Writing Practice: Modern Day Frankenstein

Write at least 8 sentences to answer the prompt below:

After reading the passage below, explain how you feel about the modern day Frankenstein experiments you read about. Discuss whether or not you think these experiments are ethical or not. Remember to explain why you think they are ethical or not.

In the classic sci-fi novel Frankenstein, a mad scientist builds a walking, talking monster man out of bits of dead bodies and sparks it to life. No scientists are attempting to do such a thing today. But plenty of researchers are tampering with organic parts in other ways. And some of their work, at a glance, may appear just as mad.

Researchers, for instance, have hacked the electrical signals between cells to change how animals grow tissue. They’ve coaxed tadpoles to grow eyes inside their guts and frogs to grow brain tissue elsewhere in their bodies. This research may lay the groundwork to someday regrow lost organs in people.

Other scientists are combining pieces of living tissue in strange and creative ways. Some innovators are building robots that are part creature, part machine. Such “biohybrid” robots could one day be used in medicine or to clean up pollution. Meanwhile, 3-D printed meat made from an ink of lab-grown cells could offer an alternative to eating animals.

Still other research efforts are attempting to give dead things new life. Ancient DNA could help revive long-extinct species. And robots made from dead spiders are helping engineers rethink how to make mechanical grabbers.

It remains unclear how such projects will pan out. But one thing is certain: In many ways, modern science is becoming even more fantastical than Frankenstein’s author Mary Shelley could ever have imagined.