Research Paper

Submitted By ranmas
Words: 2336
Pages: 10
Open Document
AP Language and Composition
5 June 2013
A Rare Occurance: Randy Shows He Has a Heart
I had one close friend for the first seven years of my life. His name was Anthony, the son of my mom’s friend from high school. He had auburn hair like the computer desks we used to draw on and blue eyes that matched the color of his childhood room. His smile was a gleaming bright summer day amongst dreary winter skies and his freckles were the outlines of constellations. He loved to run and loved to play with train sets like those they have in the waiting rooms of doctors’ offices, due to the fact he spent a large amount of his time there. He probably didn’t understand the gravity of his situation, but Anthony was born with many problems revolving around his heart, his spine and his brain. Although none of these originally crippled him physically, most days when I’d ask to go to his house he was either stuck in having a surgery or cat scan or MRI. By the time he was in the second grade, he’d had over six major surgeries to repair a hole in his heart. Eventually, his conditions lessened and lessened and I got to spent more and more time with him and we grew closer and closer and we played and laughed and danced and did everything best friends could do together. However, at the age of eight, Anthony suffered what they originally thought was a brain aneurism and required extensive hospitalized care. After running tests upon tests, the doctors at Centrastate Hospital were able to find what was truly wrong with Anthony his entire life: he had a birth defect known as Metachromatic Leukodystrophy, or MLD. This is a very rare recessive disorder that’s inherited through the genes of parents, and in simple terms, it attacks the nervous system of the body until there is nothing left, until the body is simply a shell and the mind cannot think or act on its own. There is currently no treatment for MLD, and because of that, Anthony has become what many people would consider a “vegetable”, essentially brain dead but still functioning bodily. His auburn hair is now ash gray and paper thin, his blue eyes no longer hold any gleam, he can no longer smile and his freckles are invisible. Because of this, because I really just cannot bear to witness another beautiful kid be destroyed by his own genotype and because its happening far too often with far too little treatment, is why I aspire to be a cytogeneticist, what I consider to be a scientific hero.
Cytogenetics is defined as “the study of chromosomal abnormalities underlying human diseases”, or in more basic terms, the study of genetic disorders and their affects on humans (Careercenter.tamu.edu). As a cytogeneticist, one has to be able to prepare and raise biological substances such as cell cultures, use complex mechanical machines and microscopes to analyze chromatic strains as well as heredity charts, and is required to know how to engage in techniques like fluorescence microscopy (the use of radiation to view substances instead of a reflection), agarose gel electrophoresis (a process which allows one to view singular strands of DNA fiber), and PCR (the replication of many DNA strands in order to get a broader view of a disease). My typical day would most likely involve the use of one or more of these techniques in a closed facility to do research on diseases like MLD, as well as other more common chromosomal disorders like Downs Syndrome and Edward’s Syndrome. I’ve always had a strong love for biology (especially the concepts of heredity and genetics – I used to draw Punnett Squares for fun!), and this field essentially encapsulates everything I’d enjoyed learning about in class. The career, does, however involve a few personal drawbacks; it involves working with substances such as blood, amniotic fluid and tumors, which is a bit of a challenge because I’m quite squeamish about those particular body parts, and it requires exhaustive work hours that require a kind of patience I have to develop before I
Show More

Related Documents: Research Paper

research paper

Research Paper 1 How safe are the government facilities? Rebecca Leon Empire State University Business Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery Diane Delucia April 01, 2015 Research Paper 2 On March 9th 2015 an email was sent out to every Army…

Words 1122 - Pages 5

Research Paper

Research papers are a common type of paper for students to write, especially when they are attending college. These papers require students to perform research, such as utilizing primary and secondary sources to draw new conclusions. For students who have not written this type of paper before, it may seem daunting. There are many free sample research papers online for those who want to see how to structure their paper and other details.Diane Hacker, an author who writes manuals for students writing…

Words 307 - Pages 2

IT Research Paper

Research Paper MELKIA WATERS Mwaters17@capellauniversity.edu IT3006 PROF. JULIA KRUMMEN Nov. 10, 2013 Identifying Improved Methodology to Procure HIT Software Benefits Users Introduction Researchers conducted a study conducted at The University of Utah Healthcare system (comprising of 3 major hospitals) on the usability of their health information technology (HIT) software. Evaluators found 60 usability problems and 233 heuristic violations (Guo et al., 2011). Heuristic is defined by Oxford Dictionaries…

Words 1892 - Pages 8

Research Paper

25099373 CNF15_3 Research Methods Research Proposal Word Count: 1210 A look into the Memory Retention: Can stimulants increase a person’s memory? A quantitative research proposal. For this research proposal, memory will be looked into to see whether a person’s memory can be increased via the intake of stimulants. This quantitative research will then look into whether there are any future benefits in consuming stimulants if memory is found to be increased. There is already research similar in nature…

Words 1359 - Pages 6

Research Paper

Research Paper EDUC 600 Pamela Noble Dr. Albright Liberty University Abstract Billions of dollars are spent every year on psychologist, psychiatrist, and counselors only to discover that one of the key elements missing in their child is resiliency. Resiliency for the purpose of this study is defined as the appropriate personality such as strength and positive adaptation that help a person or family cope with stress or life difficulties, increasing the likelihood of…

Words 514 - Pages 3

Research Paper

Research Paper How does an imposed requirement of regularly identifying exposure to operational risk benefit an insurance company? Executive Summary The topic of this research paper is how an imposed requirement of regularly identifying exposure to operational risk benefits an insurance company. Risks occur naturally in all business, but if risk is not controlled, there are plenty of consequences that can arise. Insurance companies deal with risk everyday, ranging from fraud, car theft, health…

Words 2609 - Pages 11

Research Paper

Comparison of the Sciences SSC101 Research Assignment Module 7 Saint Leo University December 08, 2012 The three social sciences below are defined as according to the Merriam-Webster on line dictionary. www.merriam-webster.com Anthropology 1: the science of human beings; especially : the study of human beings and their ancestors through time and space and in relation to physical character, environmental and social relations, and culture 2: theology dealing with the origin,…

Words 2578 - Pages 11

Research Paper

amount Americans drink today by three and you'll have an idea what much of the nineteenth century was like.” So how does someone become an alcoholic? This has to do with a combination of genetic, physiological, psychological and social factors. Research have discovered that children of alcoholics are four times more likely to become alcoholics themselves. Children of alcoholic parents are raised in the environment where drinking is okay and they tend to pick up the drinking habit from their parents…

Words 1766 - Pages 8

Research Paper

you commit yourself to. This way of thinking really reflects on the type of writing process I endure. While writing I really focus on how I want to identify myself, what questions I wish to discover, and how this idea might change me. To begin my paper I use an outline. On this outline at the top of the page I write my main topic that I wish to write about. After I have created the topic, I then write a list of ideas that relate to what I want to talk about. Out of the ten ideas I create I choose…

Words 2972 - Pages 12

Research Paper

their perception, influence mood for the better, and use for relaxation purposes. However, many people have a delusional assumption regarding this drug. This is because they are under the impression that marijuana is harmless; this is not the case. A research conducted by Boothroyd found that the use of the drug impinges on the brain that is responsible for memory consequently causing memory loss (Boothroyd, 127). The drug also affects learning capabilities of the victim as well as the attention span…

Words 2236 - Pages 9