Molecular Genetics

(submitted by SS) Until now, scientists have only been able to produce clones using cells from live animals. This is how researchers created Dolly the Sheep, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult animal.

Researchers had thought that frozen cells were unusable because ice crystals would have damaged the DNA. That belief would rule out the possibility of resurrecting extinct animals from their frozen remains.

Recently, scientists in Japan have generated clones from frozen mice. Mice that have been dead and frozen for 16 years. This opens the possibility of cloning mammoths and other animals that long disappeared from the extant fauna of the Earth. Jurassic Park is one step closer…

Here is an opinion page about the insertion of human genes into GM crops. In theory, we have been modifying our food crops genetically for thousands of years, but we are at the dawn of a new era– in the past we have selected for advantageous traits or genes found in plants, but now we just install the ones that we want with a particular twist: they may come from an entirely different organism. These are “transgenic” organisms, not arising from evolutionary processes, but rather by design… intelligent or not.
This link is from the parent page which is a special report from NewScientist with many articles on genetically modified foods.

Very soon, the notion of prenatal gene therapy will become an ethical argument of epic proportions. Since the technology is still nascent, there has been little public discussion, however there have been some postings:
Correcting Tay-Sachs and Jewish law.

What if these treatments lead to greater problems for medical personnel and should they know about the therapy?

Correcting trisomy and Downs?