The Black Death of Politics in Medieval Europe

     The Black Plague killed at least one-third of the population of Europe between 1346 and 1350. Almost overnight, it seemed, one out of every three faces vanished from the human community. Famine and war, along with little immune resistance to the disease, set the perfect stage for one of the worst natural disasters ever. The Black Plague forced and influenced changes in governmental policies and religious views in the European Medieval Period.
     Power before the Black Plague was firmly established in the feudal system and beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church. Primarily, manors had control over the majority of the population, but their power was slowly weakening. With favorable weather and good crop years, the population greatly expanded in the 1200s, and serfs could buy their way out by paying a fee to the lord. With serfs leaving manors, the yeomen gradually became more significant.
     In England, the king had begun to send out royal justices twice a year to aid serfs in their plight of gaining freedom. Once the peasants were free, their taxes went directly to the king, ignoring local lords altogether. Kings received a higher percentage of the taxes, and lords did not have to support such a large peasant population on a small piece of land. This transition occurred smoothly because kings held divine rights and, consequentially, absolute authority. The slow change in political power away from local lords was lubricant that initiated large scale revolution centuries later after the seeds of change were tended.
     Outside the king, power, wealth, and influence rested with the Roman Catholic Church which governed nearly every aspect of the people’s lives. Even politics were affected since laws were formed by reason (practical application of previous governing), church influence, and cleric involvement. Control was cemented by fear of excommunication.
     During the plague years, disorder and chaos ruled the plague-stricken world. Governmental officials of every rank, everywhere died regularly or fled to a secluded areas because no one was safe. Judges deserted the courts and the common people did what they pleased. People lost hope for the future and did not make provision for it. As Giovanni Boccaccio says in The Decameron, “Thus it came about that oxen, asses, [and] sheep . . . were driven away and allowed to roam freely though the fields, where the crops lay abandoned and had not even been reaped, let alone gathered in.. A large portion of people focused completely on deriving as much pleasure from life as possible while they could. It was a common thought that today was the end with no tomorrow, and people went uncontrolled by anything except fear and their own desires.

     Religion tried to gather a firmer grip but lost its stranglehold in the Middle Ages during and after the Black Death. Pope Clement VI recognized the large percent of death in the clergy and allowed changes in some regulations for simple church activities to make up for clergy shortages. The sheer number of funerals, prevented tradition. Instead of long parades of mourners grieving over the loss of a loved one, few processions had more than a handful of those closest to them follow the body to the graveyard and, without service or respect, throw the body into the grave. Traveling monks preached conviction to purify life from sin to abate the plague. Despite all the efforts of the Catholic Church to maintain its powerful position, many people turned to magic for salvation from the plague.
     Flagellants believed they could take on the sin of the world by suffering and eliminate the Black Plague. Flagellants beat themselves with flagella which were the nine-tailed whips used to beat Jesus. These people, in desperation after the failure of the church, prayer, magic, and medicine, beat themselves hoping to appease God’s wrath. Pope Clement VI outlawed the movement. The sense of panic during the ceremonies occasionally caused riots in the cities, and the teachings of the flagellants undercut the Catholic church’s authority.
     Immense changes occurred because of the Black Plague; some changes were evident immediately after, but the most significant ones came years later. The common people became more independent. Before the plague with large populations, wages were low; after the death of swathes of workers, wages increased. With most of the population employed, laborers had a strong sway in determining wages. Workers voiced their opinions and forced lords to pay higher prices. Coffers were quickly emptying because of inexpensive grain prices and increasing pay. The Peasant’s Revolt of 1381 displayed the newly found power of the working class. If landowners died and no heirs came forward, the church claimed the land; but peasants cultivated the land and eventually claimed it themselves. Death of public officials and clergy members allowed a class change as peasants were moved to the upper class.
     The independence attitude that developed after the fall of the feudal system brought inspiration. There was a great demand for education with secular views overwriting the church encouraging a turn to philosophy for explanations instead of religion. The philosophies of the Enlightenment and Reformation began to form and challenge the old teachings of the Roman Catholic Church shortly after the plague. The Black Plague made people realize the church was not perfect.
     The Medieval World was an ideal setting for the Black Plague. Weak immune systems from famine, stress and fear of death were prevalent. Noble houses and the Roman Catholic Church had control over most of Europe, but serfs were breaking apart the feudal system. The Black Plague rerouted some power to the working class, but authority still rested in the hands of nobility for the time. The Reformation traced its roots to this time where people became skeptical about religious views. The Renaissance also found its origin in this time where individualism and an eagerness for learning began. The Black Plague introduced to the modern world new ideas in government, religious views, change in social class, and education.

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Agatha Tyche

GMO: Understanding & Explanation

     Most people think of transgenic glowing pigs or glowing tobacco plants when considering a genetically modified organism (GMO). However, the most prominent area of GMO use is that of agriculture. This field has vast possibilities, but the future of GMOs in agriculture lies in the endless perpetuation of new modifications. Every year herbicides and pesticides are spread on hundreds of thousands of American acres of farmland in order to promote the best possible environment for crops to thrive. These additives are designed with the delicate equilibrium of making them as harsh as possible on the negative components they are attacking while having little to no negative effects on the crops themselves. Meanwhile, new crop seeds are designed each year to better resist the harmful effects of the chemical additives. This process goes effectively until the chemically pressured weeds and insects begin to develop an innate resistance to the additives. The herbicides and pesticides must be modified in order to remain potent. When these additives are regulated, the old resistant crop seeds must also be modified according to the new additive specifications, and the cycle perpetuates itself continually.

     This new technology allowing mankind to alter an organism’s genetic material has affected, but is not limited to, areas such as: bacteria, yeast, plants, vertebrates, biological and medical research, and production of pharmaceutical drugs. For instance, the first genetically modified animal was produced by injecting DNA into mouse embryos. Certain breeds of beef cows are common subjects of genetic modification in order to maximize beef production. The study and continuation of GMO research contains incredible potential for all areas of life, including possible solutions to worldwide issues, but there are detrimental side effects that require monitoring and regulation.

     Other staple crops, such as rice, are frequently used for GMO studies. Consequently, a study of polyploid rice, which usually has viable seed rates as low as 40% because of failed meiosis within pollen formation, resulted in the development of polyploid meiosis stability (PMeS), which allows the production of polyploidy rice with increased seed count and size. The continued studies of these crops and others have propagated the development of newer, more efficient methods of gene transformation. There are many methods for genetic engineering including agrobacterium-mediated gene transformation, knock-out engineering, and RNA silencing. Typically used in major agricultural crops such as corn, cotton, and soybeans, agrobacterium-mediated gene transformation allows genetic insertions to be completed inexpensively on a large scale with bacterial plasmids. Meanwhile, knock-out engineering allows the determination of genes via loss-of-function, and RNA silencing is used as a widely used controlling mechanism. Before understanding these methods of genetic engineering, it is necessary to comprehend how transgenes are engineered which is depicted below.

     Since metabolism is one of the driving forces of any organism, it has been widely studied when considering how GMOs can be used to maximize plant growth and production. Hot spots of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) have been sequenced to determine non-randomness of genetic metabolism control within plant species. While largely controlled by genetics, metabolic function is also determined by environmental interaction and is considered genetically inheritable and stimulative. The sequenced areas of the genome affecting the metabolism are better understood. Metabolisms for plants cycles and develop depend on the growing season and the timing of crop maturity. This variation involves alternative switch signalling of genes as the plant matures and involves separated components of integrated metabolic systems. Once this was understood, methods of genetic engineering could be used to modify the genes affecting the metabolism in a positive manner. Genetic coefficients of variation can be altered and controlled via genetic dilution with crossing as exhibited in studies done with Arabidopsis thaliana; five genes largely control metabolic processes and are physically close on a chromosome, usually within 10kb from each other.
     Unfortunately, GMOs are not without associated risks. One of these risks is horizontal gene transfer which could lead to genome instability or unintended consequences such as new crops that could destroy the ecosystem. This transference can occur between like organisms, or even between such different organisms as plants and animals. A more widespread concern is gene transference in relation to viruses. Many plants carry regulatory sequences from viruses enabling the virus easy access through gene transference, and some viruses have a movement protein gene that allows for easier horizontal gene transfer. Some GM plants may acquire this DNA through testing or through simple contact with viruses that contain the DNA. There are many systems in place to ensure that scientifically acceptable genetically modified plants are released or properly handled. Through this, many methods have been developed in order to guard and monitor GMOs and to determine whether certain plants have been detrimentally altered.
     Although much progress has been made, the multitude of organizations and varieties of GMOs in existence create an impossibility for results to be quantifiable across all restrictions and organizations. Many factors come into play when affecting GMO detection with most having to do in some way with the method in which the DNA was extracted. The structure of DNA can be affected by mechanical stress, high temperature, pH variation, enzymatic activity, or fermentation. DNA quality can be lessened when yield is valued over purity. This high level of variation propagates a need for the testing of precision and accuracy.
     Corporate farms are working desperately to supply the demand of growing nations. As a result many methods have been developed to maximize yields, including genetic engineering. These corporate farms require monstrous amounts of seed each year for human consumption and animal feed crops. As long as the need for factory farming continues, GMO production and progress will always be a matter of intense interest.
     Because of the harmful effects of pesticide and herbicide chemicals being sprayed on crops then polluting the groundwater, as well as the dramatic benefit seen in crop development, many studies have been executed in order to create a plant that requires no additives to repel its assailants. The bacterial-based pesticide, Basillus thringiensis (Bt) was genetically grafted into many major food crops via agrobacterium as a hopeful inbred pesticide. Some studies report that these technologies mainly substitute for pesticides but that yield effects are generally smaller. Yield advantages of insect-resistant cotton in the United States and China are less than 10% on average. However, others point out that Bt hybrids were sprayed against bollworms three times less often than were non-Bt counter parts, representing a significant cost reduction and a massive reduction in the amount of pesticides being introduced to the environment.
     When dealing with GMOs, ecological risks attract two main concerns. First, non-target effects of transgenic crops occur when the expression of a transgene in a crop has negative effects on non-target species. For instance, a dramatic reduction in a certain pest species may result in the collapse of a predatory species that depended on the pest, leading to a multitude of unanticipated fatalities and pest increases, decreasing biodiversity. This reduction in biodiversity has been linked with rapid spread of diseases. Second, transgenes might escape into wild populations through the hybridization of crop plants with their wild relatives, affecting seed production, population size, or habitat use in the wild species.
    The future of GMOs will, undoubtedly, remain riddled with strife and turmoil. The USA claims to base its regulation of GMOs on sound science, whereas the European Union regularly invokes the precautionary principle. This divide accurately portrays the two sides of the GMO debate. In one corner there lies the idea that so long as the scientific principles remain proven, advancements can and must be made in order to propagate the betterment of the world at large. The opposition argues that too many unknowns still leave the equation unbalanced, and control must be established before unleashing possible catastrophes on the globe.
     Regardless of the debate between progress and caution, science will inevitably continue to plow forward. The field of agriculture is now largely dependent on the ever continual promulgation of genetically modified seed, pesticide, and herbicide industries. Although the actual mechanism of genetic engineering through which GMOs are made possible are not yet thoroughly understood, the process of analysis and development of future uses will advance. The technology and information being utilized in the area of GMOs will almost certainly lead to more remarkable and ingenious possibilities in the food supply of the future.

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Agatha Tyche