Re: So where are the negatives?
engineer wrote:Ok, the rich get to go under the knife to look pretty and the poor get spared. Doesn't all the money going into the business help us learn more so that we can help those burn victims also? The cutting edge of technology has always been for the rich with benefits rolling down the the rest of the population when it is perfected. Electricity, telephones, TV, computers, broadband all followed this model. On the medical front, AIDS drugs is the best example. Now the rich can control the AIDS virus. In the future, all the developed world will and after that, all the world. Stem cells may give us insights into genetic conditions that we can cure or mitigate. Should we not research it because the rich will benefit first? Should we ignore it because a small percentage might use the results for less than ethical reasons while the majority benefit from the valid, positive uses of new medical developments? My personal view is no.
Not to complain, but we are heading into the realms of politics here and though science is supposed to be politics-free but rarely ever is, we can at least keep it to a minimum.
The views all expressed here are all valid.
Evolution can only happen if there are natural selection pressures, and more importantly, beneficial mutations. While we can clearly see beneficial mutations in bacteria and viruses, this is only because they have such high rates of mutations compared to humans and because their genomes are so small.
Human beings have a huge genome with complicated gene interactions. The more complicated the gene interactions, the more devastating a mutation in any one gene can become.
In our evolution, we have reached a point where most mutations become harmful not to mention that mutation rates are so low. This is partially because our environment hasn't changed much. What could be perceived as harmful mutations might not be harmful, say, if the environment changed in a way to benefit such mutations.
Take for example dolphins. Scientists discovered that the speed and effortless manner in which dolphins glide through the water, is partially because of the way their skin sheds.
Now, there is a disease in mankind that means that skin sheds far too easily, made famous in that Channel Four documentary, "The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off". Now, granted, his form of the disease is a bit extreme compared to what dolphins shed but if he were to take the water he might have some advantage (if of course, he could breathe underwater).
Still, we don't know all we can about evolution. In fact, we don't know all we can about the genome, the transcriptome and the proteome. There's still far too much to discover and maybe, just maybe, we might see a new beneficial mutation yet.
