About a couple months ago I came across a video that greatly confused me. I unfortunately could not find this video but when I do I will post it and if need be, add more to my blog. In this video a gentleman was talking about recent advancements in the world of genetic engineering. What scientists are doing is they are taking the genes from jelly fish that give them the ability to glow and put those genes into mammals. They have succeeded doing this in three different types of animals. I believe the first successful attempt came when putting these genes into some sort of insect, perhaps fruit flies. Then they were able to make a rodent glow. I believe it was done to white mice which genetically are very similar to humans. The last animal they injected these genes into were monkeys. Now what this means is if we are able to perform this type of genetic engineering on mammals so closely related to us as monkeys, then we can successfully engineer our own genes and give us the ability to glow. In doing so, we are virtually controlling our own destiny of evolution and can become whatever we want to. To quote Neil Shubin, “We are virtually taking the steering wheel from Darwin.”
As cool as glowing humans sounds to me I did not see the significance in doing this. If we have the capability of enhancing ourselves with the traits of other animals, why not modify our genes to do something that will make us more dominant of a species? The fate of mankind is in our hands. We can make humans the most powerful species that will ever live. We can also make sure that we can survive in any environment. What I propose is taking the genes of other animals, the genes that are the most important to their well being, and enhancing ourselves with it. We can take the strength of an elephant or beetle and make ourselves even stronger. We can take the speed of a cheetah and enhance ourselves with it. Forget taking the “glowing” genes of a jelly fish and take the genes that give them their tentacles. Also, man has always dreamed of flying so why stop at airplanes? Let’s give ourselves wings!
So please tell me what you guys think about this. Ignoring the moral standpoints for now, do you guys think it is possible for us to genetically engineer ourselves and give ourselves certain body parts such as wings?
What you are completely neglecting is the ethics related to this topic. What so we just reinject everyone in new genes and make everyone superhuman and everything is fine and dandy and the end...Nope. One thing you have to take into account is that any service provided like this would most likely only cater to the rich and those who can afford it. Imagine just two classes forming of Super Enhanced humans born into a Caste of naturally being smarter, faster, stronger than those "normal" humans who cannot afford to attain such perfection. Kind of like the book "Last book in the Universe" in which society was basically split into two castes. The "proovs" which were a race of bio engineered humans who lived in a utopia within heavily defended cities, and normal humans who lived in the post apocalyptic dregs of the outside world. Suffering rampant disease, decay and gang warfare with absolutely no real governmental structure. This example is a bit extreme, but we can't just go willy nilly and alter our bodies. And this reminds me of the movie "The Incredibles" where the villian was going to market a device that would essentially give everyone superpowers, saying... "And when everyone is super...no one will be".
ReplyDeleteAlso your whole post has evidence of feasibility. Just take the gene for the speed of a cheetah and inject it to ourselves? First of all, all the traits you provided would not simply have just ONE gene associated with them. Theres no gene that you can just put inside yourself and boom you automatically grow rings in the RIGHT area, RIGHT proportions, RIGHT weight. You also have to understand these genes that the animals have work together in a framework of OTHER genes that they have as well. Cheetahs are super fast? Gene for high level of fast twitch muscles, gene for higher amount of muscle mass in legs, gene for better bone structure, gene for better neural interface, gene for better eyesight to see prey, gene for better balancing (And all these are OVER SIMPLIFIED). Strength of an elephant...here's an idea...elephants are that strong because they weigh almost a ton! What so we just inject a gene in our body and suddenly we grow 1000 pounds to get stronger? What WOULD be more feasible would be to inject a gene that would disable myostatin . If you didn't know myostatin is a protein that inhibits muscle growth. The inhibition of the gene which codes for the protein would essentially allow you to become extremely muscular. There are real life examples of this too. Only drawback is your muscles grow faster than your ligaments and tendons so they are more prone to damage.
ReplyDeleteMeant to say it has "no" evidence of feasibility.
ReplyDeleteDarn wish this thing had spell check. So many spelling errors. "boom you automatically grow WINGS"
ReplyDeleteLike I said I have to find this video and look more into it but they succeeded in injecting the genes that are involved for enabling a jelly fish to grow and put those in other mammals so other than the moral stand point of it why can't we do it for other traits? Also elephants are the second strongest animal Compared to their body mass. So we don't nessecarily have to grow as large as them we just need to gain the same ratio of strength to body mass. I can understand how that is difficult but I don't see how it is not feasible. Especially wings
ReplyDeleteBecause there would not simply be one single gene that codes for "strength". How fast the fibers twitch? How thick the fibers are? How much mitochondria is in each cell? The effeciency of glycogen usage/storage?The effeciency of the neural network? You could code for just getting more fibers per square inch but unless you are also accounting for the neurons that have to attach to these new networks you're wasting mass. Its all more complex than you make it to be. Especially wings? You do understand that one of the main reasons birds are able to fly is because of their unique bone structure. A bone structure that we don't have. You would have to account for the placement of these wings, the amount of energy that would even be needed to just get yourself off the ground. We are much heavier than birds and you would have to take into account the weight of our bodies compared to wingspan length. Hanggliders have wingspans of approximately 30ft...Now thats AT LEAST 30ft of bone, muscle, and tendon you would need to account for to get yourself off the ground. And imagine the amount of energy needed to be consumed to even make this possible. Why are birds able to fly. Their bodies are OPTIMIZED for that kind of travel, millions of years of evolution has allowed the birds with the best chance at surviving flight which is why they have that unique body structure. To get a human to grow wings and fly would not be a simple as just inputting a gene somewhere and sprouting wings. You would need to completely revamp the human body, or at least make it look more like a bird. At that point is it even worth calling yourself human?
ReplyDeleteAll of your arguments support us not being able to glow but yet it can be done
ReplyDeleteIf scientists can do this then all I am saying is that we are taking the steps to be able to do that. Do I agree with it, no, but it is in our power. Of course we will not begin by giving ourselves wings but we can start small and work our way to it. Smartphones we're not just randomnly made Odunayo. Simpler versions came out before them and over the years they improve as science and technology improves.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, birds are born with the neural network and brain already suited for moving the wing parts of the body. Now explain this to me...how exactly are you going to insert the gene into every single nerve cell in the brain, Suddenly sprout new nerves to connect to the wings, and automatically know how to even move them let alone go through the complex process of flying. Here's an idea. Attach hands to a dolphin and get it to write a sentence.
ReplyDelete1.The scientists in that experiment injected the gene into EMBRYOS. Meaning that it was much easier for the gene to proliferate if it just started in one dividing cell. Imagine having to do that for the trillions of cells in your body right now
ReplyDelete2.My arguments do not support areas in which the genes code for extremely complex systems.
glowing in the dark != sprouting wings
3.Is it in our power? I think its unfeasible.
4.Yeah Smartphones weren't made randomly but they were within the realm of feasibility. Now saying that someday we will create a phone that will create energy out of nowhere and lose no energy in an open system would be unfeasible.
5.May we be able to grow wings? Sure if you overcome the GLARING problems associated with it.
"If scientists can do this then all I am saying is that we are taking the steps to be able to do that. Do I agree with it, no"-Usman
ReplyDelete"Let’s give ourselves wings!"-Us...man
ಠ_ಠ...you don't agree with it but you want us to grow wings?
From a moral stand point I do not agree with it but clearly scientists are making major advancements with it so why not go the whole nine yards. The way genes work is that certain genes must be activated at the right place and at the right time. From their certain proteins will be produced that will enable the wings to grow. Therefore one could look at the embryo activity of a bird's egg and locate which genes are active during which times wings appear to grow. Obviously there will be a vast number of genes activated and that is why this will not proceed glowing humans, and we will move to something much simpler than that.
ReplyDeleteIn addition scientists have discovered the two patches of tissues most essential to the development of limbs in the embryo of a chicken. When you remove this strip of tissue from the end of a limb bud and the whole process will come to a dead stop. Scientists have also discovered the tissue active which gives us our digits and their mirror images. But research did not stop there. We looked into the ZPA and have discovered the gene hedgehog, which controls the process. Also, all limbs are very similar in the way that they are constructed. In sharks, a species very different from ourselves, we took mouse ZPA and injected it into the shark’s embryo. It had the same affect on their fins as it did to the mouse’s limbs. If we can isolate the tissues that create these differences and locate the gene that is active in this tissue, which is what we did with ZPA, it is possible. I understand how we may not be able to fly yet, but the development of wings is possible once the corresponding tissues and genes are discovered.
In the fly, Drosophila melanogaster, we have found the genes that dictate many of their phenotypes. Those genes include but are not imitated to curly, ebonly, stubble, white and yellow. If you take those genes out their corresponding phenotype they will not be present once the insect is born. We have made several advancements in genetics and over time we will be able to find more and more of the genes that give animals their different traits. Like we did with ZPA, we can discover and isolate the tissues that are different between our limb development and that of birds. From there we can study that specific tissue and find the gene that activates it. Once we discover more of them we can put those genes in the corresponding tissues of embryos, as many embryos are similar.
Wow I really began to ramble their so if you want me to clarify anything I will happily do so
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ted.com/talks/paul_root_wolpe_it_s_time_to_question_bio_engineering.html
ReplyDeleteHere is a link to the video that I was writing about. I strongly recommend all of you to watch it, but for those of you too lazy to watch the video in its entirety here are some bullet points.
• Several animals’ DNA were combined to create hybrids of two different animals. To name a few a Zorse (Zebra/Horse), Geep (Goat/Sheep) and Liger (Lion/Tiger).
• To correct my statements on the glow in the dark creatures, they have made mice, kittens, pigs, puppies and monkeys glow. They did not use genes found in kittens to make them glow but rather coral.
• A gene was added to salmon that enabled them to grow at a much faster rate with less food.
• Goats and pigs have been engineered so that their milk will produce the molecule Anithrombin.
• The endangered species, Guar, was born in a cow by taking the Guars’ body cells and modifying them so that the cow could gestate and give birth to the Guar.
• They have placed devices on insects and rats that enable scientists to control there every movement. They have virtually become remote control animals.
• They gave a monkey a third, functional arm by wiring a computer to their brain. The computer observed the monkey’s brain movements and from there they made a prosthetic arm that worked in a similar fashion. Eventually to faux arm was able to mimic the monkey’s movements and can now function independently.
• Odunayo previously laughed at the idea of growing a human hand on a dolphin. While to my knowledge they have not done that, they have grown a human ear on mice. It was not stated in the video if the ear was functional on the mouse, but it was successfully taken off the mouse and transplanted on to a human. The ear was functional on the human.
By they I mean scientists as he discussed the work of multiple groups of researchers. Also after further consideration and watching this video I find genetic engineering to be completely immoral and unnatural. However it is interesting to talk about.
Odunayo: All of these moral arguments that you have, disregard them. Usman specifically said, disregard them for now. Also, about the feasibility of wings for humans. Even though birds can only fly due to their special bone structure (lightweight, hollow bones), we can compensate for that by creating bigger wings. And if you say we don't have the body mass for it, then we inject the wings for a bigger body. That just means that to be able to fly, you need a wingspan of like fifteen feet, and if you need those big wings, then maybe you'll have to be eight feet tall and get maybe fifty more pounds than the average human being to compensate. You see, it is somewhat analogous to engineering a mechanical device. The ethics of that aside, all logistic problems would be solved in order for us to be able to fly. One we identify these problems, we fix them. As someone who wants to be an engineer, you know that. If we can't adequately control the wings with our minds, then we connect those wings appropriately to some brain cells. If we can't do that, then we put an external way to control those wings, similar to a remote control. Etc.
ReplyDelete"Inject the wings with a bigger body." Disregard that. I meant, inject the humans with the genes for a bigger body.
ReplyDeleteYeah thing is, Ralph, Engineering works within realms of possibilities. Saying "Herp derp, letz take a single gene and insert it, BOOM WINGS"...yeah not happening. I'm talking about FEASIBILITY. The energy requirement to get birds to fly is enormous which is why their bodies are OPTIMIZED for flight. Our bodies aren't. We would be extremely ineffecient and honestly it would be almost impossible to overcome the bioengineering hurdles.
ReplyDeleteUsman...the ear grown on the mouse is merely an aesthetic piece. It does not fully function as an ear...its like a cosmetic prosthetic.
ReplyDelete"Several animals’ DNA were combined to create hybrids of two different animals. To name a few a Zorse (Zebra/Horse), Geep (Goat/Sheep) and Liger (Lion/Tiger)."
-Dna VERY close in similarity and these animals were bred, they didn't just inject Lion genes into a Tiger to get a Liger.
-What I am saying, that you oversimplified the gene enhancements saying stuff like "speed of a cheetah" or "strength of an elephant". Multiple genes working together optimized for that specific animal. Not that simple
-Wings...not going to happen anytime soon.
No one said it would happen soon. What part about as time moves on and as science and technology develops do you not understand?
ReplyDelete