DailyDirt: Playing With Biological Fire?
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
There was a time when, if something was viral, it was almost certainly a bad thing. (Now, being viral could mean you're going to be the next Justin Bieber.) With current biotech research, the end of common diseases could be at hand or we could be launching ourselves into the next era of viciously untreatable illnesses that we've had a hand in creating. Hopefully, we're not going to be living out a bad sci-fi movie plot anytime soon. Here are just a few potential precursors to the apocalypse, though.- Oxford University researchers are testing a flu vaccine that will work on all known strains by targeting proteins in the virus that are common to all flu variants. But what happens 28 days later...? [url]
- The release of sterile transgenic mosquitoes in Malaysia was aimed at fighting dengue by reducing mosquito populations. This actually isn't the first time these mosquitoes were tested in the field... and I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. [url]
- Synthetic biology is a growing field now that the guidelines from the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues (PCSBI) are out. "Scientists can't be so naive to think there won't be a possibility of bad things happening, but I think the public will grow to accept synthetic biology if we're able to talk about all of the great things that can be done with it." [url]
- To discover more biotech stuff, check out what's roaming around in the StumbleUpon jungle. [url]
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Filed Under: biology, flu, flu season, mosquito, vaccine, viral
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To Those Who Demur About “Playing God” ...
(Interesting to compare the reaction to labour-saving machines that obviated the need for men to work “by the sweat of their brow”, as per that same Christian Bible passage. Those didn’t seem to raise anywhere near the same religious fuss...)
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Re: To Those Who Demur About “Playing God” ...
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Re: To Those Who Demur About “Playing God” ...
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Just focus on finding cures for the diseases that we already have, and LOCK UP those who try to make even worse diseases.
To the first poster... no such thing as 'god'. Yes, there might have been very powerful people in the past, but that doesn't make them 'gods' anymore than us having nuclear weapons would make us 'gods' to people living 2000 years ago.
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Flaming Mo!
Just like those nay says that claim if God wanted us to fly we would have been given wings. Well we where given wings through out minds and the power of invention. Like our three eyed fish friend, blinky, how do we know it was all not part of some divine plan.
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Nice reference
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