From: Charles Hixson (charleshixsn@earthlink.net)
Date: Thu Oct 24 2002 - 10:15:44 MDT
Jeff Davis wrote:
>Extropes,
>
>Thanks, Anders.
>
>I'm astonished that no one has commented on this
>development. This is huge. Doesn't this make
>germline engineering 'easy'? Doesn't this sudden
>quantum leap to 'easiness' at least ***suggest*** that
>all the fuss about the problems with cloning is more
>...
>
My take on this:
A lot of the "fuss" about cloning is because currently there are *lots*
of technical problems that need to be worked out before we proceed.
Part of the problem is silly laws being passed assuming that "the way
things are" is the way they'll remain. But historically that was a
reasonable response.
However, though this may be a big breakthrough, one shouldn't
overestimate it's immediate effects. You can't tailor your results.
Genes add themselves where they feel like doing so. So you need to
screen your results for the ones that implement the changes that you
want, and be sure to get rid of any of the rest. This is as much like a
highly speeded up way of getting mutations (in a particular area) as it
is a way of designing your result.
Still, if you are willing to pay for the trial and error, this should
make things a *lot* cheaper.
Later, of course, we can expect to develope a finer control over things.
-- -- Charles Hixson Gnu software that is free, The best is yet to be.
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