Schindler's List Reflection

Oskar Schindler was a German business man in Germany. He used many of the Jewish people to work for him during the World War II for cheap labor because all he cared about was being able to make tons of money. He also hired a Jewish worker named He hires Itzhak Sternto be his accountant and to organize everything for him. By being close to Itzhak Sternto, he realized that the things that the Nazis were doing to the Jews were cruel so he decided to help the Jews by hiring around 1100 of them so that they could work in a safe environment.

1. What does the word power mean to you? What does it mean to Goethe? What does it mean to Schindler? Do these people misuse power?

In my opinion, power means having control of certain things. In the movie power means abilities to force and control a huge population of Jewish people. Yes, the people in this movie misused their power because they took advantage of it.

2. Schindler went from being an "antihero" to a hero. What specific events did he experience and realizations did he have to create this transformation.

After seeing many people getting executed, Schindler realized that he should save as many Jews as he can instead of making them work for cheap labor. At the end of the movie, many Jews viewed him as a hero because he actually saved thousands of them.

3. Did you think this film was effective? Why? Why not?

I believed that this film was effective because the scene in the film was very powerful it gave many people ideas of what it was like during the holocaust and what Hitler did to execute the Jews. This film also showed how Schindler change the society by saving many Jews.

Stem cell research vs. Religion

From this website, I learned that religion has a major part in stem cell research. Roman Catholicism believes that when soul enters the body, sperm and eggs reunites. They also believe that it is against gods will to do experiments on human. Pope John Paul said that making a human embryos are not morally expectable. Lisa Sowle Cahill, a professor at Boston College has her own ways to describe the issue between stem cell research and religion. She thinks that there is a philosophically reason why the whole embryo idea is a person’s strict religious beliefs.

Things I would like to know after reading this article:

What is the point of the whole philosophically reasons ?
Is there any other ways to do stem cell transplantation with out hurting other people’s religion ?

Fundamentals of the stem cells debate

From a book called Fundamentals of the Stem Cells Debates by Kristen Renwick Monroe, Ronald B. Miller, and Jerome S. Tobis, I learned that stem cells are unspecified cells that are found in the embryos and the later life stage of an animal, including humans. Stem cells can pretty much renew themselves while being unspecified. Biologists today are developing more rigorous and convenient methods to identify them. In the mammalian embryo, following fertilization of the eggs by a sperm. Several cell divisions take place without any growth in total volume so the cells can get progressively smaller. Scientist believes that an adult stem cell is more specified than embryonic stem cell.


Things I would like to know after reading this article:

Why is the adult stem cell more specified than embryonic stem cell ?
How can stem cell renew themselves quickly?
What are unspecified stem cells ?

Researchers Control Diabetes in Mice by Using Stem Cell

From the New York Times article, I learned that researchers today are trying to use embryonic cell to provide insulin producing replacement cells to treat the disease in people. Expert say that cells might not be well characterized at this point for people and it would take several years before they start the human test. Based on the article, embryonic stem cells can turned in to any type of cell in the body and it could be an islet cells. During the year of 2006, researchers had turned human embryonic stem cells into insulin producing cells that can possibly help people with diabetes in the future. Also scientist had destroyed the mice’s islet cells by using toxin and animals that receives the human cells are continues to produce insulin and control their blood sugar.

Things I would like to know after reading this article:

Why do researchers use to mice’s to do the testing?
How did the researcher turn the human embryonic cells into insulin?
What are islet cells?

Stem Cell Controversy

For this PBS article, I learned that there’s lots of controversy going with stem cells. Today researchers are still learning how the bodies use stem cells to regenerate tissue. Stem cells are unspecialized cells that can possibly renew themselves for a long period of time through cell division. There are different types of stem cells. One of those would be the adult stem cell. Adult stem cells are unspecialized and they exist in a very small numbers of cells in an adult organ or tissue. They can be rare based in researchers. The second one would be embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are taken from embryos. They were first isolated in mice 20 years ago.


Things I would like to know after reading this article:

1)Why do the doctors use embryonic stem cells to isolate mice?

2)What is a cell division?

3)Where do they get embryonic stem cells?

Stem cell transplantation

From Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF), I learned that stem cell transplantation can treat many patients with myeloma. Doctors usually use stem cell transplant to destroy myeloma cells. The first thing that the doctors have to do is collect stem cells from donors or patient, and then they froze and store them until it is needed. The patient with myeloma has to receive the stem cells through high-dose chemotherapy and then the stem cells are implant on the patients’ blood streams.

Things I would like to know after reading this article:

What are the side effects that a patient can get from this procedure?
Does this procedure actually work?
What are the pros and cons about stem cell transplantation ?

Properties of stem cells

From this NIH website, I learned that when a stem cell divides, each and every new cell can either remain as a stem cell or become another type of cells, such as red blood cell, brain cell, or muscle cell. Stem cell can also renew themselves for a long period of time through other cells. Scientists are trying to find out what causes certain things to happen like the factors of living organism that normally regulate stem cell that renew it self


Things that I would like to know after reading this article:
1.What causes stem cells to produce?
2.How can stem cells renew it self?
3.What are adult stem cells?