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D.i.y. Biology, On The Wings Of The Mockingjay (1120l) - Middle School Reading Article Worksheet Page 2

Vale Middle School Reading Article

D.I.Y. Biology, on the Wings of the Mockingjay (1120L)

Notes on my thoughts,

The jabberjays, all male, were left to die out when the public realized what they were

reactions and questions as I

doing. Like genetically modified organisms today, the jabberjays were not expected to

read:

survive in the wild, but they bred with mockingbirds and produced a thriving hybrid that

could mimic human sounds and songs, and lived on, to the irritation of the government

and the delight of the people.

Setting aside whether jays could actually breed with mockingbirds — this is a kind of

fairy tale, after all — the choice of species rings true. Jays, along with crows and ravens,

belong to a highly intelligent group of birds called the corvids. And jays are naturally

thieves and spies, keeping track of where other jays hide food, for example, to raid it

later. Mockingbirds, of course, have a fantastic ability to mimic other birds’ songs.

Coincidentally, or perhaps not, Thomas Jefferson, a lover of both birds and liberty, kept

a pet mockingbird in the White House.

I asked Joan Slonczewski, a microbiologist and science fiction writer at Kenyon College

in Ohio, about her take on the mockingjay. Dr. Slonczewski, whose recent books

include a text and a novel, “The Highest Frontier,” teaches a course called “Biology in

Science Fiction.” The tools needed to modify organisms are already widely dispersed in

industry and beyond. “Now anybody can do a start-up,” she said.

That’s no exaggeration. Do-it-yourself biology is growing. The technology to copy

pieces of DNA can be bought on eBay for a few hundred dollars, as Carl Zimmer

reported in The New York Times in March. As to where D.I.Y. biology may lead,

Freeman Dyson, a thinker at the Institute for Advanced Study known for his provocative

ideas, presented one view in 2007 in The New York Review of Books. He envisioned

the tools of biotechnology spreading to everyone, including pet breeders and children,

and leading to “an explosion of diversity of new living creatures.”

Eventually, he wrote, the mixing of genes by humans will initiate a new stage in

evolution. Along the way, if he is right, the world may have more than its share of do-it-

yourself mockingjays.

Gorman, J. D.I.Y. Biology, on the Wings of the Mockingjay. May 10, 2012. New York Times.

D.i.y. Biology, On The Wings Of The Mockingjay (1120l) - Middle School Reading Article Worksheet Page 2