Agricultural
Technicians monitor crop yields in the agricultural area. The "growing season" in separate sections can be staggered, ensuring fresh fruits and vegetables for the space settlers year-round. Those crop plants which can tolerate 24-hour-a-day sunlight can have it. Agriculture in space will benefit greatly from weather control, and from the absence of pests.
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Live Stock!
Most people are not aware that plants have been genetically engineered for years to produce some of our best crops. Now a completely different ball game, with much more complicated rules and an entirely different species of players, has opened up. The benefits are endless; the dangers, minute.
One of the largest areas that will be affected by the possibility of animal cloning is animal research. If the animals used in experiments are exactly the same physiologically, the experiments are much easier to control (Earnshaw). Fewer animals will be needed for experimentation, with better results. Though some scientists believe that animals are more susceptible to disease if they are part of herds with genetically identical genes, cells are also capable of being genetically engineered to root out diseases that the donor animal may have carried.
Cloning is also exciting in terms of animal agriculture-in the quality of what animals produce naturally, and what they can artificially produce to cure some of the most serious diseases (Friend). A cow's milk, a sheep's wool, and a pig's meat are only a few of the countless quality upgrades that any animal useful to humans would experience. Though these improvements are anything but trifling, they are nothing compared to what animals can artificially produce to effect the medical community in astounding ways.
One of the most immediate advantages of animal cloning will be in the area of pharmaceutical production. Cheap and plentiful bioengineered drugs that are made from human proteins will most likely be the first practical application . The ability to clone will allow scientists to genetically engineer animals for a particular protein, and then mass produce them. The animals carrying the proteins would secrete the proteins in their milk or blood to be harvested and then purified for use. Drugs made from these proteins today are extremely scarce and not affordable. Since they have been the only available answer for inherited disorders such as hemophilia, cystic fibrosis and emphysema, it has been a discouraging battle for those suffering with these diseases (Friend).
Though less certain but equally as exciting, the same technique used in cloning might be able to be used to reproduce much-needed organs, skin for burn victims, and various life-saving drugs (Yan). It will also give the world deep insights into spinal chords, heart muscle, brain tissue that won't regenerate after injury, and cancer cells that multiply uncontrollably (Krauthammer). Scientists predict that possibilities for humans because of animal cloning are infinite, and they cannot wait to get started.
Hmmm Plant and Animal material....
