Critical Thinking, Ethics, Genetics, and Biotechnology Lecture Notes

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering critical thinking, logical fallacies, scientific literature, ethics, molecular genetics, biotechnology, and chromosomal and environmental sex determination mechanisms.

Critical Thinking

The process of gathering and assessing information in a logical, balanced, and reflective way to reach conclusions justified by reasoned argument based on available evidence.

Clarity

An intellectual standard defined as the quality of being clear, transparent, or easily understood.

Accuracy

An intellectual standard defined as the degree to which a measurement or result conforms to the true, actual, or accepted standard.

Precision

An intellectual standard defined as the degree to which repeated measurements or observations show the same or similar results.

Relevance

An intellectual standard defined as the quality of being closely connected, applicable, or important to the matter at hand.

Depth

An intellectual standard defined as going beyond surface-level answers to grapple with the intrinsic difficulties, layers, and interrelated parts of a problem.

Breadth

An intellectual standard defined as considering an issue from multiple viewpoints, angles, or contexts rather than relying on a single or narrow frame of reference.

Logic

An intellectual standard achieved when thoughts, claims, evidence, and conclusions make sense together and do not contradict each other.

Fairness

An intellectual standard defined as treating all viewpoints, needs, and arguments alike without letting personal feelings, self-interest, or preconceived biases distort the evaluation.

Egocentrism

A barrier to critical thinking characterized by self-centered thinking.

Sociocentrism

A barrier to critical thinking characterized by group-centered thinking.

Unwarranted Assumptions

A barrier to critical thinking consisting of a belief that something is true without proper evidence or justification.

Wishful Thinking

A barrier to critical thinking that involves believing something is true because one wishes it to be true.

Relative Thinking

A barrier to critical thinking characterized by thinking that truth is just a matter of opinion.

Deductive Reasoning

A top-down logical process that moves from general premises to a specific, certain conclusion.

Inductive Reasoning

A bottom-up logical approach that uses specific observations and patterns to build broad, general conclusions.

Correlation

A statistical relationship in which two variables move together.

Causation

A relationship in which one variable directly causes a change in another variable.

Motivated Cognition

The tendency of people to use evidence to support their preconceived notions and preferred outcomes.

Confirmation Bias

Our underlying tendency to notice, focus on, and give greater credence to evidence that fits our existing beliefs.

Logical Fallacy

An error in reasoning that makes an argument look stronger than it actually is.

Ad Hominem

A logical fallacy that involves attacking the person making the argument instead of addressing the argument itself.

Strawman

A logical fallacy that involves distorting someone's position into a weaker version that is easier to knock down.

False Dilemma

A logical fallacy that presents only two options when more alternatives actually exist.

Slippery Slope

A logical fallacy claiming that one small step will inevitably lead to an extreme outcome, without demonstrating how.

False Continuum

A logical fallacy claiming that because there is no sharp boundary line between two things, there is no real difference between them.

Cherry Picking

A logical fallacy that involves pointing only to the evidence that supports a claim while ignoring contrary evidence.

Appeal to Authority

A logical fallacy committed by citing someone outside of their field of expertise.

Bandwagon Fallacy

A logical fallacy relying on the reasoning that because something is popular, it must be true.

Hasty Generalization

A logical fallacy where a broad rule is drawn from too few cases.

Post Hoc

A logical fallacy that asserts because an event followed another, it was directly caused by it.

Scientific Method

A cyclical process of empirical inquiry consisting of observation/question, researching the topic area, forming a hypothesis, testing with an experiment, analyzing data, and reporting conclusions.

Narrative Review

A review article that explains current existing knowledge on a topic, with a scope that varies based on the topic and journal.

Systematic Review

A review article specifically designed to answer a particular question in a field by evaluating existing studies.

Meta-Analysis

A study that compares and combines the findings of previously published studies, conducting new data analysis using published data or data obtained from original study authors.

Research Article

An article based on original research or experiments that collects and analyzes raw data from an original study.

Ethics

The study of what people ought to do, and the concepts used to judge actions, character, and institutions as right or wrong, good or bad, just or unjust.

Morality

The norms already in use and rules a person or community actually lives by, often inherited via custom, religion, upbringing, or law.

Descriptive Ethics

The branch of ethics that reports what groups actually believe and do, typically studied within anthropology and sociology.

Normative Ethics

The core branch of moral theory that argues for standards that ought to guide conduct.

Applied Ethics

The application of moral standards to concrete problems such as medicine, research, war, and professional roles.

Metaethics

The field of ethics that asks what moral claims mean and whether they can be true, occurring prior to descriptive, normative, and applied ethics.

Consequentialism

An ethical theory that judges an act by its outcomes; includes utilitarianism, which holds that the right act produces the greatest overall good.

Deontology

An ethical theory that judges an act by duties, rights, or rules that hold even when breaking them would produce more good.

Virtue Ethics

An ethical theory that judges actions by character, asking what a good person would do and which traits a life should cultivate.

Human Rights

Universal rights belonging to all human beings, regardless of race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, or other status.

Unalienable

A status indicating that a right is unable to be taken away from or given away by the possessor.

$$P < 0.05$$

A statistical threshold signifying that an observed difference is unlikely due to chance alone, making it statistically significant without proving causality.

The Central Dogma

The biological framework describing the flow of genetic information: transcription of DNA into mRNA, followed by translation into polypeptides composed of amino acids.

Restriction Enzymes

Enzymes capable of cutting DNA strands at specific target sequence sites.

Ligase

An enzyme that recombines DNA strands together through ligation.

Angiogenesis

The biological process through which new capillary blood vessels grow from pre-existing blood vessels.

Metastasis

The spread of cancer cells from their original primary tumor site to other parts of the body.

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)

A technique discovered by Kary Mullis used to amplify DNA via cyclical rounds of denaturation, annealing, and extension.

Denaturation (PCR)

The initial step of a PCR cycle where DNA strands are pulled apart at temperatures of $94\text{ to }96\,^{\circ}\text{C}$.

Annealing (PCR)

The step in PCR where primers bind to single-stranded DNA targets at temperatures of $50\text{ to }55\,^{\circ}\text{C}$.

Extension (PCR)

The step in PCR where new complementary DNA strands are synthesized at $72\,^{\circ}\text{C}$.

Agarose Gel

A seaweed-derived carbohydrate matrix containing wells that separates DNA fragments subjected to an electric field by size, where smaller pieces travel fastest and bigger pieces travel slowest.

DNA Ladder

A standard solution containing known sizes of DNA fragments, used to calibrate and size experimental bands during gel electrophoresis.

Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP)

A molecular biology technique that utilizes restriction enzymes to detect polymorphisms in homologous DNA sequences, commonly applied in forensics and paternity testing.

Genetic Engineering

The deliberate modification of the characteristics of an organism by manipulating its genetic material.

Pronuclear Injection

A standard laboratory technique used to create transgenic animal models by directly introducing foreign DNA into the pronucleus of a fertilized egg.

Gene Targeting

A biotechnology procedure where a specific chosen gene is targeted and its function is destroyed.

Stem Cells

Unspecialized master cells capable of long-term division and renewal that can transform into specialized cell types to act as the body's repair system.

Chimera

An individual organism composed of cells derived from two or more distinct zygotes, such as chimeric mice produced via embryonic stem cell injection into blastocysts.

CRISPR

Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats; a gene-editing mechanism that uses guide RNA to find a specific sequence and cleave it to disable a gene or insert new genetic material.

Progeria

A genetic disorder causing children to age rapidly while leaving their mental capacities unaffected.

In Vivo Gene Therapy

A gene therapy approach in which genetic material, often packaged in a virus, is injected directly into a patient's body.

Ex Vivo Gene Therapy

A gene therapy approach where cells are extracted, cultured and modified outside the body, and subsequently returned to the patient.

In Utero Gene Therapy

Genetic alteration performed inside the uterus that modifies the germline and causes the introduced change to pass down to future generations.

Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs)

Stem cells produced by reprogramming adult somatic cells (such as skin or blood cells) back into a pluripotent state.

Pluripotent

The developmental state of a stem cell indicating that it has the capacity to differentiate into any cell type.

De-Extinction

The process of using genetic engineering, synthetic biology, and reproductive technologies to recreate or restore key traits of extinct species.

Mosaicism

A condition occurring when an individual has two or more genetically distinct cell lines that originated from a single zygote.

Chimerism

A genetic condition occurring when an individual possesses two or more genetically different cell lines originating from two or more distinct zygotes.

HED

A genetic condition resulting in defective or absent eccrine sweat glands that serves as a clinical example of mosaicism.

Genetic Imprinting

An epigenetic mechanism where only one parent's allele is expressed while the other allele is silenced based on parent of origin.

Diploid

Cells containing two complete sets of chromosomes ($46$ chromosomes in humans), present in somatic cells and generated via mitosis or fertilization.

Haploid

Cells containing a single set of chromosomes ($23$ chromosomes in humans), present in gametes (sperm/egg) and generated via meiosis.

Haploid Embryonic Stem Cells

Stem cell lines containing only a single set of chromosomes ($n$) rather than the standard paired diploid complement ($2n$).

Bimaternal Reproduction

An experimental technique generating offspring from two mothers by deleting imprinted regions in parthenogenetic haploid ESCs and injecting them into an MII oocyte.

Bipaternal Reproduction

An experimental reproductive process utilizing genetic material from two fathers by co-injecting androgenetic haploid ESCs and a second sperm into an enucleated oocyte.

Parthenogenetic

A female-only haploid stem cell line generated by removing the paternal pronucleus from a fertilized egg.

Androgenetic

A male-only haploid stem cell line generated by removing the maternal pronucleus from a fertilized egg.

Nondisjunction

The failure of homologous chromosomes or sister chromatids to separate properly during cell division, producing abnormal chromosome distributions.

Karyotype

An individual's complete set of chromosomes, arranged in a numbered, visual profile according to size, shape, and banding patterns.

SRY Gene

The sex-determining region Y gene that directs testicular differentiation in human $XY$ embryos.

XY Female

An individual with an $XY$ chromosome set who fails to initiate the testis signal, developing streak gonads and female anatomy.

XX Male

An individual with an $XX$ chromosome set who develops testes and a male body due to the translocation of the SRY gene onto an X chromosome.

ZW Sex Determination

The sex determination system seen in birds where females are heterogametic ($ZW$) and males are homogametic ($ZZ$).

Self-Fertilizing

An organism carrying both male and female reproductive organs that reproduces by fertilizing its own eggs with its own sperm.

Biological Sexes

The classification of organisms into two categories defined strictly by gametes produced: males produce small, mobile gametes (sperm), while females produce large, nutrient-rich gametes (eggs).