A thermonuclear detonation, pictured above, looks a lot like a cell nucleus with the chromosomes unwound. Recollecting
the fateful day when Robert Oppenheimer detonated the first nuclear bomb: “We knew the world would not be the same. A
few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered
the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita; Vishnu is
trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to
impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, ‘Now I
am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ I suppose we all thought that, one
way or another.”
Well, you
may not have felt the tremors but a couple of weeks ago, our world changed and
we entered a new nuclear era which may be even more frightening. That’s
because the genie of genetic engineering was loosed from the bottle with the
invention of something NYU scientists call “The Telomerator”: http://www.the-scientist.com/articles.view/articleNo/41398/title/Circular-Chromosomes-Straightened/
Once upon a
time, there was a kingdom of life called the Protists (largely represented by
bacteria with circular DNA) which were distinct from Eukaryotic kingdoms like
plants and animals because we have linear DNA that is capped by telomeres and
kept safe in our nuclei. The telomeres and centromeres are the handles of the
chromosomes and how the cellular machinery knows what to copy when it divides
into two daughters.
We thought
we were so clever using bacteria to make human gene products like Human Growth
Hormone but now the tables have turned and a new chess piece has been
introduced. Prepare to be truly frightened because those mechanisms that
separate our human chromosomes have no way of knowing where the DNA comes
from. Scientists can now make Anthrax or Bubonic Plague into a linear
chromosome and introduce the 47th chromosome into a human (or any of the other
eukaryotic species’ nuclei) and create new possibilities.
Why would
anyone want to do that? Ever heard a Bond nemesis or a Superhero villain
monologue about their vision for a brave new world or their contempt for
humanity and the status quo?
I’m sure the
scientists thought it was cute to name this invention, which could also be a
boon for curing previously incurable diseases, something memorable like “The
Telomerator”. Hopefully, they won’t someday be faced with the awful
realization that the fictional scientist Miles Dyson (inventor of Skynet) faced
when he was shown what resulted:
Sarah Connor: [narrating] Dyson listened while the Terminator
laid it all down: Skynet, Judgment Day, the history of things to come. It’s not
everyday you find out that you’re responsible for 3 billion deaths. He took it
pretty well.
Miles Dyson: I feel like I’m gonna throw up.
So, could
you identify the chromosome put there by the scientist being paid to do
something to human evolution? The bad news is, neither can your cellular
machinery that is charged with eternally copying and transmitting all your
other, God-given chromosomes.
Welcome to
the future. Welcome to our brave new world which will soon truly have new
people in it with designer chromosomes. Ready to glow in the dark or
photosynthesize? Somewhere, someone is planning to make their evil mark on
human evolution.
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