hey,

im doing a speech on genetics, but i dont know what i should do it on in genetics. any ideas? or does anyone have any other good and interesting speech topics besides genetics.

thanx phoenix

hey' date='

im doing a speech on genetics, but i dont know what i should do it on in genetics. any ideas? or does anyone have any other good and interesting speech topics besides genetics.

thanx phoenix[/quote']

 

Genetics is quite a broad spectrum! I suggest that you decide specifically what it is you want to talk about and then work from there.

 

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Think of something that will grab attention. Something cutting edge and current. If you do a topic on the history of genetics starting from the 1950s and such, people will get bored b/c they could really read all that in a book. Teach them something they couldnt find by themselves (at least without some good hard research first )

One thing that I think might really grab their attention would be the possible link between endogenous retroviruses and placental formation in mammals.

 

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"One thing that I think might really grab their attention would be the possible link between endogenous retroviruses and placental formation in mammals"

 

sounds good, explain some more :P:P

Or how about doing something on pharmacogenomics....very relevant with regards to drug response in individuals etc.

oh ok, hmmmm i dunno

Hey Ice, weren't you going to do the speech about you going to be a youth ambassador?

"One thing that I think might really grab their attention would be the possible link between endogenous retroviruses and placental formation in mammals"

 

sounds good' date=' explain some more :P:P[/quote']

 

Well basically there's a very interesting theory that the inclusion of endogenous retroviruses into the genomes of mammalian ancestors permitted mammals to carry live young as opposed to laying eggs.

 

You can read a brief abstract of the idea here.

 

The text of a New Scientist article about it back in '99 is to be found here. You'll need Abode to read it and it's lacking the pictures that the original article had.

 

These are good places to start any way.

 

I'm sure you'll find some great stuff as well if you Google: "endogenous retrovirus" placental mammalian

 

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