SpeedRacer 1 #1 December 2, 2002 Here's something to think about: With all the recent rapid advances in biotechnology, how far should we go? Craig Venter of Celera Genomics is trying to make the first completely bio-engineered bacteria in order to find out what are the bare minimum genes necessary for life. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56135-2002Nov30.html Speed Racer -------------------------------------------------- Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
billvon 3,120 #2 December 3, 2002 >With all the recent rapid advances in biotechnology, how far should > we go? It's not how far we should go, it's how careful we should be. I doubt modern society would want to give up antibiotics, anesthetics, nuclear medicine or organ transplant, even though all those have caused problems and/or been abused. I doubt we'd be willing to give up IVF even though there were scary warnings about soulless, inhuman test tube babies. This particular technology (sequencing a genome, then 'bringing it to life') is dangerous, if only because we are messing with things we certainly don't understand yet. A synthesized bacteria that is just as infectious as the old bacteria, but with different (or no!) antigens on its surface could be pretty deadly if released accidentally. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
