Weird Science

Perhaps the word "weird" should be changed to "disturbing" - because that's what some of things going on behind lab-tech doors is becoming! Granted I don't have a Biology or Chemistry degree, and I don't know much about gene-splicing and DNA 'technology'.. but check out these article below, or do a web-search on the topics, and see for yourself!!

A Spider-Goat: cloned and bred to produce goats' milk with the super strong quality of spider silk fibre. Military perhaps to use this milk/silk protein to create bullet proof vests etc.. and even strengthen construction work. The world of knitting has been experiencing exciting new fibres amidst our stash lately, milk fibre amongst them.. but I dunno about this Spider-Goat business.. They don't have eight little legs and multiple eyes, but it's still a freaky and unsettling development.

and a Sheep-Human: Cloning of sheep has been successfully carried out with the sheep containing 15% HUMAN CELLS. The goal is to combat the ever critical state of organ availabilty for organ transplants etc.. by breeding sheep with human organs.
*pause*
Just take a moment to let that sink in.
Scientists have been talking about a glorious and amazing future time when we may all be able to have our own little flock of organs.. I mean, sheep, trotting about in our back yards keeping our supply of spare organs fresh for when we may need them. I find it both ethically and fundamentally wrong and disturbing. It revolts me to the core to think of these 'factories' being used in the manner they've suggested.

I'm not one to stand in the way of progress and new discoveries.. but cross-specis gene and DNA work gives me the heebie-jeebies - AIDS was brought about by messing with Humans/monkeys, so it's obviously difficult to predict what the outcome will be when genes from different sepcies start being combined... Plus there's the added concern of cellular memory impact. There are numerous accounts of people receiving an organ transplant and adopting memories and knowledge of the donor without ever having met them or even knowing their identity, such as this arcticle describes. If people begin to take organs from a sheep host the consequences of any cellular memory involved therein are really too complicated to even fathom.

Franken-food is worrying enough - the fact that some plant foods now contain HUMAN SALIVA cells and so on, in order to help them grow, enhance various elements or protect from pests or disease is more than a little unsettling. Particularly as so often the labelling that alerts consumers to these properties is often insufficient or absent. But to take it so far as to be breeding animals to store your own organs.. *shakes head* It's concerning, that's for sure.