write two essays on the structure and function of telomeres,…

Your task is to conduct library and internet research and write two essays on the structure and function of telomeres, their connection to longevity, and the incidence of cancer, and a third essay of your own choosing as directed below. Please review the syllabus on the issue of plagiarism and the use of AI. If you take the easy shortcut and use AI to write your essay, you will fail the assignment.

Answer the following questions:

1. How can telomere-deficient mice be used to study aging in living cells? Give two examples and include a discussion in your own words of each. Your answer should be 700 words or more.

2. In a separate essay, answer the following question: How can knowledge of telomere structure and function be used to understand and treat cancer in humans? Give two examples and include a discussion of each in your own words. Your answer should be 700 words or more.

3. In your third essay, read an article from and use it to ask and answer a great question. By this, I mean you should come up with a question that meets one or more criteria we developed for the Great Questions activity, and use that article or another source to answer that question in an essay. For this part of the project you should summarize the article in about 500 words, and use that as context in which you ask your question. The answer for your question should be given in 200 or more words. Include a complete reference for the article and any other sources you consult.

Essay requirements

Use complete sentences, correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

Make sure your responses answer the questions.

If you include words from the sources you consult, you must credit the source. Use quotation marks for sections longer than one word.

Include a bibliography for the sources consulted. Any modern citation style, such as APA or MLA is acceptable. IN ADDITION TO THE CITATION, each source must be accompanied by a 3-4 sentence description / summary in your own words of the information in the source. This is called an annotated bibliography.

Your response to the first two questions should reference at least four sources, two of which must be from the primary literature. Four references is the minimum, but more is probably useful. Additional sources, either primary or secondary are acceptable. The secondary literature can help you to understand what the primary research is showing.

Use the word count function in your word processor to arrive at a word count. Please use single spaced pages, 12 point font, and 1 inch margins.

You are encouraged to submit the writing assignment and a draft of your work to the Online Writing Lab, an online resource that can assist you in producing an excellent paper. Directions to use the Writing Lab Extra credit points to be awarded if documentation of Write Lab improvements is included.

Upload a single document for all essays. If you’re not sure about how to insert images or files into your Word or Google doc, please review the information in the week 0 module.

In addition to the resources in the text, videos in the weekly modules, and videos linked in the texts, here are two additional video resources. These are secondary, not primary literature, although if you do a google search on Elizabeth Blackburn, you will discover many publications in the peer-reviewed literature.

Video link:

The following is adapted from a source that is no longer available that was originally published at Tufts University Biology department homepage.

Primary literature presents results of original research in formats such as articles, pre-publication prints of articles, and conference proceedings.

When you see the word “article,” don’t assume that you will be consulting Time or Rolling Stone to find primary materials. Those publications carry many articles, and can help steer you to the type you want. Those are found in scholarly journals such as Nature or the Journal of Experimental Biology. These articles contain original data and have been reviewed by scientists familiar with the area being researched. Peer review is the scrutiny of a study conducted by scientists who themselves are knowledgable in the particular discipline. They ask questions such as, is the hypothesis posed actually testable? Is it tested by the experiment described in the article? Or in the case of a report about a study of telomeres, they will ask, is the evidence convincing enough that I can accept the conclusions made by the researchers? Other scientists will attempt to repeat the tests reported in the study. If they can’t replicate the results, they may publish their study as a challenge to the first.

Why Use Primary Literature?

Use journal articles to learn the latest results of scientific studies. Journal articles will also acquaint you with the names of scientists working in particular areas and can be used to find related articles (hint: look in the citations). The information found in primary literature is more focused than that found in secondary literature.

How to Locate Primary Literature

The most efficient way to find primary literature is by using indexes and databases listed in the RTC’s . These allow you to search journal literature by author, subjects, or keywords and find citations to relevant articles. A citation includes the author and title of an article, the title of the periodical in which it was published, page numbers, date of publication, and other information. It is the way that other people can find the source again. I will conduct spot checks to confirm the information you report on in your essay.