Screwing around with mother nature :S

[elite_hunter_sh3]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6251910.stm

[Reaves]

It's not like they are testing on humans. It is a very interesting field of research and I guess I can understand some of the fears people have about it but it is indeed our future. If we hope to cure cancer and even allow disabled people to live normally again it will most likely come from DNA manipulation.

[elite_hunter_sh3]

cancer is unvoidable in most cases.. its genetic mutation.. its evolution.... genetic mutation occured over thousands of years... the genes from apes mutated which resulted in different races ex. neanderthals and homosapiens.....

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by elite_hunter_sh3

cancer is unvoidable in most cases.. its genetic mutation.. its evolution.... genetic mutation occured over thousands of years... the genes from apes mutated which resulted in different races ex. neanderthals and homosapiens.....

No, it's typically associated with genetic loss and aging. Genetic mutation comes from the time when someone is even born. There are two repeating sequences on both sides of ones genes. Every time a cell divides, there is a chance some of this data can be lost without damaging the real internal dna. What happens typically with cancer is just a uncommanded need for a cell to divide due to internal dna getting broken, and the shutoff mechanism is also broken, as well as the fails safes. Cancer can happen other ways as well, but this is the most common.

Cancer happens in all of us. You yourself have about a 90% chance of having cancer as I write this. Your body actually is designed to recognize it and kill it. Problem is, sometimes it can't. When this happens, and there is no intervention by the medical professionals, you die unless your body can find a way to get it back under control. The only problem is, the methods used to kill cancer can also damage your healthy cells.

Basically, once you do get an out of control cancer, I myself believe you have cancer for life even if cured for that one time. It may not be back for 10 to 20 years, but its coming back at some point.

-S

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by Reaves

It's not like they are testing on humans. It is a very interesting field of research and I guess I can understand some of the fears people have about it but it is indeed our future. If we hope to cure cancer and even allow disabled people to live normally again it will most likely come from DNA manipulation.

I already feel obsolete!

[P_Funk]

He says he hopes eventually to use the technique to create designer microbes, which could produce artificial fuel or help clean up toxic waste.

That sounds perfectly reasonable to me. The concerns about the abuse of this are the same as with any kind of science. We can't just not advance technologically because of what bad guys might do with it. We just need to regulate it like anything else we invent to keep it safe.

The good comes with the bad. We can cure crazy diseases maybe some day. Or we can create them. Its just like the power of a human being to kill or create. I can choose to try and be an artist or I can abandon that and decide to kill millions of Jews... Guess who I'm talking about. Its all in how you use your power.

Sometimes when there is no reasonable excuse to allow the risk of the terrible to continue, be it because the potential benefits are negligible or the potential risks too great, but the understanding of DNA and its ultimate manipulation is no different than manipulating elements in nature. Its just a different scale. Certainly since we have become this advanced every stride might become ever more potentially dangerous, but that is no reason to fear an imagined, not yet possible threat to something or someone unspecific.

Wait and see.

[Skybird]

What man technically can do with his two hands, and can acchieve with his brain is one thing.

If man is mature enough to handle it with a sufficent sense of responsebility is something very different.

Judging by the state to which we detoriated this planet, and by the things we do to each other, the answer is a loud-sounding No.

[ASWnut101]

Originally Posted by Reaves

It's not like they are testing on humans. It is a very interesting field of research and I guess I can understand some of the fears people have about it but it is indeed our future. If we hope to cure cancer and even allow disabled people to live normally again it will most likely come from DNA manipulation.

Indeed.


The only thing that kinda gets to me is knowing if the host cell either destroys it's old DNA sequence and accepts the new one, or if it destroys the new one and keeps the old one every time. A lot of tests would need to be done for just that.

A heck of a lot more research for this. Very interesting.


Thanks for posting the article, Elite. :p

[FIREWALL]

Originally Posted by Skybird

What man technically can do with his two hands, and can acchieve with his brain is one thing.

If man is mature enough to handle it with a sufficent sense of responsebility is something very different.

Judging by the state to which we detoriated this planet, and by the things we do to each other, the answer is a loud-sounding No.

Are you then saying we should live in the Stone Age ?

[P_Funk]

Originally Posted by FIREWALL

Are you then saying we should live in the Stone Age ?

Well I'd say that thats a pretty good idea really. I mean from the perspective of the rest of the planet. We're real bastards. I mean we're the only species to pave over nature and not let it grow back.

But would I do it all again?:hmm: Yes. Well basically up until the Industrial Revolution. We didn't really do anything irreversible til then. And even so when Human Beings die out for whatever reason the planet, no matter how scarred, will survive. Life is resiliant.

Thats why I dont like most environmentalists. They talk about it like we're destroying all life. No, we ruining the beautiful scenery. Life will regenerate. The real risk is destroying the world to the extent where we can't survive in it anymore. Thats the real problem.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by FIREWALL

Are you then saying we should live in the Stone Age ?

If you read again what I said and try to understand it, you hopefully will find it easier to answer your question yourself.