I am disappointed morally and scientifically

Today in the BBC it was announced the scientists have managed to create genetically modified monkeys that fluoresce under funny lights. The team of scientist from Japan who synthesized these monkeys, suggested they will aid disease research.

One might wonder how glow in the dark monkeys will aid in human disease research. I did have to scratch my head a bit to make the connection. I wondered is there some human disease that causes us to glow green under certain light conditions. I couldn't think of one, but my expertise is fundamentally limited. I am assuming it is the technique of engineering not by glowing green that will prove beneficial.

This case of glowing monkeys is special, perhaps spectacular as scientists reverse engineered traits into an animal that was in one generation passed on to progeny. (a kind of one generation evolution). Of course we will have to wait to see what happens in subsequent generations (will the trait degrade, will it remain, will it interfere in unanticipated regions).

Anyway, on to the technique, scientists used retro-viruses to "infect" the monkey with new DNA. Of course we all know now how retro-viruses work thanks to ongoing media coverage of HIV research and treatment. The team hopes that this kind of retro-fitting will aid in gene therapies to help people affected by genetic related illnesses. At the birth of this technology viruses can still only carry short pieces of DNA about 10,000 base pairs, but presumably as technology progresses and advances we will create viruses capable of carrying and implanting entire genes maybe even entire chromosomes...

hey...that just gave me a very exciting (?) idea for new generation sex change therapies, in theory this technology could be used to replace X or Y chomosones...wow...I don't know how i feel about that...but it is something isn't it? Sex-change would no longer be the realm of plastic surgeons, but it would be the full and real conversion from one sex to the other...

anyway. The title of this blog suggests I am not happy about this research. Its not the research per say, but the methodology. It seems perverse to genetically modify creatures that never, ever in our knowledge of natural history glowed in the dark to cause them to glow in the dark. I know that scientists are looking for animals that are analogous to humans as this is a technology they are developing for human health care purposes...but somehow I really feel their methodology is fundamentally immoral and unnecessary. There are billions of traits available, more natural and helpful to monkeys than glowing in the dark, why not effect muscle type, or hand bone structure to give them stronger hands, or blue eyes or longer or shorter tails...I know that we think this technology is only for humans because humans thought of it...but I am pretty sure the world doesn't work that way.

I mean algae doesn't insist oxygen is only for algae because they thought of the best way to mass produce it...we all share it, we all benefit from their technological advances, their skills, just as we all suffer from various organisms that think up destructive things to do..magma and its plate shifting, or what is the crimson tide organism...i forget but that thing (cyanobacteria? maybe). We have a responsibility, we especially because of our level or ethical sentience, to use our abilities sensitively to all living creatures.

however if it ever became important to make humans glow in the dark...perhaps I will one day concede my disappointment.