What's New in Life Science Research is managed and written entirely by Seed editors and expert guest bloggers. Read more about them The potential of genetically engineered organisms—particularly in the areas of medicine, biotechnology and agriculture—is seemingly limitless. Is your soil too acidic for your eucalyptus trees? No problem. Just introduce genes from carrots, which thrive in slightly acidic soil, to your trees—and voila, healthy eucalyptus! Cells can't produce growth hormone? Genetically engineered bacteria can do that for you. Need to know where a specific protein is directed to within a cell? Just tack on the gene for green fluorescent protein—taken from jellyfish—to the DNA of the cell in question, and you'll find the answer illuminated.
Genetically engineered organisms may seem like wondrous designer creations—take a little bit of this DNA, a little pinch of that, and tweak a basic, time-tested genome to make something new and improved. The benefits are immediately visible in crop plants: juicier tomatoes, fatter ears of corn, more nutritious rice. Yet these super-foods come with a host of questions that must be addressed before they can replace traditional crops. Will biotechnology companies take over agriculture production from farmers? How do you control the rights to a specific species of wheat? How do we know that genetically engineered foods won't make us sick, fifty years down the line?
These are only the questions related to food. Genetically engineering medicines, while perhaps more acceptable to many for lack of better alternatives, presents additional ethical ambiguities. And once you get to the level of genetically engineering animals, you face the widespread fear that science will create something it can't control—a Frankenstein's monster, if you will.
So, what do we really have to be concerned about with genetically engineered organisms? Are our fears unfounded, or are they only the tip of the iceberg? To what extent do you think humanity will embrace this branch of technology in the near future? The distant future? Are all humans destined to become genetically engineered organisms themselves?
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I'm going to say that yes, there should be concerns. Genetically engineered crops, that are untested, need to have proper care given to prevent them with co-mingling with unmodified plants until tests satisfy their beneficial properties, find any negatives, and see what "wild" breeding might produce. Like anything, the problems come from being in a rush and failing to apply proper methods or recognize bad methods.
That said, we'll always have people that get all frothy at the mouth whenever these things come up, so expect the going to be hard even if it's cautious. The technology will creep up the flanks though, in ways that seem trivial to most.
Still, it's inevitable that a large chunk of the populace accepts genetic engineering in their lives, and eventually, probably sooner than later, all these technologies will be used by us on us. I think that's just how we are, in general.
Posted by: Fargo | January 8, 2009 3:18 PM
The blue strawberry is cool, but I'm waiting for the first ripe orange that's not orange. Won't that be weird?!
We can have pears which come in pairs, bananas which are already split, pineapples which smell of pine and look like apples, elderberries which actually look old, girlsenberries to go with boisenberries, kiwi fruit that looks like a kiwi bird (and tastes like chicken), canteloupe which can be decanted, melons which look like...no, let's not got here....
Posted by: Ian | January 9, 2009 8:50 AM
was it a print subscription? how many copies per year?
Posted by: chat | January 11, 2009 7:04 AM
was it a print subscription? how many copies per year?
Posted by: chat | January 11, 2009 7:05 AM
was it a print subscription? how many copies per year?
Posted by: chat | January 11, 2009 7:06 AM
"The blue strawberry is cool, but I'm waiting for the first ripe orange that's not orange. Won't that be weird?!"
The occasional fully ripe orange doesn't actually turn orange. It stays green. Weirdest thing I've ever seen, but I saw it at least thirty years ago.
Posted by: speedwell | January 11, 2009 12:57 PM