Redesigning the World:
Ethical Questions about Genetic Engineering
Redesigning the World
For tw and those that don't understand that there are known unknowns and unknown unknowns that make genetic engineering a risk to us all that only serves the few, here is some recent news, but first lets review the fact that we don't really have any idea yet of what we are really doing when we start re-sequencing or redesigning DNA, the debate ending quote of destiny:
[video=youtube;_w5JqQLqqTc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w5JqQLqqTc[/video]
Hitler's entire dream was based on genetic superiority.
What would Hitler have done with the genetic engineering capabilities of today's technology?
Now imagine all the corporate mechanisms of control that exist in America and how such has been used over the years to bring even more centralized control.
Now imagine what those same corps and their puppet govs will do with genetic engineering technology?
IBM and Bayer and DuPont etc are the same corps that were in business with Hitler and were in full support of his dream of a master race.
Now IBM et al wants us all to help them 'build a smarter planet'...if anyone can add 2 + 2 then they should be able to add up whats going on with genetic engineering.
Some folks here it seems can only see a Pollyanna version or piece of the picture that suits them such as how such technology could help us all, but unless put into the context of who's developing the technology and for what, such a view is like seeing the toe of a beast yet remaining blind to the rest of the body, especially the hungry mouth.
Its one thing to wish for good, but in this case its more like wishing for a less painful way to be eaten.
20 January 2013
'Quadruple helix' DNA seen in human cells
Jonathan Amos By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News
A representation of the four-stranded structure (L) and fluorescent markers reveal its presence inside cells (R) A representation of the four-stranded structure (L) with fluorescent markers revealing its presence inside cells (R)
Continue reading the main story
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Cambridge University scientists say they have seen four-stranded DNA at work in human cells for the first time.
The famous "molecule of life", which carries our genetic code, is more familiar to us as a double helix.
But researchers tell the journal Nature Chemistry that the "quadruple helix" is also present in our cells, and in ways that might possibly relate to cancer.
They suggest that control of the structures could provide novel ways to fight the disease.
"The existence of these structures may be loaded when the cell has a certain genotype or a certain dysfunctional state," said Prof Shankar Balasubramanian from Cambridge's department of chemistry.
"We need to prove that; but if that is the case, targeting them with synthetic molecules could be an interesting way of selectively targeting those cells that have this dysfunction," he told BBC News.
Tag and track
It will be exactly 60 years ago in February that James Watson and Francis Crick famously burst into the pub next to their Cambridge laboratory to announce the discovery of the "secret of life".
What they had actually done was describe the way in which two long chemical chains wound up around each other to encode the information cells need to build and maintain our bodies.
Today, the pair's modern counterparts in the university city continue to work on DNA's complexities.
Balasubramanian's group has been pursuing a four-stranded version of the molecule that scientists have produced in the test tube now for a number of years.
It is called the G-quadruplex. The "G" refers to guanine, one of the four chemical groups, or "bases", that hold DNA together and which encode our genetic information (the others being adenine, cytosine, and thymine).
The G-quadruplex seems to form in DNA where guanine exists in substantial quantities.
And although ciliates, relatively simple microscopic organisms, have displayed evidence for the incidence of such DNA, the new research is said to be the first to firmly pinpoint the quadruple helix in human cells.
'Funny target'
The team, led by Giulia Biffi, a researcher in Balasubramaninan's lab, produced antibody proteins that were designed specifically to track down and bind to regions of human DNA that were rich in the quadruplex structure. The antibodies were tagged with a fluorescence marker so that the time and place of the structures' emergence in the cell cycle could be noted and imaged.
This revealed the four-stranded DNA arose most frequently during the so-called "s-phase" when a cell copies its DNA just prior to dividing.
Prof Balasubramaninan said that was of key interest in the study of cancers, which were usually driven by genes, or oncogenes, that had mutated to increase DNA replication.
If the G-quadruplex could be implicated in the development of some cancers, it might be possible, he said, to make synthetic molecules that contained the structure and blocked the runaway cell proliferation at the root of tumours.
"We've come a long way in 10 years, from simple ideas to really seeing some substance in the existence and tractability of targeting these funny structures," he told the BBC.
"I'm hoping now that the pharmaceutical companies will bring this on to their radar and we can perhaps take a more serious look at whether quadruplexes are indeed therapeutically viable targets."
Prof Shankar Balasubramanian Prof Shankar Balasubramanian in front of a painting by artist Annie Newman that represents quadruplex DNA
Good news trend for yes voters:
IBM to ‘financialize’ water; the last frontier in monopolizing human rights and installing neo-feudalism
Release Date: January 23, 2013
Issued By: Waterfund LLC
NEW YORK, NY – January 23, 2013 – Waterfund LLC announced today that it has signed an agreement with IBM (NYSE: IBM) to develop a Water Cost Index (WCI).
Scientists from IBM Research will apply Big Data expertise, acting as a calculation agent, to analyze large and diverse unstructured data sets. This will be used to develop of a WCI framework that would estimate the cost of water in different regions around the world. With its market and financial product expertise, Waterfund will work to structure and commercialize the WCI.
Population growth, massive urbanization and climate change are placing increasing demands on our limited water supply. Forty one percent of the world’s population – that’s 2.3 billion people – live in water-stressed areas; this number is expected to grow to 3.5 billion by 2025. And according to the United Nations, water use has been growing at more than twice the rate of population increase over the last century.
With advances in technology — deep computing and Big Data analytics linked to sophisticated sensor networks and smart meters — IBM is helping clients and partners make smarter decisions about water management. By monitoring, measuring and analyzing water systems, from rivers and reservoirs to pumps and pipes, we can better understand the issues around water. IBM is applying its expertise in smart systems and Big Data to help companies, governments and citizens understand and more effectively deal with these issues.
As governments are increasingly forced to turn to the private sector to fund the construction and maintenance of complex water networks, the Rickards Real Cost Water Index™ will serve as a benchmark for helping measure hundreds of critical projects on a like-for-like basis. Index values will reflect estimated water production costs measured in US dollars per cubic metre for a variety of major global water infrastructure projects ranging from retail water utilities and wholesale water utilities to major transmission projects.
Carry on