Episode 008
On this episode…
After a couple of weeks in which we had to travel and go through some interesting experiences, we are back with a new trip Down The Rabbit Hole, in which we will discuss about the Magic Molecule: DNA.
There have been lot of movies and books related to DNA in sci-fi and movies including Jurassic Park where dinosaurs are resurrected, but the big problem has to do in how long DNA retains it’s integrity and information, since DNA is the blue print of life, there is a limit in how much DNA can retain the information and it’s between a thousand and a hundred thousand years while is not in contact with water, after that the information gets corrupted.
We mention panspermia which means seeding planets with DNA through asteroids and the fact we mention it it’s because has been used a a central topic in movies where earth or other planets got life due to asteroids crashing in a planet and seeding the planet creating new life.
The TV series Fringe was mentioned once again since they used Amber to seal the rift and persons that were in the middle of the inter dimensional activities, the Amber appears as well in Jurassic part where the DNA was kept inside a mosquito trapped and from this DNA dinosaurs were replicated.
Some Books we talk about:
The Island of Dr. Moreau (H.G. Wells 1896) Ranked among the classic novels of the English language and the inspiration for several unforgettable movies, this early work of H. G. Wells was greeted by howls of protest from reviewers, who found it horrifying and blasphemous.
Brave New World (Aldous Huxley, 1932) Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal society. Through clever use of genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs, all its members are happy consumers. Bernard Marx seems alone harbouring an ill-defined longing to break free.
Blood Music (Greg Bear 1985) Vergil Ulam has created cellular material that can outperform rats in laboratory tests. When the authorities rule that he has exceeded his authorization, Vergil loses his job, but is determined to take his discovery with him.
Cyteen (C.J. Cherryh, 1988) Set on a harsh world whose settlers have a fractious relationship with Earth, this book looks at an attempt to push human cloning beyond the creation of a genetic duplicate. Scientists try to recreate the personality of one of their society’s most valuable citizens by creating similar childhood experiences, as Cherryh deftly explores the nature vs. nurture debate.
And about Movies we mention:
The Fly (1986) A scientist who creates a teleportation device. He uses the device but a fly slips in with him and the teleportation process merges their genes together. Slowly, the scientist begins to turn into a fly as the fly’s genes take over his body.
Piranha (1978) Two people accidentally free mutant piranhas near a summer camp and resort lake. The fish were part of a government experiment called Operation Razorteeth. Scientists were told to engineer a voracious strain of piranha that could live in the cold water of the North Vietnamese rivers in an effort to aid US troops fighting the Vietnam War. After they are released, they attack anyone who gets in their way.
Black Sheep (2006) A horror comedy from New Zealand about genetically modified sheep that change from docile vegetarians into violent carnivores whose bite can transform a human into a bloodthirsty half-sheep called a weresheep, which is part demon and part mutant. Although it has an outrageous story, the film holds a 70 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. The website review says, “With an outrageous premise played completely straight, Black Sheep is a violent, grotesque, and very funny movie that takes B-movie lunacy to a delirious extreme.”
Splice (2009) horror film about what happens to a geneticist couple after they splice human DNA with animal DNA in order to create a new species. While they are successful, the creature they create begins to develop at an alarming rate and becomes a threat to their careers and lives
Sharktopus (2010) a group of scientists who are employed by the US Navy to create a half-shark, half-octopus creature to send into war. Sharktopus ends up escaping during a demonstration and wreaks havoc (2 sequels)
The episode couldn’t be complete without some Conspiracy Theories:
Genetically Modified Babies Already Born: 30 healthy babies were born after a series of experiments in the United States provoking a furious debate about ethics. Fifteen of the children were born as a result of one experimental program at the Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science of St Barnabas in New Jersey in 2002, but not publicly reported until 2012! The babies were born to women who had problems conceiving. Extra genes from a female donor were inserted into their eggs before they were fertilized in an attempt to enable them to conceive. Genetic fingerprint tests on two one-year- old children confirm that they have inherited DNA from three adults—two women and one man.”
Dutch embryologist Jacques Cohen is regarded as a brilliant but controversial scientist who has pushed the boundaries of assisted reproduction technologies. He has developed a technique which allows infertile men to have their own children, by injecting sperm DNA straight into the egg in the lab. Prior to this, only infertile women were able to conceive using IVF.
In 2000 Professor Cohen said that his expertise would allow him to clone children—a prospect treated with horror by the mainstream scientific community. ‘It would be an afternoon’s work for one of my students,’ he said, adding that he had been approached by ‘at least three’ individuals wishing to create a cloned child, but had turned down their requests.”
That was then—15 years ago. One can only guess what might have transpired in laboratories such as that of Professor Cohen since then…
A Message From God?
(2013) Researchers at Harvard University announced today that they have found what appears to be a message from God written inside the human genome. In a little-explored section of non-coding DNA, a team of top geneticists discovered a 22-word snippet of ancient Aramaic in which God confirms his existence and his role in creating life on Earth. The stunning finding represents nearly irrefutable evidence of God’s existence and his role in creating the process of evolution by natural selection. The message was discovered when researchers noticed strange mathematical patterns appearing within a certain section of the genome. Entirely decoded, the message reads: Hello my children. This is Yahweh, the one true Lord. You have found creation’s secret. Now share it peacefully with the world.”
Now thoroughly debunked as a complete fabrication
The Anunnaki
A paradigm making its way into popular folklore, via the work of the late Zecharia Sitchin, an economist by education and profession, and the author of several best-selling books, including Genesis Revisited, that explore ancient mythology and the mysterious megalithic ruins found around the globe. These various books also seek to demonstrate that there was in ancient times an extraterrestrial race that genetically manipulated mankind for various reasons. The Sitchin thesis (“Sitchinism”), now embraced by numerous other writers, who have incorporated it into what is apparently a new worldview, essentially asserts that these ancient Sumero-Babylonian gods, the Anunnaki, are aliens from the planet Nibiru (Sitchin’s “12th Planet”), which passes by the earth every 3,500 years or so, at which time they planet-hop to the earth and create mischief.
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