Researchers at Harvard University have built a light-sensitive, self-propelled artificial machine-organism, in the form of a tiny robot stingray. The project was done in an effort to test the feasibility of making hybrid replacement organs for human patients, such as bioartificial hearts, that could use natural muscle motions to function, as opposed to the electrical operation that today’s prosthetics require.
read more
When most people think of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, pictures of pest-hardy soya beans spring to mind, yet the true implications of this term are not widely considered.
Though the consumption of GMOs is a subject for debate in itself, there are other, less obvious areas in which other forms of genetic engineering could have – and are having – dramatic effects on our daily lives. In truth, under the umbrella of the term "genetic engineering," scientists have been given almost free rein to pursue a host of wild and weird endeavors that have resulted in some extremely questionable results.
Scientists are creating strange hybrids in order to do medical research (NOTE: You can still get Whitley’s novel "Hybirds" from the Whitley Strieber Collection). If these creatures should escape from the lab, would they be dangerous to us?
These creatures seem benign–like "Freckles," a normal-looking goat that is actually part spider. So why are scientists doing this?
read more
A cloning scientist created “human/cow” embryos, containing DNA from both humans and cattle, which lived for several weeks and could have been implanted into a woman’s womb.
Jonathan Leake of The (U.K.) Sunday Times writes that Panayiotis Zavos made the hybrid embryos by inserting human DNA into the eggs of a cow. He did it in order to refine his cloning techniques and says, “We are not trying to create monsters.”
The embryos grew to several hundred cells, which is beyond the stage, known as differentiation, in which cells begin to develop into tissues and organs.
read more