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Posts Tagged “
genetic engineering
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posthumans
mad genetic engineering
No, Bitches, It's Not a Designer Baby
It's inevitable: the media has not only confused human reproductive cloning with "designer babies," but in fact they have confused a stem cell experiment with designer babies too. I love my sensationalist science as much as the next person, but the London Times has gone batshit with its reports that a GM human embryo could lead to "designer babies" out there in the wilds of science land. Now all these anti-baby engineering groups are going nuts because nobody has bothered to explain the science to them. Even Wired picked up the story, though thankfully without the "designer baby" crap. So what's the deal? When will you get your designer baby with wings and mutant powers? More »
splice
Hard Scifi Flick "Splice" Actually Based on Internet-Rumor Science
Turns out that the hard science underpinning Splice, a forthcoming flick about genetic engineering directed by Vincenzo "Cube" Natali, is actually not so hard. In a recent interview, the director claims his inspiration to do a genetic chimera movie was seeing a now-famous image of a mouse with a human ear grafted onto its back. "It was such a crazy, shocking weird image that I was inspired to write a story about genetic splicing," he said. Unfortunately, what he saw wasn't genetic splicing at all. More »
mad science
Genetic Engineers Create Mice With Proto-Wings
Mice and bats like this one share a genetic ancestor, and now they may become one species again. Yesterday, scientists announced they'd engineered mice with proto-bat wings. Researchers added bat genes to the mouse genome, and the results were "mice with abnormally long forelimbs." Those long limbs are the first evolutionary step towards wings. More importantly, towards mice with wings. Or people. More »
evolution
Just hold 'em under fluorescent bulbs, and they're like living, purring holiday lights! A Korean team of genetic engineers has created a super race of glowing red kitties. What everyone seems to have forgotten is that several years ago, bio-artist Eduardo Kac had some French engineers build him a glowing green bunny.
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It's a GMO Holiday With Glowing Red Kitty, Glowing Green Bunny
Just hold 'em under fluorescent bulbs, and they're like living, purring holiday lights! A Korean team of genetic engineers has created a super race of glowing red kitties. What everyone seems to have forgotten is that several years ago, bio-artist Eduardo Kac had some French engineers build him a glowing green bunny.
More »
social control
No mouse should look into that "I'm gonna chomp you" face and not run squeaking in the other direction. And yet a mouse has done it, thanks to a team of Japanese researchers who genetically engineered it to not fear cats.
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We Have Engineered You to Enjoy Being Eaten
No mouse should look into that "I'm gonna chomp you" face and not run squeaking in the other direction. And yet a mouse has done it, thanks to a team of Japanese researchers who genetically engineered it to not fear cats.
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entropist
Give Me Some (Artificial) Skin
In Patrick Süskind's 1985 novel Perfume, a psychotic perfumer goes to murderous lengths to create the ultimate scent. He kills a young woman to incorporate her natural smell into his latest cologne - and he is himself later ripped apart by people driven into a state of bloodlust by the power of his creations. But the outer limits of personal beauty may no longer require us to kill. Indeed, it's now possible to grow human flesh specifically for the cosmetics industry - bypassing murder with a trip to the specialty science lab. More »
Freeman Dyson Goes Wild
Forever-young physicist Freeman Dyson, now 83, has long been beloved by scifi writers for his extremely fucking cool ideas. He invented the Dyson Sphere, featured in a Star Trek: TNG episode, where the crew visits a sun wrapped entirely in an artificial sphere that captures every bit of solar energy available (you can see a Dyson Ring in Halo). Now Dyson is battling it out with neo-Luddite Wendell Berry in the NY Times Book Review. Read the old crank getting crankier! [NYBOB]
Forever-young physicist Freeman Dyson, now 83, has long been beloved by scifi writers for his extremely fucking cool ideas. He invented the Dyson Sphere, featured in a Star Trek: TNG episode, where the crew visits a sun wrapped entirely in an artificial sphere that captures every bit of solar energy available (you can see a Dyson Ring in Halo). Now Dyson is battling it out with neo-Luddite Wendell Berry in the NY Times Book Review. Read the old crank getting crankier! [NYBOB]
genetic engineering
