed a race of super-intelligent humans?
Frankenstein a modern fable?
Look up the original story of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818). There
are plenty of synopses on the internet, for example:
www.english.upenn.edu/Projects/knarf/Indexes/summary.html
In her story, Dr Frankenstein creates a human being from a corpse. He
fails to care for his progeny. The creature is shunned by his creator and
by the rest of society because he looks so different monstrous, even.
Eventually the monster takes revenge on his creator's family, with
tragic consequences for all.
Discuss the following:
Is this story a good metaphor for modern day transgenic
animals and plants?
GM crops have been dubbed as 'frankenfoods' by the media.
Why?
Are scares about transgenics and GM based on rational fears or
on an emotional horror of all things unnatural?
Discuss the idea of a monster.
What do monsters have in common?
Do you think glow-in-the-dark rabbits are monstrous? What
about bodybuilding cattle?
If Dr Frankenstein had cared for his 'monster' instead of
abandoning him to general disdain, would the monster have
been so aggressive and would the outcome have been so tragic?
The key take-home message in the story of Frankenstein is that the
proud and ambitious young scientist Frankenstein creates something
(someone) he is unable and unprepared to care for. This is perhaps the
single most important lesson that we must learn today.

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