Another Step into the Era of Genetic Engineering: Imagine the Possibilties

[ChaosTheory]

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dai...eered-montreal-shock-professor-230216359.html

Museum’s spider goats, genetically engineered in Montreal, ‘shock’ professor








Two female spider goats. (CBC Photo)While they sound like something cooked up at a Marvel Comics round-table meeting, Ottawa's unusual spider goats are a very real, very popular attraction at the Canada Agricultural Museum. Sugar and Spice, two white female goats genetically engineered with a spider's silk-spinning gene, have been on display at the museum for the past two years.
As the CBC reports, the plaque outside their pen states that the goats produce milk containing spider's silk, which is then extracted and spun into BioSteel — a material used in the manufacture of bulletproof vests and medical sutures. The pair was purchased by the museum in 2009 after Montreal-based Nexia Biotechnologies — the company that engineered the goats — went bankrupt.
Museum curator Frank Klingender told the CBC the goats are strictly there for educational uses and do not produce the spider silk milk for commercial purposes.
"What we're doing is presenting a piece of information and the visitor can make up his or her own mind about it," he said.
But one visitor who has made up her mind pretty strongly is part-time University of Ottawa anthropology professor Beatriz Oliver, who told the media outlet she was "shocked" by their presence and recently voiced her concern that the animals were classified as "natural" on their descriptive plaque.
"Just to present it as something that's okay, that's normal ... I think that's not accurate. I think there should be both sides of the story on those panels," Oliver said.
In response, a museum spokesperson said the goats were not there to promote genetic engineering but rather to introduce the fact that they exist to the public.


Though the museum added it will never breed the animals, the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network advocacy network has picked up the cause and is asking the public to voice any ethical concerns they may have to the museum brass.

 

[BEER]

When is the BBQ :spiteful:

 

[ChaosTheory]

We could engineer the perfect SP/MPA.

Or the SP/MPA could genetically engineer the perfect client…oh wait, they already have that…me! :biggrin:
(and of course the HUBGFE members)

 

[Megabyte]

Very interesting.

The goats were originally created by Montreal-based company Nexia Biotechnologies, which went bankrupt. The museum said it purchased them in late 2009 and early 2010 to put them on display, but only for education purposes and not to produce the spider silk.

 

[Boing]

…oh wait, they already have that…me! :biggrin:
(and of course the HUBGFE members)

You are a star :biggrin:

 

[ShowmeThemoney]

You are a star :biggrin:

LMAO

 

[tboy]

presents an interesting situation....should we or shouldn't we? There's that old saying: don't fuck with mother nature......but imagine breeding a cow that produces meat that is low in cholesteral? or maybe an animal that produces natural insuling? or a bug that produces a cure for cancer?

History is full of sccenarios where man has introduced a new species to an environment and had devestating results........

 

[Madman]

I say if they are useful lets produce more. Let's forget about the politically correct crap and if mankind can prosper from a creation so be it!

OK, now how do we go about producing the perfect SP/MPA, I'm all ears!

 

[Jesus Quintana]

What's often misunderstood is that Genetic Engineering is often only a shortcut to what can and can't be done by simple crossbreeding.
And yes.... if you try hard and long enough through successive generations you can eventually breed a sheep who's milk contains spider silk.


Oh and in my opinion.... nothing is more shocking than a part-time anthropology professor. I'm sure that she is just getting "air time" in the hope that she may get tenured at some point in the future. Being political is one route. The other route is to ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE! But I'm sure that she'd say that's too hard.

 

[tboy]

I say if they are useful lets produce more. Let's forget about the politically correct crap and if mankind can prosper from a creation so be it!

OK, now how do we go about producing the perfect SP/MPA, I'm all ears!

I have no doubt that any creature engineered will be useful in some way, up until the point where they create something like in the movie "splice"......and you just KNOW there is some scientist in a lab somewhere who is messing with the human genome......

A good example is atomic energy. Sure, it is clean, relatively safe when used correctly but let's not forget what happens when humans cut corners...you have the problem that happened recently in japan and then there's chernobyl.......

 

[meist]

[h=2]Era of Genetic Engineering: Imagine the Possibilities. What you engineer if you could?[/h]

If scientist can 'think it", they are working on it -- regardless of ethics.

Countries (USA, China, Russia, etc.) put in billions+trillions in research yearly, it wouldn't surprise me the $$$ is similar in black op programs -- multiple that by +50 years. Makes you wonder what has been created? Scary.

 

[tboy]

What's often misunderstood is that Genetic Engineering is often only a shortcut to what can and can't be done by simple crossbreeding.
And yes.... if you try hard and long enough through successive generations you can eventually breed a sheep who's milk contains spider silk.

I missed this first time around....sorry dude, no matter how much you try through crossbreeding there is NO way you could ever breed a spider and a goat....never. They are totally different species with totally different gestation types....I mean, one's a mammal and one's an insect.....lol.....

 

[Jesus Quintana]

Why did they choose a goat? These decisions are not made willy nilly. Obviously the potential is there due to some factor we don't understand. It's only an expression of a gene that hasn't been activated. If you can find a goat that showed an ability to produce even a tiny amount of the proteins necessary to produce silk then you have to keep inbreeding with another who shows the same. Eventually you will through breeding have a goat who makes lots of it.

Does anyone remember a famous picture of a mad scientist holding a fish and a tomato? What they didn't tell you was that the gene from the fish was the same gene as in the tomato. I did work with a University and while the same genes exist in all plants - they don't express themselves. There is an inhibition which at some point in the past was positively reinforced.

By hybridization a strain of corn was produced that was PERFECT. It has no maladies, was resistant to fungus, grew very well and was a healthy producer.. A further upside was that there was no need to spray insecticides. It was poisonous. It took generations of work to achieve. (Corn generations not human)

Genetic engineering is a shortcut through the dance that leaves one hoping that gene x will or will not be expressed. If its a positive thing then it will be replicated, if it is negative then it will die.

 

[tboy]

That may be true jesus, but did you (or they) for that matter ever stop and think "why isn't that gene expressed"? Species evolve for a reason. If a goat somehow evolved to produce spiders silk naturally, then it would have found a place in ecologoy but it didn't. Therefore there is no natural place for it. We've dominated the planet not due to our strength/size, we aren't the biggest. Not because we are hardy/resist the elements because we're actually very fragile. We've dominated the planet due to our ability to reason and over come obstacles. Yet even with our ability to think and to reason, we still pollute our drinking water, pollute the land that we need to grow food, and destroy the very environment that sustains us.

Like a science fiction movie from not long ago: strip away our technology and we're basically helpless.....

What i'm getting at is that if we can engineer a better species, who is as intelligent as we are, yet not as stupid as we are, and more able to resist our environmental hazards, what do you think will become of us as a species? we will have pretty much had the biscuit.....why is there not already a species better suited to rule the planet than us? because one didn't evolve.......

As I said|: history is full of examples of man interjecting foreign species and having devestating results......