21st September, 2004
Extinction
I’ve always figured that it wouldn’t be a bomb or asteroid that spells the end of human life as we know it; instead, in my mind, it’s going to be caused by a genetic modification that we either intentionally created without thinking through the consequences (greed is great for that, you know) or one we created inadvertently through something like improper use of antibiotics or hand sanitizers. I’m only bringing this up because there have been a couple of articles released in the past few days that address just such a topic.
First, there’s concern over a gene-modified grass that is resistant to herbicides. More disturbing is news that highly drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis are on the verge of becoming a global epidemic.
Now, I’m not preaching that the end of the world is coming or anything like that. I’m just pointing out that as our knowledge of the inner working of cells and DNA increases, we need to be very careful when toying about with things that perhaps we don’t understand completely. After all, this is the essence of Life that we are now messing with, and as history on this planet has shown, Life has an incredible knack for, well, living. Life will go on, regardless, but it doesn’t necessarily have to go on in us.
Since I’m feeling particularly verbose at this moment, I think I’ll point you towards a couple of delightful books that relate to this subject. First, check out Richard Dawkins’ seminal work The Selfish Gene. It’s a pop-sci classic that should be on the required reading list for anyone interested in science or evolution in particular. Secondly, I’d like to recommend Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (and thanks to my pal, J, for recommending this to me), which is an intriguing romp of speculative fiction regarding gene modification and the dangers within.
Posted at 9:32 am | Comment (0)
