'Incredible' editing of life's building blocks(BBC Article Title)

www.bbc.co.uk...

Scientists have demonstrated an "incredibly powerful" ability to manipulate the building blocks of life in two separate studies. One altered the atoms in DNA to rewrite the human genetic code and the instructions for life. The other edited RNA, which is a chemical cousin of DNA and unlocks the information in the genetic code. The studies - which could eventually treat diseases - have been described as clever, important and exciting. Cystic fibrosis, inherited blindness and other diseases caused by a single typo in the genetic code could ultimately be prevented or treated with such approaches. Both studies were performed at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

I have to admit this both terrifies and amazes me, the implications of these advances are astounding but in the wrong hands (read any of the many corrupt Governments or mega Corps of the world) the potential for harm is massive but as Dr Sarah Chan explains below it is time to get the ball really rolling on what good can be done with these techniques.

Dr Sarah Chan, a bioethicist at the University of Edinburgh, said we can no longer pretend the technology is too dangerous to contemplate. She told the BBC: "We can't hide any more. "The science is moving fast in the sense it is becoming less risky, more certain, more precise and more effective. "It is absolutely past time for us to engage more widely with public's on the issue of gene editing."

Dr Helen O'Neil then goes onto explain that the same tech works on other life too!

Dr Helen O'Neill, from UCL, said: "This is an exciting week for genetic research. "These papers highlight the fast pace of the field and the continuous improvements being made in genome editing, bringing it closer and closer to the clinic." Scientific advances in genetic engineering are taking place at an incredible pace. And the same technologies work on plants, animals and micro-organisms too, posing questions for areas like agriculture.

I don't know if i will be able to really benefit from this tech in my life time its a possibility though I'm only 39 but my Son certainly will, i just hope the good far out weighs the bad because i have a feeling there's going to be some really freaky snip happening regarding this tech in the next couple of decades.

And i did not think it was that late so I'm gona do a post and run but ill be back tomorrow to read through/answer any comments.

And that's how the Zombie Apocalypse started.

I imagine editing DNA is like swapping out parts of a computer. You beef up the motherboard and now your old memory won't work with it. Except that in this case you fiddle with a molecule and you get blue eyes, but you also get cancer 99 percent of the time.

Still, we're bound to get better at it. Maybe even before we destroy our ability to reproduce. But, hey, that's what cloning is for, right?

damn double

a reply to: nickovthenorth

Scary and cool, yes. Just random thoughts: Life spans have been slowly increasing since early man. Noah lived to be over 800. Vedas say life span is longer during the more enlightened yugas or ages. Theory is to live longer to understand relationship w/ God/Goddess/the Divine/life/spirit/Gaia. Maybe, we're on our way...finally.

From LATimes article:

Of more than 50,000 genetic changes currently known to be associated with disease in humans, 32,000 of those are caused by the simple swap of one base pair for another, Liu said.

If I could get rid of eczema like that, it would be awesome!