01-19-2016, 11:35 PM
Sekker, sounds like you might work in the field. To a lot of us lay people, the dangers of genetic manipulation is not all too clear.
Traditionally, man used to manipulate things genetically through the sexual/cross-breeding/hybridization process. This required similar organisms as parents. Which (and I'm conjecturing here) placed limits on how 'dangerous' a particular gene manipulation could be (such as how it could propagate in the wild or affect the long term health of the organism or species...especially for humans).
The new genetic technology allows us to manipulate genes directly. It gives us the ability to mix genes from completely unrelated species all the way up to unrelated phylums. And from what I understand, our understanding of the complete (maybe this is a fantasy) effect of a gene is not understood. What do you think, are these valid concerns, have they been discussed in the industry?
Traditionally, man used to manipulate things genetically through the sexual/cross-breeding/hybridization process. This required similar organisms as parents. Which (and I'm conjecturing here) placed limits on how 'dangerous' a particular gene manipulation could be (such as how it could propagate in the wild or affect the long term health of the organism or species...especially for humans).
The new genetic technology allows us to manipulate genes directly. It gives us the ability to mix genes from completely unrelated species all the way up to unrelated phylums. And from what I understand, our understanding of the complete (maybe this is a fantasy) effect of a gene is not understood. What do you think, are these valid concerns, have they been discussed in the industry?