On Friday, June 19, 2020 at 7:01:35 PM UTC-5, Brent wrote: > > > > On 6/19/2020 9:35 AM, John Clark wrote: > > A gene called "ARHGAP11B" that is found in humans and in no other animal > has long been thought to be at least partially responsible for humans > having an extremely large brain with a high degree of cortical folding. All > other primates have a similar gene, but a point mutation happened between > 500,000 and 1.5 million years ago and a single C was changed to a G in the > human version. In yesterday's issue of the journal Science researchers > report than when Genetic engineering was used to insert the human gene > ARHGAP11B into the fertilized egg of a small monkey (a marmoset ) the > result was a fetus with about 45% more neurons in the neocortex than a > normal fetus and 3 times as many glial cells. A marmoset gestation period > is 152 days but because it had a human gene in it the fetus was aborted > after just 101 days due to ethical guidelines, so it's not known how such > an animal's behavior would change if it was allowed to come to term. > > Human-specific ARHGAP11B increases size and folding of primate neocortex > in the fetal marmoset > <https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/06/17/science.abb2401> > > > So one gene made it necessary to abort because it might have a > humaness...which you must not abort because humaness implies a soul?? > > How did our ethical guidelines become so irrational? > > I wonder how it would affect a dog? I'll be there would be a market for > smarter dogs. And where there's a market, there's a way. > > Brent >
I don't think the matter is over ethereal ideas about souls. The implications of this research are potentially explosive. A gene in soybeans produces an enzyme involved with a pathway that produces a compound that blocks glyphosphate. Glyphosphate inhibits the production of several amino acids in plants. The gene in soybeans is then copied multiple times in the soybeans to make then super resistant to glyphosphate. In principle the same could be done with humans; insert additional copies of the ARHGAP11B gene to create super-smart babies. The question of course is, what can go wrong with this? There are potential nightmare scenarios for people so genetically engineered. Further, a sort of "brains arms race" could lead to generations of young people who are mental freaks. They might be in some ways very smart, but they could also easily be emotionally dysfunctional or mentally ill. My brother was a plant molecular biologist and geneticist and I used to have arguments over this. I am not entirely against genetic modification, but I think great care and caution is in order. My brother was more laissez faire about this. LC -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/02451a58-c727-4e19-a636-fd0baa142d3do%40googlegroups.com.
