Amateurs Experimenting with Genetic Engineering at Home
December 29, 2008 · Print This Article
Hobbyists are playing around with genetic engineering in their garages, tinkering with DNA to produce things like glow-in-the-dark yogurt. They’re making their own lab equipment and turning to the internet for how-to guides and supplies. Many of them don’t even have a background in science.
Some have the best of intentions, believing that they might just innovate the cure for cancer or save millions of people from hunger. From The Huffington Post:
In her San Francisco dining room lab, for example, 31-year-old computer programmer Meredith L. Patterson is trying to develop genetically altered yogurt bacteria that will glow green to signal the presence of melamine, the chemical that turned Chinese-made baby formula and pet food deadly.
“People can really work on projects for the good of humanity while learning about something they want to learn about in the process,” she said.
Some so-called ‘biohackers’ see the ability to experiment with genetic engineering at home or in community laboratories as opportunity for creativity to run wild, possibly producing some important discoveries.
It’s understandable that people want to make some major contribution to the world – or just have fun conducting science experiments in their basements. But, genetic engineering is not something to play around with. Imagine the sort of unintended consequences that such experiments could have. They’d be bigger and more potentially damaging than anything we’ve ever seen before.
Biology is complex, and it would be far too easy to accidentally create an organism that wreaks havoc on the earth. Imagine wannabe scientists in every American neighborhood creating their very own Frankenstein’s Monsters. It would get out of hand far, far too quickly.
Have we not learned anything from the countless comic books, horror movies and sci-fi novels that are based entirely on the consequences of humans playing God? How naïve to believe that this is harmless – that nothing but good could come of it.
If you want to work with biotechnology, do us all a favor and go to college and learn the right way to do it – in controlled environments with stringent safety protocol.
Link [The Huffington Post]
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I’m sorry, but could you please elaborate with something tangible as to how this is potential dangerous as opposed to spitting out scare tactic logical fallacies that do not strengthen your argument.
Nikita, here’s a good example of how things can get out of hand – and things like this would only be the beginning: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1110144.stm
It would be all too easy for people who don’t have a full understanding of what they’re working with to create something incredibly dangerous. Plus, there’s the matter of properly disposing of hazardous materials. If individuals are allowed to experiment with genetic engineering, then they need to be held to the same safety standards as labs.
Bah, deadly virus not equals yogurt bacteria.
This is admirable science! You’re a bajillion times more likely to produce a deadly disease randomly in the natural environment than you are accidentally in a lab. It’s a matter of a few hundred experiments versus literally uncountable naturally occurring variations in nature. And in the meantime, we’re increasing crop yields with fewer pesticides, decreasing the use of chemical fertilizers, and generally saving lives.
Those bastards, what with their saving lives.
Seriously guys, genetic engineering isn’t something you have to be against to be green. If anything, the opposite is true. Next you’ll be all up in the face of electric cars because they have to have batteries.
Love and kisses,
Roy
” If individuals are allowed to experiment with genetic engineering, then they need to be held to the same safety standards as labs.”
Then do I turn you in for your rose garden? Seriously, what do you people think genetic engineering IS?