DISCLAIMER- SKIP THIS BLOG AT YOUR OWN PERIL BECAUSE IT’S NOT JUST ANOTHER SCIENCE BLOG BUT IT CONCERNS OUR FUTURE. SO GO AHEAD AND EXPLORE…
Hi, my fellow netizens. Hope you are doing good. You must be wondering what on earth am I up to? Am I alright? What is wrong with me? Why would a guy pursuing MECHANICAL engineering, write a blog on such an unwonted topic, so very divergent from his course of study? Well, firstly guys pardon me for my unconditional love for BIOLOGY and secondly, I have always been of the opinion that an extra helping of KNOWLEDGE never goes amiss.
Particularly when the topic under discussion is going to play a major role in shaping our life and the things revolving around it. In few years to come it will have huge potential both in a good and evil sense so it’s better if we armor ourselves up with some good and sound information regarding this soon to be next “BIG THING”.
Well, we all know what BIOGENETICS is all about and its wide range of application including Agriculture, Animal husbandry, Medicine, and Surgery. But for those who are still ignorant about what’s going on, please allow me to enlighten you- “BIOGENETICS is the science and art of changing the genetic makeup of some of the living organism to drive intended benefits to the human kind and human society as a whole. ”
With its help, various species of crops have grown to many lethal diseases. Hybridization has helped to increase crop yield, nutrition value, quicker, higher productivity and thus brought about a new era of Agricultural revolution, which can hopefully eradicate starvation and malnutrition.
It has been effective for tackling and defeating deadly and difficult diseases in the world. Eg-cystic fibrosis. And with the advancement made in modern medical science, one could easily lay their hands on a person’s whole genome sequence and thus predict what are the diseases and infection that one has the risk of catching in future. Timely action and necessary precautionary measures can then help negate the chances of being contagious with those diseases.In a nutshell, BIOGENETICS can shoot a person’s lifespan up by a few good years.
But what about the hazards and ill effects involved in it because I as well as you would agree that Genetic engineering could be a serious threat if put to nefarious ends. With the power of the market and the open information published in journals, I am sure that humans will want to enhance their children and will be prepared to pay large sums to do so.
More Laws and Regulation cannot prevent this from happening. There are a number of disadvantages in allowing a scientist to break down barriers that perhaps are better left untouched.A rogue scientist might alter particular genes to create so called “Designer babies”, with tailored features that range from height and eye color to disease immunity and thus make huge profits by selling such nauseous ideas and models.
I think Bioterrorism is a reality and a risk factor we need to take into consideration. It can be used as a murder weapon too as a greedy and inhuman scientist may not hesitate to carry out any action that they may deem fit for their purpose and interest. Eg-Nazi human experimentation was a series of medical experiments on a large number of prisoners, including children by Nazi Germany in its concentration camp in early to mid-1940’s (i.e; during World war 2 and holocaust).
Nazi physicians and their assistants forced prisoners into participating with an aim to design “Homo sapiens” that will help German military personnel in combat situations, develop a new weapon, aid in the recovery of military personnel who have been injured and to advance the Nazi racial ideology. Besides, there are a number of ethnic objections. Diseases, after all, exist for a reason and have persisted throughout history for a reason. Whilst we should be fighting against them, we do need at least a few illnesses, otherwise, we would soon become overpopulated.