Brakken Barben

Biology 1610
Salt Lake Community College
Daniel Rackliffe

X-Men First Class

This movie starts off in the WWII era where mutants are first starting to be
discovered. A young boy named Erik is separated from his mother by the Nazis and
because of this bends the fence with his mind. Later on Shaw wants to see him do it
again because he cant his mother is shot and killed right in front of him. On the
other side of the world a young boy named Charles with the power to read minds
catches someone with the appearance of his mother in the kitchen, he knows it is
not his mother but a young girl with the ability to shape shift. Her name is Raven.
Charles Xavier is a professor writing a thesis statement on mutants and how
mutations occur. He states that mutation starts with single celled organisms and
destroys the less evolved kin. Genetic mutation is the evolution of the human
genome. After mutants are discovered in several parts of the world the government
brings him in as an expert on the subject. He later meets Erik who has the ability to
control metal. The government recruits them to help save the world from Shaw.
Shaw and his mutants team up against Charles and his mutants. After Shaw is
stopped and the humans return fire on all the mutants. After this the group is
divided in two those who want the wipe out humans and those who want to protect.

One of the scientific accuracies that I found was when Charles Xavier
mentions to a girl he is speaking with at the bar about Heterochromia.
Heterochromia is when you have two different eye colors. It is very uncommon in
humans but in other animals such as dogs, cats and horses it can be observed
often. The pigment that helps decide eye color are cells in the Melanocyte. On page
948 in the textbook the Melanocyte also helps with the dispersion of melanin
pigment. It can also control hair pigment color in mammals. Along with being able
to do this it can also help to determine eye color. If there is too much pigment the
eye is brown, if there is not enough the eye is blue.
The second possibility during this movie is when it is stated that when a
mutation occurs that it happens every 100,000 cell division but when mutation is
occurring it happens after every 100 or so cells divide. This can cause genetic
variation. On page 401 in the book it says Mutation rates are low so they generally
have little effect. So we can infer that the opposite is true the faster the cells divide
the more likely mutation is to occur.
One thing that is just not scientifically possible in this movie is the character
Darwin. Darwin is nicknamed after Charles Darwin because he adapts to survive,
when his environment changes so does he. A few examples of this is when he is hit
in the back with a bat his back becomes hard and breaks the bat. The second is
when puts his head underwater and immediately develops gills. On page 8 in the
textbook it explains that the theory of evolution explains and describes how
organisms on earth changed over time. That means that is impossible for one to
change to their environment immediately.

The second thing that is not scientifically possible is the mutation of Raven.
She has the power to change herself to any shape that she wants or person. This is
not possible because it would involve the changing of our DNA and how it is coded.
In the book on page 284 it states that The universality of the genetic code is
among the strongest evidence that all living things share a common heritage.
Mitochondria and chloroplasts began to read the code differently with certain stop
symbols. These stop symbols is what stops us from ever having the possibility of
changing our cells ever. Our cells are not able to keep up with what would be
needed to do so.

I believe that this movie doesnt have very much impact on the science world
at all. By observing what takes place in the movie most people with common sense
know that it is highly unlikely that anyone would develop any sort of mutation
resulting in a super power. The only misconception that I could see occurring is that
people have a slightly warped idea of the theory of evolution. On scientific American
it states, Beyond the particulars of Neanderthals and modern humans, though, XMens abundant speeches about the "next step in human evolution" only make
sense if evolution is seen as the gradual realization of some design embedded in
nature. Accordingly, the emergence of superior new speciesnot just new species
in general. This shows that the only way mutation could have occurred was
starting 10s of thousands of years ago.

Bibliography
Rennie, John. "The Evolutionary Errors of X-Men." Scientific American Global RSS. N.p., 11 June
2011. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.