Lesson 2:

TECHNOLOGY AS A WAY OF REVEALING

Objectives:

 At the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:

 Explain the concept of human condition before science technology.

 Identify the changes that happened in human condition after science and
technology; and,

 Name ways on how technology aided in revealing the truth about the human being.

Introduction

Comparing the lives of the people before and new will make anyone realize the
changes that happened in a society not just in terms of culture, language or rights but
more importantly, changes in people’s way of life due to the existence of science and
technology.

“Generation Gap” is attributed mainly to the changes brought about by technology.

The original idea of technology is to help everyone, but we cannot desired that until
today, not everyone is comfortable in using the different kinds of technologies. Mostly
those who belong to the older generation they think that these technologies are too
complicated to operate.

Gap is not something to be worried about. Instead, it is a challenge for people in the
field of science and technology to make these technological advancements more
accessible and less confusing for people who are not as young anymore

This fascination led to numerous magnificent inventions that people in the present
are able to enjoy and benefit from. Through science and technology, people get to
experience what it really means to live because it helps people in more ways than one.

People who lived in the past and people who are living in the present all have
different views of what it means flourish, primarily due to the kind environment and the
period one is in.

These changes were brought about by the interplay of different factors but essentially, it
was brought about by science and technology.

The Human Condition in a Common Era

Our early ancestor’s has a primal need to survive paved way for the invention of
several developments.

Gifted of brains more advanced than other creatures, humans are able to utilize
abundant materials for their own ease and comfort.
HOMO ERECTUS have been using fire to cook, through chipping one flint over the
other to produce a spark, all the while without realizing the laws of friction and hate.
Stone from stone and flints marked the era of the Stone Age.

HOMO SAPIENS began to sharpen stones as one would a knife; an example WEDGE.

There are several excavations in different parts of Europe of miniature statues

prevalent during the Paleolithic period, the so-called “Venus” figure. It depicts a
rudimentary carving of a voluptuous woman out of ivory or stone.

Soon enough, people discovered minerals and began forging metalwork. They realized
that these substances are more durable, malleable, and have more luster than the
previous material.

For clothing and animal skin are primarily used for comfort against harsh winds- our
ancestors are able to draw the connection between their being naked and vulnerable
due to some lack of fur or protective covering which would otherwise allow them to
withstand extreme weather conditions.

Some of those found at excavation sites are reminiscent of early accessories,

suggesting that our ancestors have been deeply engaged in the concept of beauty.
They had taken a liking a certain shiny stone, or a perfectly shaped bone, and wanted to
wear it a trophy.

This notion, as it was then and as it is now is often people’s resort to make sense of
events happening outside their control. The initial roster of primitive gods include
objects they encounter through day-to-day lives, so it is not surprising that different
tribes may have different gods.

Those who might have lived alongside majestic creatures, such as elephants and
mammoths, might have been awed by their size and worshiped them as the owner of
the land, asking for blessings in their hunting ground.

On the contrary, they might have hunted the mammoths for their woolly coat and
meat, taking down the animal for the entire community to eat. In windy places near
mountains, they might have had a mountain god to explain wind currents and ask for
provisions. Those who near coastal areas or bodies of water might have had water gods
they preferred to when asking for a good catch.

There was a case that people of prior civilizations shared several generic gods such as
the sun.
 It can be positively inferred that like the people of today, our ancestors also found
the need to explain things in a way that make sense to them.

Throughout the course of history, religion remains to be the strongest contender to

science arguably due to its being the most easily grasped.

Once people stop connecting the dots between cause and effect, they turn to something
that could possibly explain their inadequacies in making sense of the world.

With their constant befuddlement serving as an early reminder that they were
behind several larger, more powerful forces in nature in terms of order of things.

Human Condition in the Common Era

For a long time, human were content with their relationship with nature. Earliest
case of man-made extension occurred over 12,000 years ago, possibly brought upon by
hunting and territorial disputes.

The Holocene Extinction also called the sixth extinction or more aptly Apthropocene
extinction, occurred from as early as between 100,000 to 200,000 year up to present. It
pertains to the ongoing extinction of several species- both flora and fauna- due to
human activity.

Flora- the plants of biome

Examples: Orchids, ferns, trees-would find many buttress trunks here

Fauna of the TRF is very shallow rooted.

Fauna- the animals of a biome

Examples: birds, bats, insects, frogs and small mammals.

Driven by their primal needs to survive and gaining the upper hand in terms of
development and adaptability, human were quick to find ways to drive off other mega
faunas, threatening a prospective hunting spot and eventually, settling grounds.

Formation of communities caused

human to expand more in territory and
more people to feed; large, separate
communities hailing from the same
ancestor and residing in the same large
community paved way to civilization.

People then had a new objective

gather as much product as possible. They
have turned to wealth as one of their goals.

Product of every kind were exchanged,

ranging from necessary ones such as crops,
cattle, poultry and other kind of clothing
materials up to metal accessories, weapons,
spices, literature and entertainment.
 Humanity became more complex. The primary goal was not merely to survive, but
also to live a good life.

Technology has been instrumental in all of these because in searching for the good
life, people were able to come up with creation that would make life easier, more
comfortable, and more enriching.

Position-wise, the humans of today are much better off compared to humans
several changes ago. Advancements in medicine, technology, health and education
unheard in humanity's best yet, and show no sign of stopping. Below is some of the
notable comparison then and now.

1. Mortality Rate - Due to technology, lesser women and children die during birth,
assuring robots population and strong workforce. Medical care for premature infants
allows them to survive and developed normally, while proper maternal care ensure that
mother can fully recover and remain empowered.

2. Average Lifespan - Aside from the reason that people engage less in combat and
are less likely to die in treatable diseases now as opposed to then, science is able to
prolong lives by enhancing living status and discovering different remedies to most
diseases. Distribution of medicines is also easier and faster.

3. Literacy Rate - Access to education provided to more individuals generally creates a

more informed public that could determine a more just society.

Total population: 96.3% (age 15 and over can read and write)
Male: 95.8%
Female: 96.8%

4. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - Although not an indicator of an average person

lifestyle in a certain country, it is often used to determine the value of the country's
goods and services produced within the territory given a certain time period. Higher
country income is brought upon by high productivity, often an indicator of presence of
technology.

The Essence of Technology

Humanity has indeed come a long way from our primitive ways and as a general
rate, it is said that we are more “developed” than we were belong.

Modern humans are reliant on technology in their search for good life.

One philosopher in the name of Martin Heidegger identifying that technology can either
be perceived as;

 A means to achieve man's end

 That which constitutes human activity.

Other perspective paints technology in such a way that each period reveals a
particular character regarding that man's being.
Backtracking the Human Condition

All in all the human conation improved only if by improving, we measure the level
of comfort, various scientific breaks through and improved lifestyle of those who had the
luxury to offered to do so.

Different machineries aid in prolonging lives assisting those with disabilities ,

honing efficiency in industrial workplace and even exploring the universe for places that
we can threw once all the Earth resource are depleted.

Some places in the world are still battling for their daily survival-diseases, tribe
war, lack of habitable territories and competitions on resources.

There is more and more people to subscribe in a religion in explaining things that they
do not know. But some people are still trying to discover and rediscover things that
would give meaning to their lives-whether it is honor, strength or merit. People are trying
to make sense of their existence in the world and technology. There is little to aid them
in their pursuit of life meaning.

A notable distinction on Aristotle idea in subscription on evaluating concepts

called virtues and their rule in achieving the good life.

Lesson 3:

THE GOOD LIFE

OBJECTIVES:

 Examine what is meant by a good life

 Identify how humans attempt to attain what is deemed to be a good life; and
 Recognize possibilities available to human being attain the good life

WHAT IS GOOD LIFE? HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED GOOD LIFE? WHAT IS

HAPPINESS?

INTRODUCTION

 In Ancient Greece, long

before the word “science”
has been coined, the need to
understand the world and
reality was bound with a need
to understand the self and the
good life.
 For Plato, the task of
understanding the things in
the world runs parallel with
the job of truly getting into what will make the soul flourish.
 It was Aristotle who gave a definitive
distinction between the theoretical and practical sciences.
Whereas, “truth” is the aim of the theoretical sciences, the
“good” is the end goal of the practical ones. Every attempt
to know is connected in some way in an attempt to find the
“good” or as said the previous lesson, the attainment of
human flourishing. Rightly so, one must find the truth about
what the good is before one can even try to locate that which is good.
 HAPPINESS AS THE GOAL OF A GOOD LIFE
In the 18th Century, John Stuart Mill declared the
greatest happiness principle by saying that an
action is right as far as it maximizes the attainment
of happiness for the greatest number of people.

He also said that individual happiness of each

individual should be prioritize and collectively
dictates the kind of action that should be endorsed.

The ethical is meant to lead us to the good and

happy life. Through the ages, man has constantly
struggle with the external world in order to reach human flourishing. History has
given birth to different school of thoughts, all of which aim for the good and happy
life.

 MATERIALISM
- The first materialist was the
atomist in Ancient Greece.
Democritus and Leucippus led a
school whose primary belief is
 that the world is made up of, and is controlled by the tiny indivisible units in the
world called atomos or seeds.
In terms of human flourishing is matter what makes us attain happiness. We see
this at work with most people who are clinging onto material world as the primary
source of the meaning of their existence.
 HEDONISM
- The Hedonist, for their part, sees the end goal of life in acquiring pleasure.
Pleasure has always been the priority of
Hedonists. For them life is about
obtaining and indulging in pleasure
because life is limited. The mantra of this
school of thought is the famous, ‘EAT,
DRINK AND BE MERRY for tomorrow we
die’.

 STOICISM
- Another school of thought led by Epicurus, the stoics
espoused the idea that to generate happiness one must
learn to distance oneself and be apathetic. The original
term ‘apatheia’ precisely means to be indifferent.

 THEISM
- Most people find the meaning of their lives
by using God as a fulcrum of their
existence. The ultimate basis of happiness
for Theists is the communion with God. The
world where we are in is only just a
temporary reality where we have to
maneuver around while waiting for the
ultimate return to the hands of God.
 HUMANISM
- Humanism as another
school of thought
espouses the freedom
of man in carving his
own destiny and
legislate his own laws,
free from the shackles
of a God that monitors
and controls. For them
man is literally the
captain of his own ship. Humanists see themselves not merely as stewards of the
creation but as individuals who are in control of themselves and the world outside
them.
- Technology allowed us to tinker with our sexuality. Biologically male individual
can now undergo medical operation if they so, wish for sexual reassignment.
 BREAST implants are now available and can be done with relative convenience
if anyone wishes to have one. Hormones may also be injected in order to alter
the sexual chemicals in the body.
- Whether or not we agree with this technological advancement, these are all
undertaken in the hopes of attaining the good life. The balance, however,
between the good life, ethics, and technology has to be attained.

Lesson 4:

WHEN TECHNOLOGY AND HUMANITY CROSS

LESSON-OBJECTIVES:

At the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:

 Know the different technological advancements in society.
 Discuss the development of science and technology in the Philippines.
 Discuss the effects of the interplay between technology and humanity through
the dilemma(s) they face.

The ever-growing society has made people see technology as some form of necessity.
Tracing back its origins, the word TECHNOLOGY came from Greek words techňe and
logos which mean art and word, respectively. Taking the two words together,
technology means a discourse on arts. (Buchanan2010)

It first appeared in the seventeenth century where the concept was only used to talk
about the arts, specifically applied arts.
However, as technology progressed, the concept also started to have a wider range of
meaning where art is no longer the only topic included. Concepts like machine and tools
were also attached to the word “TECHNOLOGY” which is the popular sense of the
concept nowadays.

TELEVISION SETS, MOBILE PHONES, COMPUTERS, AND HUMANITY

According to Kantar Media, one of the most trusted television audience measurement
providers in the Philippines, 92% of urban homes and 70% of rural homes own at least
one television set. It is for the reason why television remains to be ultimate medium for
advertisement placement. (The Manila Times, 2014)

In addition, Kantar Media also reported that in the Philippines, the current count of
household with televisions set already reached 15,135 million (Noda, 2012)

TELEVISION

Television was a product of different experiments by various people.

Paul Gottlieb Nipkow

-a German student, in the late 1880’s was successful attempt to send images
through wires with the aid of a rotating metal disk. This invention was called the “electric
telescope” that had 18 lines of resolution.

After some time, in 1907 two inventors,

Allan Archibald Campbell-Swinton

-who was an English scientist and;
Boris Rosing
-who was a Russian scientist, created a new system of television by using the cathode
ray tube in addition to the mechanical scanner system.
-This success story gave rise to two types of namely mechanical and electronic
television.

(Jezek,n.d.)

Second, Filipino love to use their mobile phones anywhere anytime. They use it for
different purposes other than for communication.

In 2010, global research agency Synovate, conducted a survey and declared 67 %

product ownership in the country. In fact, it was also claimed that mobile phones are
considered a must-have among young Filipinos (ABS-CBN News, 2010).

To prove that Filipinos really love to use their mobile phones, the Ipsos Media Atlas
Philippines Nationwide Urban 2011-2012 survey results showed that one in every 3
Filipinos cannot live without a mobile phone.

In other words, 30% of the Philippines urban population nationwide said that mobile
phones are necessities in life(Roa, 2012).
Mobile phones have a very interesting background story. On April 03,1973, Martin
Cooper , a senior engineer at Motorola , made the world’s first mobile phone call. He
called their rival telecommunication company and properly informed them that he was
making the call from a mobile phone.

The mobile phone used by Cooper weighted 1.1 kilograms and measured 228 x 127 x
44.4 mm.
This kind of device was capable of 30-minute talk time. However it took 10 hours to
charge. In 1983, Motorola made their first commercial mobile phone available to the
public. It was known as theMotorola DynaTAC 8000X -(Goodwin, 2016)

Lastly, computers and laptops have also become part of many of the Filipinos families
who own more than one computer.

In 2010, 3.6 trillion was the estimated total value output of all manufacturing
establishments. Semi-conductor devices and other electronic components took more
than half of the value output of all manufacturing establishments.

To be more specific, 5.4% of the total value output came from computers and peripheral
equipment and accessories (PSA, 2013)

CHARLES BABBAGE
A 19th century English Mathematics professor, who designed the Analytical Engine, was
used as the basic framework of the computers until the present time. Each generation of
the computer was used for a certain period of time and each gave people a new and
improved version of the previous one.

Laptops have been available to the public for even less than personal computers.
The first true portable computer was released in April 1981. It was called Osborne 1
(Orfano, 2011).
A typical household owns at least four of the following devices: a mobile phone (89%),
smart phone (53%), tablet (14%), desktop (39%), laptop or netbooks (37%), and smart
TV (4%).

Here are some facts about Filipinos and their use of gadgets and the Internet (Rappler,
n.d.) :

 Mobile phone subscription is at 119 million. Filipino spends approximately 3.2

hours and 5.2 hours on desktop daily. Currently, the Philippines have one of the
highest digital populations in the world. There are now 47 million active Facebook
accounts in the Philippines. The Philippines is the fastest-growing application
market in Southeast Asia.

ROLES PLAYED BY THIS TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT

TELEVISION
Television is mainly used as a platform for advertisement and information
dissemination.
Also, it also serves as a recreational activity and good stress reliever to most families,
specifically to the Filipinos families.
Television also is a good platform for different propaganda and advocacies.
Lastly, it can also be a good way to bond with one’s family members.

MOBILE PHONES
Mobile phones are primarily used for communication.
In addition, it is very portable and convenient because it can fit into any space, may it be
inside the pocket and bag.

PERSONAL COMPUTERS AND LAPTOP

It can be used to surf internet and communicate.
For a lot of people, they prefer to do their job using either a personal computer or
laptops than mobile phones.
Most of the youth and those who love to play different computer games

Ethical Dilemma Faced by this Technological Advancement

1. First, most parents would argue that these devices make their children lazy and
unhealthy.
2. It can be inferred that these types of people are already overly dependent on
these technological devices.
3. These people have the tendency to be unaware of the time because they are
engrossed with the use of technological device.
4. Another dilemma faced by these technological devices is the moral dilemma.
5. It also causes to become reclusive, alienating themselves from other people.
6. It can be said that these reason make such devices somewhat unethical
because they bring undesirable consequences to people.

THE ETHICS OF RESPONSIBILITY

The word “responsibility” in the sense of being accountable for and accountable to is
very appropriate to the ethics of technology because it makes each every person in the
scientific-technological development a proxy with reference to one another.
It focuses on the positive rather than negative.
Instead of asking “What ought not to be allowed?” ask “What ought to be allowed?”

Robotics and Humanity

Another great product of the innovative minds of the people is the robots. Robots are
now widely used. These particular robots do specific task but focus mainly in assisting
their masters in their everyday tasks. The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) and
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) made it their task to
formulate a working definition for service robots.

A preliminary extract of the relevant definition is (IFR, 2012):

A robot is an actuated mechanism programmable in two or more axes with a degree of

autonomy, moving within its environment, to perform intended tasks. Autonomy in this
context means the ability to perform intended tasks based on current state and sensing
without human intervention.

A service robot is a robot that performs useful tasks for humans or equipment
excluding industrial automation application.

NOTE:
A robot may be classified according to its intended application as an industrial robot or a
service robot.
A personal service robot or a service robot for personal use
is a service robot used for a non-commercial task, usually by layperson.
EXAMPLES:
Domestic servant robot
Automated wheelchair
 Personal mobility assist robot
Pet exercising robot

A professional service robot or a service robot for professional use is a service

robot used for a commercial task, usually operated by a properly trained operator.
EXAMPLES:
Cleaning Robot for public places
Delivery Robot in office or hospitals
Fire-fighting robot
Rehabilitation robot
Surgery robot

In this context, an operator is a person designated to start, monitor, and stop the
intended operation of a robot or a robot system.

Germany was one of the first countries to develop service robots. As part of the German
Federal Ministry of Education and Research’s “ Service Robotics Innovation Lead
Initiative, “ it sponsored a collaborative project called DESIRE means Deutsche Service
robotic Initiative-Germany Service Robotics Initiative which was launched on October
01, 2005

DESIRE has the following individual objectives

To achieve a technological edge toward attaining key functions and components that is
suited for everyday used.

1. To create a reference architecture for mobile manipulation.

2. To promote the convergence of technologies through integration into a common
technology platform.
3. To conduct pre-competition research and development activities for new
products and technology transfer in start-up enterprise in the field of service
robotics.

Some of the expected works to be performed by DESIRE are the following:

1. Clear up the kitchen table- all objects on the top of the kitchen table will be
moved to where they belong.
2. Fill the dishwasher –the dirty dishes will be sorted correctly into the dishwasher.
3. Clear up this room- all objects that are not their proper places will be moved to
where they belong. (Mock, n.d)

The earliest conception of robots can be traced around 3000 BC from the Egyptians.
Their water clocks used human figurines to strike to hour bells. This mechanical device
was built to carry out a specific physical task regularly.

For example:
1. Wooden pigeon that could fly.
2. A talking doll
3. Steam-powered robots
4. Hydraulically-operated statues that could speak and gesture

However, the earliest robots as people know them were created in the early 1950’s by
GEORGE DEVOL.
“UNIMATE” was his first invention from the word “Universal Automation”.

ROLES PLAYED BY ROBOTICS

Robotics plays different roles not only in the lives of the people but also in the society
as a whole.
They are primarily used to ease the workload of mankind. They were invented to make
life more efficient and less stressful. On the hand, they perform complicated activities
which human beings are incapable doing. Also, they perform the simplest task at home
so that their masters can perform the complex ones without stressing themselves over
the simple tasks.

There are also robots which are made for pleasure. They also perform different
activities but they are usually child-friendly. These Laws were formulated by Isaac
Asimov back in the 1940’s, when he was thinking of the ethical consequences of
robots.

These are the following (Stanford n.d.):

The 3 Robot laws

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being
to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders
would conflict would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not
conflict with the First or Second Law.

Ethical Dilemma/s Faced by Robotics

One of the dilemmas faced by the robot is safety.

Another ethical dilemma faced by the robot is the emotional component.
In the field of robotics, there are the so-called partial autonomy and full autonomy.
Partial autonomy includes active human-robot interaction while full autonomy
excludes active human-robot interaction.
In other words, a robot with full autonomy can perform actions or activities even without
a master telling it what should be done or what should be performed next.

1. Using Asimov’s Law for robots, it can be concluded that robots are ethical but only if
they strictly follow the law specified.

They are ethical mostly because of the Laws formulated by Asimov’s to ensure the
safety of not only the users of the technology but also the people around him.

1. For the 2nd dilemma, it is just right for the robots to be given their own set of
rights should they develop the ability to feel different kind of emotions.
2.

Chapter 3:
Specific Issues in Science,
 Technology and Society

Lesson 1:

The Information Age

Information- knowledge communicated or obtained concerning a specific fact or

circumstances (Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary).

Information Age

 Is a period in the last quarter of the 20th century

when information became effortlessly
accessible through publications and through
the management of the information by
computers and computer networks
  The means of conveying symbolic information (math, writing, other codes)
among humans has involved with increasing speed.
 DIGITAL AGE in 1982 and NEW MEDIA AGE
James R. Messenger- proposes the Theory of Information Age in 1982 “the Information
Age is the true new age based upon the interconnection of computers via
telecommunications.

History

Table [Link] of the Information Age

EVOLUTION OF MAN AND INFORMATION

 As man evolved, information and its dissemination also evolved

 Information got ahead of us
 1960s and 1970s the information was difficult to collect and manage
 1980s, real angst set in
 Richard Wurman called it “information Anxiety”
  1990s, information became the currency in the business world
 In present generation, information has turned out to be a commodity, an
overdeveloped product, mass produced, and unspecialized
In his article “Truths of the information age” Robert Harris detailed some facts on
the Information Age.

1. Information must complete.

2. Newer is equated with truer.
3. Selection is a view point.
4. Media sells what the culture buys.
5. The early words get the perm.
6. You are what you eat and so is your brain
7. Anything in great demand will be counterfeited.
8. Ideas as seen as controversial.
9. Undead information are walks ever on.
10. Media presence creates the story.
11. The medium selects the message.
12. The whole truth is a pursuit.
COMPUTER

 Most important contributions of advances in the Information Age to society.

 Electronic device that stores and process data (information).
 It runs on a program that contains the exact, step-by-step directions to solve a
problem.

TYPES of COMPUTER

1. Personal Computer (PC)

 single user instrument
 fist known as microcomputers
since they were complete
computer but built on a smaller
scale

2. Desktop Computer
 described as PC that is not designed for portability
 it will be set up in a permanent spot

3. Laptops

 Portable computer that integrate the

essentials of the desktop computer in a
battery-powered package, which are
somewhat larger than typical hardcover
book.
 Notebooks

4. Personal Digital Assistants

(PDAs)

 Tightly integrated computers that

usually have no keyboards but rely on
touch screen for user input
 Smaller than a paperback, lightweight,
and battery powered

5. Server

 Computer that has been improved to

provide network services to other
computers
 Boast powerful processors, tons of
money, and large hard drives
6. Mainframes

 Huge computer system

that can fill an entire room
 Used by large firms to describe the large,
expensive machines that process millions of
transactions every day
 The term mainframe has been replaced by the
enterprise server
7. Wearable Computers

 Involved materials that are usually integrated

into cellphones, watches, and other small
objects or places.
THE WORLD WIDE WEB (Internet)

Claude E. Shannon, an American who was considered as the “Father of

Information Theory”. He worked at Bell Laboratories at the age of 32; he
published a paper proposing that information can be quantitatively encoded as a
sequence of ones and zeroes.

The internet is a word wide system of interconnected networks that

facilitates data transmission among enumerable systems. It was developed
during the 1970’s by the Department of Defense. In early days, the internet was
used mainly by scientist to communicate by another scientist. He internet
remained under government control until 1985 (Rouse, 2014).

Speed was early problem faced by internet users. Phone lines could only
transmit information at a limited rate.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page, directors of Stanford research projects, built a
search engine to reflect page popularity when they determined that the most
popular result would frequently be the most usable. Afar talking with family,
friends, other investors into contributing $1 million, the researchers lunched their
company in 1998. Google is now the world’s most popular search engine,
accepting more that 200 million queries daily.

New forms of communication were also introduced. Electronic mail, or email, was
a suitable way to send message to fellow workers, business partners, or friends.
Internet service providers like America Online and Computer Service set up
electronic chat rooms. These were open areas of cyberspace where interested
parties could join in a conversation with perfect strangers, “Surfing the net”
became a pastime in and of itself ([Link], 2017).

Consequently, companies whose business are built on digitized information have

become valuable and powerful in a relatively short period of time; the current
Information Age has spawned its own breed of wealthy influential brokers, from
Microsoft’s Bill Gates to Apple’s Steve Jobs to Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.

On the other hand, the unregulated and loose nature of internet allowed
pornography to be broadcast to millions of homes. Nowadays, crimes in various
forms are rampant because of social media. Cyber bullying is an issue that
possesses alarm word wide.

Application of Computers in Science and Research

One of the significant applications of computers for science and research is

evident in the field of bioinformatics.

Bioinformatics is the application of information technology to store, organize,

and analyze vast amount of biological data which is available in the form of
 sequences and structures of proteins- the building blocks of organisms and
nucleic acids- the information carrier (Madan, n.d).

Early interest in bioinformatics was established because of a need to create

databases of biological sequences. The human brain cannot store all the genetic
sequences of organism and this huge amount of data can only be stored,
analyzed, and be used efficiently with the use of computer.

The initial databases of protein sequences were maintained at individual

laboratories, the development of a consolidated formal database, known as
SWISS-PROT protein sequence database, was initiated in 1986. Now it has
about 70,000 protein sequences from more than 5,000 model organisms, a small
fraction of all known organisms.

Computers and software tools are widely used for generating these databases
and o identify the function of proteins, model the structure of proteins, determine
the coding (useful) regions of nucleic acid sequences, find suitable drug
compounds from a large pool, and optimize the drug development process by
predicting possible targets. Some of the software tools which are handy in the
analysis include: BLAST (used for comparing sequences); Annotator (an
interactive genome analysis tool); and Gene Finder (tool to identify coding
regions and splice sites).

The sequence information generated by the human genome research, initiated in

1988, and has now been stored as a primary information source for future
application in medicine. For a population of about five billion human beings with
two individuals differing in three million bases, the genomic sequences difference
database would have about 15,000,000 billion entries. The much-celebrated
complete human genome sequence which was formally announced on the 26 th of
June 2000 involved more than 500 x 1018 (500 million trillion) calculation during
the process of assembling the sequences alone.

Moreover, from pharmaceutical industry’s point of view, bioinformatics is the key

to rational drug discovery. It reduces the number of trials in the screening of drug
compounds and in identifying potential drug targets fir particular disease using
high-power computing workstations and software like insight. The profound
application of bioinformatics in genome sequence has led to a a new area in
pharmacology- Pharmacogenomics, where potential targets for drug
development are hypothesized from the genome sequences. Molecular
modeling, which requires a lot of calculations, has become faster due to the
advances in computer processors and its architecture.

In plant biotechnology, bioinformatics is found to be useful in the areas of

identifying diseases resistance genes and designing plants with high nutrition
value.

HOW TO CHECK THE RELIABILITY OF WEB SOURCES

1. Who is the author of the article/site?

2. Who published the site?
3. What is the main purpose of the site? Why did the author write it and why did the
publisher post it?
 4. Who is the intended audience?
5. Who is the intended audience?
6. What is the quality of information provided on the website?
EXAMPLES of USEFUL and RELIABLE WEB SOURCES

1. AFA e-Newsletter (Alzheimer’s Foundation of America newsletter)

2. American Memory- the library of Congress historical digital collection
3. [Link] Great Books online- a collection of free e-books including
fictions, nonfictions, reference, and verses.
4. Chronicling America- search and view pages from American newspapers from
1880-1992.
5. Cyber Bullying- a free collection of e-books from library plus additional reports
and documents to help better understand, prevent and take action against this
growing concern.
6. Drugs information websites:

 National Library of Medicine’s Medline Plus

 [Link]
 PDRhealth
7. Global Gateway: World Culture & Resources (from the Library of Congress).

8. Google Books

9. [Link]

10. History sites with primary documents

*AMDOCS: Documents for study of American History

In Law, History and Diplomacy (Yale Law School)

* Avalon project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy (Yale Law School)

* Internet Modern History Sourcebook: colonial Latin America

*Teacher Oz’s kingdom of history

11. Illinois Digital Archives- the Illinois Library Working

12. Internet Archive- a digital library of internet sites and other cultural artifacts in
digital form.

13. Internet Archive for CARLI digitized resources.

14. Internet Public Library

15. ipl2- a merger of librarians’ Internet Index and Internet Public Library.

16. Librarians’ Internet Index

17. Making of America- digital library of primary sources in American social history.
18. Maps- from the University of Texas at Austin collection. Includes historical the
thematic maps.

19. Nation Master- a massive central data source and a handy way to graphically
compare nations.

20. Nursing sites:

*ARHQ ([Link])

* National Guidelines Clearinghouse ([Link])

*PubMed ([Link])

21. Project Gutenberg- the first and largest single collection of free electronic books
with currently over 20,000 e-books available.

22. Shmoop- literature, US history, and poetry information written primarily by PhD and
masters students from top universities like Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard, and Yale.

23. Virtual Reference- selected web resources compiled by the Library of Congress.

Lesson 2:
Biodiversity and Healthy Society
Introduction:

• Decrease in biodiversity is eminent worldwide.

• Vertebrates fell to 60% from the 1970s due to human causes.

• The world wide fund for Nature and Zoological Society of London reported an
annual decrease in wildlife by 2%.

CAUSE EFFECT

•Human population which •Decreasing numbers of Wildlife.

doubled in numbers since 1960
to 7.4 billion.

•Human has industrialized the • Those creatures have no place to live that would
natural habitat of wildlife as well eventually cause of their deaths and extinction.
as the marine life.

• Marco Lambirtini

- General Director of WWF International

- He described that the disappearance of wildlife is at an unprecedented rate that the

Earth might enter the sixth mass extinction.

Mass Extinction

• The disappearance of species at a rate of 1,000 faster than the usual. The
extinction of species in a certain environment may cause an imbalance in the
ecosystem, producing more chaotic changes that harm the entire ecosystem.

Remember!

SOCIETY, ENVIRONMENT and HEALTH is interrelated, if human beings fail to

recognize the needs of one of those components, the other remaining components can
be affected.

BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM

Biodiversity

• The vast variety of life forms in the entire Earth. It encompasses all the life forms,
from the single-celled organisms to the largest multi-singled organisms. Its
definition is in the structural and functional perspectives and not as individual
species.

• The variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial,
marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which
they are part; this include diversity within species, between species and of
ecosystems. Biodiversity is the source of the essential goods and ecological
services that constitute the source of life for all and it has direct consumptive
value in food, agriculture, medicine and in industry. (Villaggio Globale, 2009)
 • Bio means life which talks about the living organisms. While the Diversity
means different species and Ecosystem refers to the environment

Example:

• A large number of golden snails in a certain area of a rice field can help predict a
low production of rice harvest, since eggs of the golden snails are considered
pest. On the positive view, the larger number of different species in a certain area
can be a predictor of sustainable life in that area. Sustainability of the ecosystem
ensures a better survival rate against any natural disaster. Therefore, we as
human inhabitants of the ecosystem must preserve and conserve the biodiversity
of all creatures.

• People will depend on biodiversity for the wholeness of our being as well as in
our ecosystem; our health will depend upon the products and services that we
acquire from it.

Human needs are answered and provided by our ecosystem like the
following:

1. The need to drink clean and fresh water.

2. The need to eat healthy vegetables and fruits.

3. The need of man to transport which makes him relies on fuel.

Biodiversity has a direct human impact when the ecosystem can no longer provide the
physical needs and social needs of humans.

We must:

• Keep the process of taking care of the ecosystem to avoid putting our lives in
danger.

CHANGES IN BIODIVERSITY

*Change in Biodiversity could affect the wildlife, marine life as well as the human
beings.

Example:

1. Humans inhabiting the forest would disturb the natural order of life.

2. Trees and plants would be affected in the land—clearing operations when the
houses would be built.

3. Animals, insects, all types of life forms in the cleared area would either be displaced
on most likely be killed.

4. The loss of all life forms could affect the entire Ecosystem. And the food chain might
be damaged.

When our ecosystem is not well taken care of, Biodiversity encounters changes that
may impact human health on such different levels.

THREATS TO BIODIVERSITY
 • Habitat Loss and Destruction

Major contributing factor is the inhabitation of human beings and the use of land for
economic gain.

• Alteration in Ecosystem Composition

Alterations and sudden changes, either within species groups or within the environment
could begin to change entire ecosystems. Alterations in ecosystems are a critical factor
contributing to species and habitat loss.

• Over-exploitation

Over hunting, overfishing, or over collecting of species can quickly lead to its decline.
Changing consumption patterns of humans is often cited as the key reason for this
sustainable exploitation of natural resources.

• Pollution and contamination

Biological systems respond slowly to changes in their surrounding environment.

Pollution and contamination cause irreversible damage to species and varieties.

• Global Climate Change

Both climate variability and climate change because biodiversity loss, Species and
population may be lost permanently if they are not provided with enough time to adapt
to changing climate conditions.

Consequences of Biodiversity Loss

• Intact ecosystems function best since the organisms composing them are
specialized to function in that ecosystem to capture, transfer, utilize and lose both
energy and nutrients. The particular species making up an ecosystem determine
its productivity, affect nutrient cycles and soil contents, and influence
environmental conditions such as water cycles, weather patterns, climate and
other non- biotic aspects.

• The loss of biodiversity has many consequences that we understand, and many
that we do not. It is apparent that humankind is willing to sustain a great deal of
biodiversity loss.

• According to Tillman "The Earth will retain its most striking feature, its
biodiversity, only if humans have the prescience to do so. This will occur it
seems, only if we realize the extent to which we use biodiversity.

NUTRITIONAL IMPACT OF BIODIVERSITY

According to World Health Organization

• Biodiversity is a vital element of a human being's nutrition because of its

influence to food production.
 • Biodiversity is a major factor that contributes food production for human beings.
A society or a population must have access to a sufficient variety of nutritious
food as it is a determinant of their health as human beings.

Nutrition and Biodiversity are linked at many levels:

1. The ecosystem, with food production on ecosystem service

2. The species in the ecosystem

3. The genetic diversity within species

• Intensified and enhance food production through irrigation, use of fertilizer, plant
protection, or the introduction of crop varieties and cropping patterns affect
biodiversity and thus impact global nutritional status and human health

Health, Biology and Biodiversity

• All living organisms are dependent to their environment to live and reproduce.
The air, water, food and habitat are the basis needs of living organisms that were
provided by the environment.

• Advancement in agriculture, sanitation, water treatment and hygiene had a

greater impact on human health than medical technology.

The environment sustains human life but it can also cause diseases such as:

• Lack of basic necessities is a significant cause of human mortality.

The environment sustains human life but it can also cause diseases such as:

• Environment hazards increase the risk of cancer, heart diseases, asthma, and
other illnesses. These hazards can be physical, such as pollution, toxic
chemicals, and food contaminants, or they can be social such as dangerous
work, poor housing conditions, urban sprawl, and poverty.

The environment sustains human life but it can also cause diseases such as:

• Unsafe drinking water and poor sanitation and hygiene are responsible for a
variety of infections such as Schistosomiasis, Diarrhea, Cholera, Meningitis,
and Gastritis.

Environment-Related Illnesses

• Some human illnesses that are found to or related with its environment include:

Parkinson’s disease:

Heart Disease Diabetes

Cancer Obesity

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Occupational injuries

Disease
Arthritis
Asthma
Malaria and Depression
Activities that promote health and extend human life could have adverse
environmental effects:

• Example:

1. Food production causes environmental damage from pesticides and fertilizers.

2. Soil salinization

3. Waste produced by livestock

4. Carbon emissions from food manufacturing and transportation

Activities that promote health and extend human life could have adverse
environmental effects:

5. Deforestation

6. Overfishing

7. Health Care Facilities

According to experts, Climate Change could also have a serious impact on human
health and could deteriorate farming systems and reduce nutrients in some foods.

The issues at the intersection of health and the environment have a benefits and
risks.

• Example

Farmers used pesticides that could help them in increasing crop yields but these
pesticides could also affect the human health as well as the environment.

BUT...

The extreme action of stopping all pesticides use may result to the decreasing of
agricultural productivity that may lead to food shortages and increased food prices
resulting to starvation.

Lesson 3:

GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS (GMO)

Lesson Objectives:

At the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:

O Identify issues on genetically modified organisms (GMO’s);

O Discuss different implications and impact of GMO’s; and
O Create a research paper on the impact of GMO’s in the Philippine context.

INTRODUCTION

In 2001, Rosalie Ellasus, a former overseas Filipino worker in Singapore

turned farmer, attended the Integrated Pest management – Farmers Field school
and was introduced to Bt Corn, a genetically modified corn that is resistant to the
destructive Asian corn borer. Ms. Ellasus volunteered for demo-testing in her
field. Bt Corn yielded 7.2 tons per acre as compared to a regular yield of 4.2 tons
per hectare. No insecticide spraying was needed. This is one of the success
stories of genetically modified organism (GMO’s) (Ongkiko, 2016).
O An antibiotic-resistant E. coli bacterium was created in 1973. To date, there are
ongoing researches on GMOs such as using genetically modified male
mosquitoes as pest control over female mosquito carriers of Zika virus.
O However, despite the many possibilities of creating solutions for problems and
opening doors for innovations, genetic engineering faces much opposition.
Opponents raise ethical, social, and environmental issues related to genetic
engineering and its GMOs.
O It was in 1951 that the term genetic engineering was coined by Jack Williamson,
author of the science fiction novel Dragon’s Island (Stableford, 2004).
O This was years before actual research findings on the DNA’s role in heredity and
its structure, the double-helix of Watson and Crick, were published. Through
continuous search for development, genetic engineering longer stayed in science
fiction novel. It became a reality in science laboratories.
O The general process of genetic engineering is the deliberate manipulation of the
organism’s genes, where it may involve transfer of genes from other organism.

Genetically Modified Organism

O Genetically modified organism (GMO) is the term used for an organism
created through genetic engineering. The World Health Organization (WHO,
2014) Defines GMO as an “organism, plant, animal, or microorganism, in which
 the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur
naturally by mating or natural recombination”.

GMOS IN FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES

The Center for Eco genetics and Environmental Health (CEEH, 2013)
identified the following roles of GMOs in the food and agricultural industries:

Pest resistance is a genetically modified plant to resist certain pests.

An example is Bt Corn. The DNA (genome) of the Bt Corn has been modified with
the gene of Bacillus thuringiensis, a soil bacterium that produces proteins which is toxic
to borers (worms).

Virus resistance is genetically modified plants to resist certain viruses.

An example is GM papaya or rainbow papaya. The papaya ring spot virus

(PRSV) is known to be detrimental to papaya plants. The protein of PRSV was
introduced to the papaya plant through plant tissue which turned out to be resistant to
the virus itself. The effect was like the vaccines humans have against measles or
influenza virus.

Herbicide tolerance is genetically modified plants to tolerate herbicide.

An example is roundup Ready soybean. Glyphosate, an herbicide for weeds,

was introduced to soybeans making it tolerant to the herbicide itself. Farmers then can
spray the herbicide killing the weeds but not the soybeans.

Fortification – genetically modified plants fortified with certain minerals.

An example is Golden Rice. Beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A, was

introduced through biosynthesis genes to the rice, making the rice grains fortified with
vitamin A.
Cosmetic preservation – genetically modified plants resist natural discoloration.

An example is Arctic Apple. The apple variety was genetically modified to

suppress the browning of apple due to superficial damage.

Increase growth rate – a genetically modified organism that has higher yield in growth
than normal species.

An example is Aqua Advantage salmon. Agene from an ocean pout, an eel-like

fish was introduced to Pacific Chinook salmon, making the salmon grow faster than its
normal rate.

GMOS IN NON-FOOD CROPS AND MICROORGANISMS

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in non-food crops and some

microorganisms include the following:

Flower production – GMOs in flower production are seen in modified color and
extended vase life of flowers

Examples are Blue Roses. The so called “blue” roses, which are, in reality, lilac
or purple, contained cyaniding 3.5-diglucoside, together with large amounts of flavones.
The introduction of the flavonoid 31, 51-hydroxylase gene into pelargonidin- or
cyaniding- producing rose cultivars diverts the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway toward
the production of delphinidin glucosides and the flower color to blue (Eloman & Holton,
1994).

Paper production it is modified characteristics of trees for higher yield of paper

production.

Examples are poplar trees. Lignin is a complex polymer in trees that is removed
from wood to make paper through craft process, through inserting genes that code for
frolic acid in young popular trees, the lignin structure is modified, making lignin easier to
breakdown (Veniza, 2014).

A pharmaceutical production is modified plants to produce pharmaceutical products.

Examples are periwinkle plants. Bacterial genes were added to the periwinkle
plants to enhance the production of vinblastine, an alkaloid usually added to drugs for
cancer treatments like Hodgkin’s lymphoma (Runguphan, 2010).

Bioremediation – use of modified plants that can assist in the bioremediation of

polluted sites.

An example is Shrub tobacco. Nicotiana glauca, or shrub tobacco genetically

modified with phytochelatin TaPCSI1, is used for bioremediation. It shows high level
accumulation of zinc, lead, cadmium, nickel and boron and produces high biomass.

Enzyme and drug production – used of modified microorganisms that can produce
enzymes for food processing and medicines.

One example of this is CGTase, Cyclomaltodextrin glycosyltransferase

(CGtase), an enzyme used for food flavor enhancer is produced in higher quantity by
bacterium Bacillus which was genetically modified with the gene of a thermophiles
anaerobe, Thermoanaerobacter, carrying CGTase (Pedersen & Jorgensen, 1995).

Another example is Artemisia. Artemesinic acid is a compound used for anti-malarial

drug extracted from sweet word wood plant. Through genetic engineering, it can be
synthetically produced by yeast and bacteria by sweet word wood plant gene (Zimmer,
2006).

POTENTIAL RISKS OF GMOS

• Higher efficiency in farming – with the use of pesticide-resistant/herbicide-

tolerant GMO crops, there will be less use for herbicides/pesticides, and lower
cost for labor and cultivation.
 Increase in harvest – GMO crops resistant to pests and diseases means
increase in potential growth and harvest.
 Control in fertility – controlling the purity of the hybrid seeds GMOs seeds)
ensure higher yields.
 Increase in food processing – altered characteristics of GMO crops help ease
food processing.
 Improvement of desirable characteristics – GMOs offer longer shelf life,
enhanced color and taste, enhance production or reduction of enzymes, and
other modified characteristics of plants, animals, and microorganisms.
 Nutritional and pharmaceutical enhancement – GMO crops like maize fortified
with vitamin A and iron. There are now edible vaccines for viral and diarrheal
diseases.
 Reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides

BENEFITS OF GMOS

More allergic reactions – GMO food may trigger more allergic reactions, more
so create new ones, as side effect of the gene alteration.

Gene mutation – GMO food may develop abnormalities and mutation, more
than the desired product of the gene alteration.

Antibiotic resistance – GMO foo contains antibiotic-resistant genes; this may

cause disease causing bacteria likely to be more antibiotic-resistant too,
increasing the possibility of widespread of the disease.

Nutritional value – GMO food may have change in their nutritional value.

Potential Environmental Risks Caused of GMOs

Risk in gene flow – there is a potential risk of the modified gene to be

transferred from the GMO crop to its wild relative or organism in the soil and
human intestine (when ingested).
 Example, a decaying GMO plant could possibly transfer the
modified genes to the bacteria and fungi in the soil. Bacteria and fungi are
capable of using a genetic material from their surroundings. There are no studies
yet on the effects of the absorbed modified gene to the other organisms.

Emergence of new forms and resistance and secondary pests and weed
problems – GMO crop resistant to certain pesticides may trigger new form of pest
resistance while GMO herbicide-tolerant crops may lead to the over use of the
herbicides which may trigger a new form of pest resistance.

Recombination of Virus and Bacteria to Produce New Pathogens – the modified

gene can be transferred and integrated in the viral or bacterial genes which may
lead to viral or bacterial gene modification or mutation. This living modified virus
and bacteria may then cause new disease that may affect other organisms
including human beings.

Other Direct and Indirect Environmental Risk Caused by GMOs (Mulfino

and Zucco) 2008

Direct environmental risks are:

 Introduction of the GMOs in the natural environment may cause disruption of the
natural communities through competition or interference;
 The possibility of unexpected behavior of the GMOs in the environment if it
escapes its intended use and may post threats or become pest;
 May cause harmful effects to ecosystem processes if GMOs interfere with the
natural biochemical cycles; and
 The persistence of GMO genes after its harvest which may cause negative
impacts to the consumer of GMO products.

Direct environmental risks are:

 Alteration of agricultural practices like managing negative impacts of GMO’s to

the environment such as evolution of insects, pest, and weeds that become
resistant to GMO crops.
 May have impacts to biodiversity cause by the alteration in the agricultural
practices; and
 May have varied environmental impacts due to GMO’s interaction and release in
the natural environment.
Potential Human Health Risk Caused by GMOs

Some potential health risks are identified (Akhter, 2001), such as:

 Consumption of GMOs may have adverse effect since it is not naturally or

organically produced;
 Consumption of GMOs may alter the balance of existing microorganisms in the
human digestive system;
 Production of toxins may be detrimental to human health; and
 Production of allergens may have adverse effects on humans.
Other potential risks that raise major concern are:

 Human Genome Project (HGP) – Mapping of human genes to provide framework

for research and studies in the field of medicine.
 Mutation of genetically engineered microorganisms – Genetically modified
bacteria and viruses may mutate to become more resistant or virulent that may
cause more dreadful diseases for human beings.
 Cloning – The asexual reproduction of an organism using parent cell through
genetic engineering. In February 24, 1997, the first mammal, Dolly, a sheep from
Scotland was born through cloning. With its celebrated success came the fear of
human cloning. It emerged the ethical issue of man “playing God.”

 Biosafety on GMOs
There are initiatives for the protection of the general human population regarding
the issues and concerns about GMOs. International organizations developed
principles and treaties that somehow ensure biosafety on GMOs. Some of these
initiatives as follow:

 The Codex Alimentarius commission (codex). The food and Agricultural

Organization (FAO) together with the World Health Organization (WHO) created
The Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex). Codex is an intergovernmental
body that develops the Codex Alimentarius; known as the International Food
Code. Codex is responsible for the development of standards, codes of
practices, guidelines, and recommendations on food safety. However the Codex
principles has no binding effect on national legislation but through the sanitary
and phytosanitary measures of the World Trade Organization, National
legislators are encouraged to complement their national standards with the
Codex Principles (WHO, 2014).
 Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. Established in 2003, Cartagena Protocol is
an international environmental treaty that regulates the trans boundary
movements of Living Modified Organisms (LMOs). The Cartagena protocol
requires exporters to seek consent from the importers before its first shipment of
LMOs (WHO, 2014).
 International Trade Agreement on labeling of GM food and food products.
The agreement requires exporters of GM food and food products to label their
products and give rights to importing parties to reject or accept the GM products.
The premise of these policies that consumers have the right to know and the
freedom to choose GM or non-GM products (Whitman, 2000).
The World Health Organization (WHO, 2014) claims that all GM products that
are available in the international markets have passed safety assessment by
national authorities. The safety assessments basically look at the environmental
and health risk factors and food safety usually follows the Codex Food Code.

GMOS IN PHILIPPINES CONTEXT

The GMO concern started in the 1990s with the creation of the National
Committee on biosafety of the Philippines (NCBP) through Executive Order No.
430 of 1990.

The NCBP developed the guidelines on the planned released of genetically

manipulated organisms (GMOs) and potentially harmful exotic species in 1998.

In 2000, the Department of agriculture released Administrative Order No. 8, the

guideline for the importation and released into the environment of GM plants and
plants products. On that same year, the entry of GMO importation started
(Baumuller, 2003). The Philippines was marked to be the first country in Asia that
approved commercial cultivation of GMOs when GM corn planting was approved
in2002 (Serapio & and Dela Cruz, 2016).

From December 2002 to present, there are 70 GMO applications approved by

the Department of Agriculture for the release to the environment, 62 GMOs of
which are approved for food feed and processing and the remaining 8 were
approved for propagation (Aruelo, 2016).

In 2004,the Philippines was classified by International Service for acquisition of

agri-biotech applications as one of the fourteen biotech-mega countries which
grow 50,00 hectares or more GMO crops annually (James, 2004). In that same
year, Senator Juan Flavier authored a bill on the mandatory labeling of food and
food products with GMOs. The senate did not pass the bill.

In 2006, the Philippines become part of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. In

the same year, Executive Order No. 514 was issued to address the biosafety
requirements of the Cartagena Protocol and the establishment of the National
Biosafety Framework (NBF).

In 2010, the Organic Agriculture Act was issued, encouraging organic agriculture
than GMO-related agriculture. Prior to this act, there are several provinces like
Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental which agreed to support organic
agriculture.

There was the establishment of the Negros Organic Island through a

memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the two provinces in 2005. With
this MOA the two provinces were able to ban the entry of GMOs and living GMOs
to their provinces through provincial ordinance. Similar to this case, Davao City
passed the Organic Agriculture Ordinance in [Link] city ordinance helps the
prevention of field testing of GM BT eggplant in the UP Mindanao Campus
(Aruelo, 2016).

In 2012, Representative Teddy Casino, together with other congressmen, fields a

bill pushing for the mandatory labeling of GM food and food products. To date
there is no Philippine biosafety law, only biosafety regulations formed under NBF.
 A study on the biosafety regulations of the Philippines concluded that the existing
regulation is weak, which can be fixed through legislation such as a republic act
(Richmond, 2006).

In December 2015, the Supreme Court ordered to put an end to the field testing
of GMO Bt eggplant and declared Administrative Order No. 8, series of 2002 of
the Department of Agriculture as null and void. This means that any actions or
procedures related to GMO importations and propagation is temporarily put to
stop until a new administrative order is issued in accordance with the law.

In March 7, 2016, five government agencies namely, the Department of Science

and Technology, Department of Agriculture, Department of Environment and
Natural Resources, Department of Health, and Department of the Interior and
Local Government, passed a Joint Department Circular No. 1, series of 2016 on
rules and regulations for the research and development, handling and use, trans
boundary movement, release in the environment, and management of the
genetically modified plant and plant products derived from the use of modern
biotechnology. This joint department circular paves way to issuance of new
permits for planting and importing GM crops in the country.

Lesson 4:

THE NANO WORLD

Scientific researchers have developed new technological tools that greatly

improve different aspects of our lives. The use of Nano scale is one important
interdisciplinary area generated by advancement in science and technology. Scientist
and Engineers were able to build materials with innovative properties as they
manipulate Nano materials. Indeed, research and application of knowledge on Nano
materials will continue to bring widespread implications in various areas of the society,
especially health care, environment, food, energy, water and agriculture.

The concepts of Nanotechnology and Nano science started in December 29,

1959 when Physicist Richard Feynman discussed a method in which scientist can direct
and control individual atoms and molecules in his talk “there’s plenty of room at the
bottom” during the American Physical Society meeting at the California Institute of
Technology. The term “nanotechnology” was coined by Professor Norio Taniguchi a
decayed after the dawn of the use of ultra-precision machining. (NNI, 2017)

The Nano scale is the dimensional range of approximately 1 to 100 nanometers. But
what does this really mean?

 To begin, take a look at the back of your hand. Using just your eyes you can
focus down to a scale of 1 centimeter to 1 millimeter. At this scale the skin looks
flat. However, get out a magnifying glass and you can see it’s actually wrinkly
with cracks and folds. The magnifying glass allows you to study the fine structure
of the skin at less than a millimeter (or one-thousandth of a meter).
 If you were to look more closely with a microscope you could examine the cells
that make up your skin. Now you’re working at the scale of micrometers (one-
thousandth of a millimeters), sometimes referred to as the micro world.
 Cells and bacteria are measured in micrometers.
 To reach the Nano world you have to go smaller again. A nanometer (nm) is 10⁻⁹
meters, which is one-thousandth of a micrometer, or one-billionth of a meter. This
is the scale at which we measure atoms and the molecules they make.
 Nano science has the potential to reshape the world around us. It could lead to
revolutionary breakthroughs in fields ranging from manufacturing to health care.
So the old adage might just be true after all—good things come in small
packages.

HOW TO VIEW NANOMATERIALS?

Scientist use special types of microscopes to view minute nanomaterial. During

the early 1930’s, scientists used electron microscopes and field microscopes to look at
the Nano scale. The scanning tunneling microscope and atomic force microscope are
just among the modern and remarkable advancements in microscopy.

ELECTRON MICROSCOPE

 In 1931 the German engineers Ernst Ruska and Maxi million Knoll succeeded in
magnifying and electron image. This was, in retrospect, the moment of the
 invention of the electron microscope but the first prototype was actually built by
Ruska in 1933 and was capable of resolving to 50 nm.
 The electron microscope is a type of microscope that uses a beam of electrons to
create an image of the specimen. It is capable of much higher magnifications and
has a greater resolving power than a light microscope, allowing it to see much
smaller objects in finer detail. They are large, expensive pieces of equipment,
generally standing alone in a small, specially designed room and requiring
trained personnel to operate them.

ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPE (AFM)

 An atomic force microscope is a type of high resolution scanning probe
microscope that has a resolution that you can measure in fractions of a
nanometer.
 It was pioneered in 1986 by Nobel Prize Winner Gerd Binnig along with Calvin
Quate and Christoph Gerber.
 The development of the family of scanning probe microscopes started with the
original invention of the STM in 1981. Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer
developed the first working STM while working at IBM Zurich Research
Laboratories in Switzerland. This instrument would later win Binnig and Rohrer
the Nobel prize in physics in 1986.
SCANNING TUNNELING
MICROSCOPE

The development of the family

of scanning probe
microscopes started with the original
invention of the STM in 1981. Gerd
Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer
developed the first working STM
while working at IBM Zurich
Research Laboratories in
Switzerland. This instrument would
later win Binnig and Rohrer the
Nobel Prize in physics in 1986.

NANOMANUFACTURING

It refers to scaled-up, reliable, and cost-effective manufacturing of Nano scale materials,

structures, devices, and systems. It also involves research, improvement, and
incorporation of processes for the construction of materials.

Two fundamental approaches to Nano manufacturing:

 Bottom-up
  Bottom-down
Bottom-up Fabrication

 It manufactures products by building them up from atomic- and molecular-scale

components. However, this method can be time-consuming. Scientists and
engineers are still in search for effective ways of putting up together molecular
components that self-assemble and from the bottom-up to organized structures.
TOP-DOWN FABRICATION

 It trims down large pieces of materials into Nano scale. This process needs
larger amounts of materials and discards excess raw materials.
There are new approaches to the assembly of nanomaterial based from the application
of principles in top-down and bottom-up fabrication.

These include:

 Dip pen lithography

It is a method in which the tip
of an atomic force microscope is
“dipped” into a chemical fluid and
then utilized to “write” on a surface,
like an old fashioned ink pen onto
paper.

Self- assembly

 It depicts an approach
wherein a set of components
join together to mold an organized structure in the absence of an outside
direction.
Chemical Vapor Deposition

 It is a procedure wherein chemicals act in response to form very pure, high-

performance films.
Nano imprint Lithography

 It is a method of generating Nano scale

attributes by “stamping” or “printing” them
onto a surface.

Molecular Beam Epitaxial

 It is one manner for depositing extremely

controlled thin films.
Roll-to-Roll Processing

 It is a high-volume practice for

constructing Nano scale devices on a roll
of ultrathin plastic or metal.
Atomic Layer Epitaxy

 It is a means for laying down one- atom-

thick layers on a surface.

DISTINCT FEATURES OF NANOSCALE

Nanotechnology involves operating at a very small dimensions and it allows scientists to

make used of the exceptional optical, chemical, physical, mechanical, and biological
qualities of materials of that small scale.

1). Scale at which biology occurs

 Various activities of the cells take place at the Nano scale. The deoxyribonucleic
acid (DNA) serves as the genetic material of the cell and is only about 2
nanometers in diameter. Furthermore, the hemoglobin that transports oxygen to
the tissues throughout the body is 5.5 nanometers in diameters.
2. Scale at which quantum effects dominate properties of materials

Particles with dimensions of 1-100 nanometers have properties that are

significantly discrete from particles of bigger dimensions. Quantum effects direct the
behavior and properties of particles in this size scale. The properties of materials are
highly dependent on their size.

3. Nano scale materials have far longer surface areas than similar masses of larger-
scale materials as we increase per area the surface area per mass of a particular
material, a greater amount of the material comes in contact with another material and
can affect its reactivity.

GOVERNMENT FUNDING FOR NANOTECHNOLOGY IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES

(DAYRIT, 2OO5)

1. U.S National Nanotechnology Initiative

• The best-known and most-funded program is the National Nano technology
Initiative of the United States.
The NNI was established in 2001 to coordinate U.S. lateral nanotechnology R&D. The
NNI budget in 2008 and 2009 were $1.4 billion and $1.5 billion, respectively.

2. European Commission

• In February 2008, the EC officially launched the European Nano electronics

Initiative Advisory Council (ENIAC).
• 3. Japan ( Nanotechnology Research Institute, under the National Institute for
Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, AIST)
• 4. Taiwan ( Taiwan National Science and Technology Program for Nano science
and Nanotechnology)
• 5. India ( Nanotechnology Research and Education Foundation)
• 6. China (National Centre for Nano science and Technology)
• 7. Israel ( Israel National Nanotechnology Initiative)
• 8. Australia (Australian Office of Nanotechnology)
• 9. Canada ( National Institute for Nanotechnology or NINT)
• 10. South Korea ( Korea National Nanotechnology Initiative)
• 11. Thailand ( National Nanotechnology Centre or NANOTEC)
• 12. MALYSIA ( National [Malaysia] Nanotechnology initiative or NNI)

POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS OF NANOTECHNOLOGY IN THE PHILIPPINES (Dayrit,

2005)
 1. IC and semiconductors
2. Health and medicine
3. Energy
4. Food and agriculture
5. Environment
NANOTECH ROADMAP FOR THE PHILIPPINES (funded by PCAS TRD-DOST)

6. ICT and semiconductors

7. Health and biochemical
8. Energy
9. Environment
10. Agriculture and Food
11. Health and environmental risk
12. Nano-metrology
13. Education and public awareness
Benefits and Concerns of using Nanotechnology

1. Nanotechnology is not a single technology; it may become pervasive.

2. Nanotechnology seeks to develop new materials with specific properties.
3. Nanotechnology may introduce new efficiencies and paradigms which may make
some natural resources and current practices uncompetitive or obsolete.
4. It may be complicated to detect its presence unless one has the specialist tools
of nanotechnology.
Lesson 5:

The Aspects of Gene Therapy

LESSON OBJECTIVES:

 At the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:

1. Describe Gene Therapy and its various forms, and

2. Assess the issue's potential benefits and detriments to global health.

INTRODUCTION

 Medical science has detected many human diseases related to defected genes.
  These types of diseases are not curable by traditional methods like taking readily
available medicines. Gene therapy is a potential method to either treat or cure
genetic related human illnesses.

 In 2015, a team of researchers at the Harvard Medical School and the Boston
Children's Hospital stated that they were able to restore basic hearing in
genetically deaf mice using Gene therapy.

 The Boston Children's Hospital research team also reported that they have
restored a higher level of hearing down to 25 decibels which is actually
equivalent to a whisper. Without a doubt Gene therapy is the most promising yet
possibly unfavorable medical field being studied.

THE BASIC PROCESS

There are several approaches of Gene therapy. These are the following (Fliesler, 2017)

1. Replacement of mutated gene that cause disease with a healthy copy of the gene.

2. Inactivation of a mutated gene that is functioning improperly.

3. Introducing a new gene into the body to help fight a disease.

In general, a gene cannot be directly inserted into a human gene or cell. A gene is
inserted into another gene using carrier or vector.

TWO TYPES OF GENE THERAPHY

 SOMATIC GENE THERAPY

 GERM- LINE GENE THERAPY

The idea of Gene therapy is based on correcting a disease at its roots; fixing the
abnormal genes that appear to lead certain diseases.

 Somatic gene
therapy involves
the manipulation of
genes in cell that
will be helpful to the
patient but not
inherited to the next
generation.
(Nimsergern 1988).

 Germ-line gene
therapy involves
the genetic
modification of germ
cells or the origin
cells that will pass
the change on to
the next generation. (Your Genome, 2017)
STEM CELL GENE THERAPY

 Stem cells are mother cells that have the potential to become any type of cell in
the body. One of the main characteristics of stem cells is their ability to self-
renew or multiply while maintaining the potential to develop into other type of
cells. Stem cell can become cells of blood, heart, bones, skin, muscles, and
brain, among others.

 Stem cells are derived from different sources. Two of which are embryonic and
somatic stem cells

 Embryonic stem cells are derived from a four or five- day- old human embryo
that is in the blastocyst phase of development. The embryos are usually extras
that have been created in IVF (In vitro Fertilization) clinics where several eggs
are fertilized in a test tube then implanted into a woman (Crosta, 2013).

 The somatic stem

cells are cells that
exist throughout the
body after embryonic
development and are
found inside of
different types of
tissue. These stem
cell have been found
in tissue such as the
brain, bone marrow,
blood, blood vessel,
skeletal muscles, skin
and the liver.

THE BIOETHICS OF GENE THERAPY

  There are ethical issues involved in gene therapy. Some of the inquiries cited are
( Genetics Home Reference, 2017)

1. How can "good" and " bad" use of Gene therapy be distinguished?

2. Who decides which traits are normal and which constitute a disability or disorder?

3. Will the high cost of Gene therapy make it available only to the wealthy?

4. Could the widespread use of Gene therapy make society less accepting of
people who are different?

5. What should people be allowed to use gene therapy to enhance basic human traits
such as height, intelligence or athletic ability?

 Another controversy involves the Germ-line therapy. As discussed Germ-line

therapy is genetic modification of germ cells that will pass the change on the next
generation.

Lesson 6:
Climate Change

LESSON OBJECTIVES:

It refers to the statistically significant changes in climate for continuous period of time.
 Factors that contribute to climate change can be natural internal process,
external forces, and the persistent anthropogenic changes in the composition of
the atmosphere or in hand use. It can also be due to the natural occurrences or
contributed by acts of human beings.
NATURAL FACTORS

VOLCANIC ERUPTION

Volcanic eruptions are one of the natural causes of climate change.

When volcanoes erupt, it emits different natural aerosols like carbon dioxide,
sulfur dioxides, salt crystals, volcanic ashes or dust, and even microorganisms
like bacteria and viruses.
The volcanic eruption can cause cooling effect to the lithosphere because its
emitted aerosol can block a certain percentage of solar radiation. This cooling
effect can last for one to two years.
ORBITAL CHANGES

Earth's Orbit can also cause Climate Change. This was proposed by the
milankovitch theory.
The Milankovitch theory States "that the earth travel through space around the
sun, cyclical variations in three elements of Earth-sun geometry combine to
produce variations in the amount of solar energy that reaches Earth (Academic
Emporia, 2017).
 ECCENTRICITY
It is a term used to describe the shape of Earth's orbit around the sun.
The impact of the variation is a change in the amount of solar energy from
perihelion (around January 3) to aphelion (around July 4).
The time frame for the cycle is approximately 98,000 years (Academic Emporia,
2017).
The eccentricity influences seasonal differences when earth closest to the sun, it
gets more solar radiation.
If the perihelion occurs during the winter, the winter is less severe. If a
hemisphere has its summer while closest to the Sun, summers are relatively
warm.
 OBLIQUITY
It is a variation of the tilt of the Earth's axis away from the orbital plane.
As this tilt changes, the seasons become more exaggerated.
The obliquity changes on a cycle taking approximately 40,000 years.
Academic Emporia (2017) states "the more tilt means more severe seasons-----
warmer summers and cooler winters; less tilt means less severe seasons-----
cooler summers and milder winters."

 PRECCESSION
It is the change in orientation of Earth's rotational axis. The precession
cycle takes about 19,000 to 23,000 years.
- Precession is caused by two factors: a turning of Earth's axis and a turning
around of the elliptical orbit of Earth itself (Academic Emporia 2017)
Obliquity affected the tilt of Earth's axis, precession affects the direction of
Earth's axis. The change in the axis location changes the dates of perihelion
(closest to the sun) and aphelion (farthest distance from the sun), and this
increase the seasonal contrast in one hemisphere while decreasing it in the other
hemisphere (Academic Emporia, 2017).

CARBON DIOXIDE THEORY

Carbon dioxide (CO²) is added when power and heat are produced by burning
coal, oil, and other fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide is transparent to sunshine but not
invisible to infrared (heat) radiation leaving the ground. Carbon dioxide absorbs part of
infrared radiation in the air and returns it to the ground keeping the air near the surface
warmer than it would be if the carbon dioxide did not act like a blanket. Doubling the
carbon dioxide raises the temperature to 2°C to 3°C.

HUMAN ACTIVITIES

The largest known contribution comes from the burning of fossil fuels, which
releases carbon dioxide gas to the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases and aerosols affect
climate by altering incoming solar radiation and outgoing infrared (thermal) radiation that
are part of Earth's energy balance. Changing the atmospheric abundance or properties
of these gases and particles can lead to a warning or cooling of the climate system.
Four principal Greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide (CO²), Methane (CH⁴), Nitrous oxide
(N²O), and the halocarbons.

The greenhouse gases mentioned are natural gas. However, the high level of gases in
the atmosphere contributes to the greenhouse effect. The increasing amount of these
gases is due to human activities. High level of carbon dioxide comes from fuel use in
transportation; and the building, heating, cooling, and manufacture of cement and other
goods. Deforestation releases carbon dioxide and reduces its uptake by plants. High
methane emission is related to agriculture, natural gas distribution, and landfills. High
nitrous oxide is also emitted by human activities such as fertilizer use and fossil fuel
burning.

Ozone is another Greenhouse gas that is continually produced and destroyed in the
atmosphere by chemical reactions. In the troposphere, human activities have increased
ozone through the release of gases such as carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and and
nitrogen oxide, which chemically react to produce ozone. (IPCC, 2017). On September
16, 1986, an international treaty was. It is called the Montreal Protocol. The treaty aimed
to regulate the production and use of chemicals that contribute to Ozone layer depletion
(Britannica, 2017).

EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON SOCIETY

Climate change could cause severe affects to all life forms around our planet. It
directly affects the basic elements of people's lives like water, food, health, and the
environment.

With the average global temperature which is predicted to rise by 2 to 3°C within the
next fifty years, glaciers will continue to melt faster.

Ocean edification, a direct result of rising carbon dioxide levels, will have major effects
on marine ecosystems, with possible adverse consequences on fish stocks (Stern,
2007).

Climate change will increase worldwide deaths from malnutrition and heat stress.
Vector-borne disease such as malaria and dengue fever could become more
widespread if effective control measures are not in place.

Rising sea levels may result in more flooded areas each year with a warning of 3 to
4°C. There will be serious risks and increasing pressures for coastal protection (Stern,
2007).

Ecosystems will be particularly vulnerable to climate change, with one study estimating
that around 15-40% of species face extinction with 2°C of warming.

Melting or collapse of ice sheets would raise sea levels and eventually threaten at least
4 million Km² of land, which today is home to 5% of the world's population (Stern, 2007).