The essay to review
Shaping Scientific Advancements: The Power of Environments in The Botanist’s Daughter
In the past few decades, advancements in AI, genetic splicing and CRISPR, GMOs, stem cell therapy, and much more have opened doors to many discoveries, allowing for better treatments, research methods, and lifestyles. Despite these advancements, controversial practices around their uses — like creating chimeras using genetic splicing, the deaths of embryos for stem cell research, or using AI to collect data —have been repeatedly questioned, leading several nations to outright ban these scientific endeavors due to ethical concerns (Marchant and Pope). But should these practices be forbidden? Consider the consequences of the character Elizabeth Trebithick’s actions in the book The Botanist’s Daughter by Kayte Nunn. Written from a dual point of view, the book explores the journeys of two characters: Anna Jenkins and Elizabeth Trebethick. In 1886 Cornwall, Elizabeth Treithick, the daughter of the late plant hunter John Trebethick, commences a clandestine expedition to fulfill her father’s last wish: to acquire the poisonous plant El Diablo Trum...