Planet of the Apes...for real?

[MIB41]

Read the article below. How long before scientists secretly start mixing animal with the human species? It's getting scary in the modern laboratory...

First mixed-embryo monkeys are born in US - Yahoo! News

[emeraldknight47]

Heck, I'm not too worried, TK. After all, there are some inbred humans around that are already pretty damn scary!!!

[MIB41]

^^^ Truer words have never been spoken!

[thunderbolt]

I had a lit teacher in college that firmly believed that if the scientists were publicly talking about something like cloning a sheep or your monkey story then they were already doing it in back rooms on people. I think she was right on the money.

[torgospizza]

And even if cloning humans is illegal in the West, it will not stop anyone from doing it, anyway. How many of us here have broken laws? I imagine most of us, and we're a fairly upstanding lot. The issue with cloning people, however, is why? There is no real need to clone a person. Clones will have rights as individuals--because they are--so it's not as if we'll be farming them for organs or making them our slaves. Strictly speaking, if you are cloned, that clone is your genetic sibling (an identical twin many years younger), as you share genetic info from your parents. I could see maybe doing it for a couple in their 40s or 50s that never got around to having kids, possibly. But that's even something a bit different--"synthetically" superimposing genetic data over preexisting DNA on arranged stem cells or something.

Anyway, back to The Planet of the Apes! Love the movies, but wouldn't want to live there.

[Hector]

Heck, I'm not too worried, TK. After all, there are some inbred humans around that are already pretty damn scary!!!

That...plus there are seven billion of us.

Good luck, poor apes...you are gonna need it...

[emeraldknight47]

That...plus there are seven billion of us.

Good luck, poor apes...you are gonna need it...

That they are, Hector, that they are!!!

::laffs::

[The Bat]

Imagine if they did this with a Chimp and a Human? A Chimpanzee's DNA is only one half of one percent from a Human's. What other species would be easier to combine their DNA with?

[Brazoo]

Hang on - they're not mixing species - they're mixing embryonic cells from the same species.

If scientists can identify the genes that cause disease in monkeys they may better understand the genetics of disease in humans. I don't see what's scary about that and think you guys watch too many monster movies.

[Brazoo]

Imagine if they did this with a Chimp and a Human? A Chimpanzee's DNA is only one half of one percent from a Human's. What other species would be easier to combine their DNA with?

That's probably still not that easy - if a person is born missing the smallest fraction of a chromosome or born with tiny fractions of copies they have really debilitating genetic diseases. Down syndrome, for example - is caused by a really small copying error. Missing or gaining more than the tiniest fractions - and you're dead. Chimps are very close to us, but they have a whole other set of chromosomes.

In any case - let's just say we were at that level, and scientists could do this - why would they?

I guess maybe they'd want a chimp with a human organ so they could experiment on that organ without harming a person, but a chimp with a human pancreas is still a huge leap from being able to drive a tank and shoot a gun.

[The Bat]

In any case - let's just say we were at that level, and scientists could do this - why would they?.

Because if they can...they will. Scientists are so preoccupied with whether or not they can accomplish a thing...they never stop to think if they should.

[Brazoo]

Because if they can...they will. Scientists are so preoccupied with whether or not they can accomplish a thing...they never stop to think if they should.

I disagree - I know that's how a lot of people think, but I think there is a lot of moral and ethical discussion within the scientific community - especially with regards to medical science.

From what I understand splicing an ape with a human would take a lot of funding and man power. Researchers actually have to convince backers what they're doing is worth while and show a clear goal for their research to get funding. I don't think there are a lot of gene splicing experiments going on "just to see what happens".

In any case, I'm not really scared about budding young Dr. Moreau's out there. I think things like heart disease, cancer, lung disease, alzheimer's and diabetes are scarier than anything in the Apes movies.

[The Bat]

You have your opinion, I have mine. I leave it at that.

[Brazoo]

You have your opinion, I have mine. I leave it at that.

Hey, that's cool man - I can appreciate that!

[Brazoo]

To clarify what I understand from this article - they're taking embryonic monkey cells from different embryos and letting them fuse together to form one monkey. It's the natural process - they're just taking the embryonic cells from 6 monkeys and putting them together to grow into one monkey.

I think of this as the exact same thing as a transplant surgery - taking an organ from one monkey and putting it into another - but with embryonic cells instead of fully formed tissue.

I can see how this could lead to ethical dilemmas about the fusion of multiple human embryos - because creating extra human embryos is an ethical dilemma for people - but splicing multiple species isn't really related to this. By the time these embryonic cells are formed they're monkey cells no matter what. What you guys are taking about is making embryonic cells from ape and monkey DNA. Cells that aren't pure ape or pure human from the get go. From what I understand that's a whole different story.

Anyway - I'm probably in favor of the great Ape takeover. Screw it!