Arguments about religion and politics come up every once in awhile (if awhile = / < 1 day). However, not too much on the genetic front. Human cloning and manipulation seem to have many opponents, that of animals less so. It seems to be for primarily religious reasons that people object (i.e. scientists "playing god").
Noted this article today:
Taiwanese Scientists Create Pigs that Glow in the Dark (http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=262)
First response? Honestly, "Awesome! Last year ended with a hypnotizing bank-robber, this year we've got glowing mutants!" Thinking about it for a bit longer (attention span strained to 6 seconds), I became a little more cynical. The article mentions practical usage, but exactly how useful is making an entire friggin' pig glow (other than night-light use, of course)?
While I can see justification for this experiment (maybe), I'm extremely displeased with many of the just-for-kicks genetic manipulations I've read about in the past couple years: Turtles with long tails, mice with additional mouths, purple-haired dogs. If we have some use in mind that's going to be practical for saving or extending human life, I'm all for it. If we're producing nothing more than side-effects and subjecting creatures to experimentation for lab work's own sake, I begin to wonder why mankind considers itself a basically moral being.
[Edit: Nevermind. Glowing fuckin' Pigs! ;D]
Ha! Glowing pigs....
Why not just feed them uranium?
Anyway... My game (ESPER: Town on the Edge of Darkness) touches on this theme a little bit, actually. Technically, it's more the theme of cloning, but that's still genetics. Alot of "religious" people say scientists shouldn't mess around with that stuff because it is for "God only..."
Stupid people. I hate how A) people can never seem to think for themselves, and B) if there's a bandwagon, people will jump directly on it, and stare longingly at it's buttocks all day long.
My argument against cloning from a religious standpoint makes a lot more sense.
God creates man. God creates soul. God puts soul in man. Man creates man. God does not create soul. Man-created-man becomes horrible zombie killing machine. QED, bitch.
I'm not against genetics for religious reasons, but when it comes to cruelty to animals. What are they going to do with these hundreds of glowing pigs anyway?
*Awaits Esper's next game ESPER : Town on the edge of glowing pigs in the darkness*
"Argh! Attack of the glowing pig zombies!"
I don't get the religious viewpoint for this argument. These people are like the same that were against medicines because "God decides when a person dies, not you!". I'm pretty sure that saving people is something that is good in God's view.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't cloning organs also banned, when it could come into good use for transplants?
They should get humans that volunteer to let this stuff be done to them.
I want to see glowing humans!
I'm not sure about the circumstances of this experiment, but in previous cases glow in the dark elements were added to the genes for a specific and valid reason. When you use the gene shears technique [as most do], you have to hope that the genes will fall into place as such, you're shaking it up and hoping things fall into place. Subsequently, when you get a bunch of prawns [which was a notable previous case] there's a random chance that any one of them will have the new genes in them, and a random chance they don't.
Which means that unless you add something unusual to the genes you're fiddling with along with the stuff you're actually concerned with like a growth thing, you'd have to do a genetic test on each creature just to tell whether it's been altered or not, before you can start testing anything else. That wastes alot of time and money. But if you stick a bucket of prawns and simply fish out the glowing ones, you can spend more time on research. It's less of an issue with pigs since you won't be producing as many, but with smaller creatures, or bacteria which you might be altering for say, insulin, it's invaluable.
Of course, that explanation doesn't run as well as "Haha, those whacky boffins created a glow in the dark pig, sounds good for our "strange but true" section in the Sunday paper!"
Not to mention,Ã, a pig that looks like this:
(http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41208000/jpg/_41208332_glow203.jpg)
would just kick every ass to own. Paw wouldn't trip over 'im in the dark on the way to the outhouse, that's fer durn tootin'!
You're ignoring the coolest part. They managed the glow by making jellyfish-hybrid pigs! Just wait until they get side-effects such as pigs with the ability to make their cute, twisty little tails sting tender human flesh. It's only a matter of time until a herd of 'em takes down their owners.
Three words:
Shiny Killer Pork.
'Nuff said.
Who's idea was this anyway?
I know! Fluorescent pigs! Brilliant!
Aw crap while I was sleeping they took a strand of my hair and cloned me combined with the jellyfish...
(http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b37/manicmatt/GreenGloomyMatt.png)
Hmmm. You wouldn't like him when he's angry...
I think cloning (anything, even humans) is perfectly acceptable. I plan on being cloned before I die actually. I also plan on donating my body to science and giving at least one or two of my organs away before I die. That way, my cells will act as a cancer, and infect other cells with my DNA, until at last the person is more me than themselves, and I shall continue to reign over as Lord of Humans! (A clone works easier though). I would make a great president/congress/supreme court justice all at once no?
VOTE Akumayo, remember, if it's not mayo, it's not okay-o
;D
I agree that if you made a pig glow for the sake of it, that's kind of a waste of time in my opinion, and they really should be trying to develop science in useful areas.
However, I can't just assume there wasn't a point to this. I don't understand genetic science in any depth whatsoever. Maybe this DOES help their understanding of genetics. Maybe this was one of the cheapest/least harmful to the pig things they could have done. Maybe doing such a thing as achieving this particular affect is actually ground breaking in scientific circles and will allow them to do much more amazing things.
Until someone tells me they "just did it cause it was funny", I'm not going to assume it was done for kicks. I mean, these are people in a workplace. As fun as it is to assume there are mad scientists out there doing crazy things, I think the majority are fairly normal people that realise they're working towards very important goals in terms of saving and improving lives. I also think they have bosses to satisfy and regulations to follow and they have to submit application plans to their higher ups.
Well, cross-checking the article shows them to be fluorescent rather than luminescent - quite a pity. They only glow like the picture when light's directed at them. In normal light, they're green tinged.
As far as reason: "The scientists will use the transgenic pigs to study human disease. Because the pig's genetic material is green, it is easy to spot.
So if, for instance, some of its stem cells are injected into another animal, scientists can track how they develop without the need for a biopsy or invasive test. "
It seems worthwhile, the pigs were modified ante-utero (not mutated later), and are reported to be perfectly healthy. This would be an odd example of a modification I've got no qualms with. As far as human cloning, my problem less revolves around the act of "playing god" and more around the sanctity of life, test-tube created or not.
Yay, so my supposition was correct!
Of course, noone paid attention.
Eh? What'd you say? Something about your suppositories being correct?
You'll be pleased to know that due to advances in gene-therapy, Mr. Oranges now has a fully-functional analpharyngeal passage.
Regards,
CEO Gene-Tweakers, Inc.
i can't wait until they give pigs wings. that will be the funniest day ever!
Quote from: skyfire1 on Sat 14/01/2006 17:31:40
i can't wait until they give pigs wings. that will be the funniest day ever!
Yeah right, like that'll happen, you gonna have flying pigs too? Oh... wait... :=
Pork. The other glow-in-the-dark meat.
I read this on the telly and was amused down to my rotten heart which amediatly sent an urge to tell my highly animal rights awared, vegetarian sister. She reacted in the desired way, which was disgust. Joy oh joy.
But seriously, I am but a bastard nihilist so few things rock my world. Actually, just earthquakes, and we never have them. But the sheer genious of making organic tissue visually trackable was beyond my wildest expectations of the genesplicing lunatics. Even though I spontaneously pictured the genetic engineer in South Park, presenting two assed monkeys, I was very impressed by how someone came up with such a straightforward and simple way of genetically tagging organisms. You only need a lamp and your own eyes to pinpoint the desired feat. It may not be great science, but SMART science.
Las: But it is oh so much more fun to maintain the illusion of this being simply glowintehdark piglets with no purpose whatsoever. We ignore all aspects of reason and factual statements, this is the American Goat Society after all..
Quote from: 2ma2 on Mon 16/01/2006 14:11:17
We ignore all aspects of reason and factual statements, this is the American Goat Society after all..
I hope this was a lapsus lingua, and that you meant American Girl scouts.
Keep in trend, dude!
Four-assed monkeys ^_^ He'd view two-asses as a failure, I think.
Pfft.. girlscouts? Hah! Do it like the greeks, do goats!