Suppose, for example, that the horrors of global warming were to occur within the next hundred years and brings on another ice age. Before this happens, could geneticists alter human DNA to produce anti-freeze in the human blood stream like huskies? If the opposite happens and the Earth is struck with a global drought the likes of which are unimaginable, could humans be bred to develop sacks of stored water like camels, allowing them to survive for extended periods without drinking? Just little sublte things like that.
2007-03-02 21:04:02 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Biology
Oooh, roaches, good thinking. :) We need to study THEM and determine what makes them so impervious to extinction. Their tough hydes? Their speed? Something else? What adaptive characteristics do roaches have that can be incorporated into human DNA?
2007-03-02 21:18:14 · update #1
maybe bacause you don't known what gonna happen in the future
2007-03-02 21:24:10 · answer #1 · answered by manish_wolfyfox 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Huskies do not have anti-freeze in their blood. Some fish do, but no mammal does.
Even if we knew how to genetically modify people to the extent that might be needed, we don't know exactly what is going to happen with global warming.
Some might need gills like fish to live in the ocean when the oceans rise. Some might need to be able to breath carbon dioxide or methane and live.
Of all the things we might try to do about global warming, this is not a possible or practical one.
What you call "little subtle things" are quite the opposite, by the way!
2007-03-03 01:20:58 · answer #2 · answered by Joan H 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I don't think this is possible at least in the next 50 to 100 years. This is due to two primary reasons: We have not completely figured out genetics yet and genetic modification of humans has to happen right after conception. This requires in-vitro fertilization and modification of the human genome at that stage.
Recent scientific research has shown that genes can be affected by nutrition and lifestyle. This link is the reason why in-vitro fertilization produces babies with an above-average rate of mutations and defects. Given this, I think any attempt to modify the human genome carries unpredictable risks and would inevitably lead to freak-show results way before yielding even a slight improvement in man.
According to the human genome project, humans have only 30,000 genes. Compare this to already 14,000 genes present in the common fruit fly. Chromosomal genes are only ONE factor in heredity. If we start tampering with it, the probability of failure exceeds the probability of successful genetic modification by far given our current level of knowledge.
2007-03-02 23:39:59 · answer #3 · answered by suntoucher79 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Now we all know who/what would survive everything and anything and that is the roaches of the world. So we would have to mutate to a roach person... I really don't think it would be popular to raise a family of roach/human babies.. naw .. nuhuh.. ewww It's not gonna happen.
2007-03-02 21:12:58 · answer #4 · answered by ricketyoldbat 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
nicely at the beginning - moron boy.... there is not any such component as an "evolutionist". and you think of there became wheat and barley interior the Cambrian situations!! Holy Crap - examine a goddamned e book or something.
2016-10-17 04:07:29 · answer #5 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋