so i know a lot of my posts are sometimes nerdy, but i think this is REALLY fascinating.

you don't have to watch this now (cause it's really long) but you should definitely save this link for future boredom.

it's about the human genome project, anybody ever seen cracking the code of life?

it will really make you think, especially about the future and how far we are going to go with genetics.

just imagine...our insurance companies having our entire genome before giving us our policy? or even our employers! this could get sticky.....



well enjoy!



http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/genome/program_t.html

I learned about that thing in high school, that's old news.

And there is NOT enough funding for the Genome Project....plus genetic discrimination is already taking place... other countries are seeing it outside the US...

and I don't see this as nerdy at all...more being informed...


trin

haha. on the old news! seriously it is interesting stuff though

Yeah that's not all.

Designer babies.

This is all Frankenstein stuff
to me and there should be
more control over it.

I think we're going to
end up messing with
Mother Nature too much
and that's unnatural.

i know, but we are progressing so fast still.

maybe it's just because I finished my genetics course today with a long ass final on all this stuff & the new things we are doing

What's your final goal? For schooling?

yeah, i'm a bio major at uci & i just finished my genetics course.

designer babies is scary! i mean picking gender is one thing, but athleticism? intelligence? beauty?

some things should be left to mother nature.

it's not really old news if it's still progressing....

That's already being done. Through the selective process of sperm banks and egg donation. Sperm banks have very high criteria for donors, most have minimum college grad and height of 5'10 or so, amongst a myriad of other qualifications. yeah I know what you're thinking lol, but I'm too short, hey it's the holidays and academic research doesn't pay much and .......this thread ain't about me so I'll keep my mouth shut now


The human genome project is far from complete, so what if they do have all the ATCGs. The actual mechanism for expression is complicated, there are layers of control transcriptional modification, translational modification, protein folding, and that's only a beginning. Then you need to look at pathways and interactions which are complex and hard to study, promoters, inhibitors etc. It is progressing but getting the actual bases is easy just extract DNA and sequence, people have been doing it for years. It's understanding what it all means in terms of phenotype manifested from genotype, that's the crux.

We're still discovering new proteins and trying to figure out what they do.

BTW I don't know if others know this but Watson was somewhat recently ousted from his post at Cold Spring Harbor for his controversial statements about genetics and race.

Guess he should of checked "his" prior to the statements...

the elementary genetics i took in my physical anthropology class was enough for me, thank you very much.

Don't think I can bring myself to be that bored again.

Sorry to say.. ok maybe I'm not.. But

I disagree with just about all of it. Totally think it's un-natural. What babies are made, are made special each unique. How can everyone be so uniquely made if we are going and messing with dna and making everyone smart or able to live to a certain age, or so perfect. I see nothing wrong with who we are as civilization and as our special selves. Some may think I am wrong, but I don't think it should be our choice to make our child who *we want them to be, after they turn 18 their lives are all to themselves to do what they want to make decisions* but we are taking one main one away and that's to be as unique as God created them.

if you don't believe in God I understand, but think of it this way, for those of us who like who we are and the way we are no matter what anyone thinks or says, our parents usually love us just as we are with no changes! except attitude sometime, but to take that right away for US... to be how we are created naturally is unethical

I agree somewhat, leave it to chance or whatever higher power you believe in.

BUT i also think that what we are doing with preventing cytic fibrosis, tay sach's, huntington's, and all those other nasty diseases i think that's okay to genetically manipulate.

science is fun?

I wouldn't worry about any of that. It's beyond our generation anyways. And even if we were in the future now and could do those things it's a pretty far leap to think people would mandate rearranging your unborn child's genome. And most scientists would have serious issues with that to begin with. Most traits are not inherited via simple dominant recessive. Also there would be fear of making people too similar which would allow for a disease to wipe out large portions of people.

Even AIDs is somewhat held in check by genetic variance. There is a receptor on immune cells which is missing in some populations (CCR5). If someone is homozygous with this mutation they are virtually immune to AIDs. Heterozygotes are protected with greater resistence. This mutation seems to be limited to Northern Europeans and Central asians with the highest proportion in swedes (about 1%)

Gattica!
Gattica!
Gattica..


It's a movie.....watch it!

They've mapped the human genome as of 2007 completely. 37 million markers! We have 20 million more markers than any living plant or animal on the planet. To me that says we are quite advanced. Too advanced. We were created by somone or something. Got my faith. Good subject.

Humans, chimps and the rhesus macaque share 93% homology. I don't know if the oragutan has been sequenced yet.