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Scientists Search Deep Sea Reefs for Wonder Drugs

ScienceDaily is reporting that a team of scientists will be venturing some 2000-3000 feet below the ocean surface in order to explore deep-sea reefs discovered last December. From the article: "A primary goal of the upcoming expedition, which is funded largely by the State of Florida's 'Florida Oceans Initiative,' will be to search for marine organisms that produce chemical compounds with the potential to treat human diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's."

4 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Curse of the Blue Gold by TheMeuge · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Any chemical that can be synthesized biologically should be perfectly capable of being synthesized in-vitro. Any protein can be cloned and synthesized en masse. This scenario isn't very realistic, and smacks of ultra-enviromentalist garbage... like anti-GM-crop people.

  2. Yadda yadda... by RogueWarrior65 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Not to be a kill-joy or anything but why is it that when any group of scientists goes out to some obscure wilderness they always say they're looking for cancer treatment stuff? These guys seem to have been doing this for bunchteen years and have yet to come up with squat. Instead they always seem to come back with yet another global warming doom-and-gloom prediction. I'll bet they'd get more mileage (so-to-speak) if they said they were off looking for treatments for male-pattern baldness or childhood/adulthood obesity.

  3. Re:Curse of the Blue Gold by Mahou · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    you're a fucking retard, this is the same thing as people searching for new drugs in the rain forest. oh but you can use that as a slogan to save the rain forest! oh don't destroy the cure for cancer and aids is in there! but then people start looking in the ocean, which is even larger and more diverse, and yet you scream bloody murder? fuck you

    --
    if i'm not immortal, what's the point of living?
    ...te?
  4. like anti-GM-crop people. by falconwolf · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Are you so sure there's nothing wrong with GM crops? If you think so then you're wrong. Several years ago one biotech company inserted a gene from the Brazil nut into a crop plant though I don't recall right now which crop. If this had gotten into the food system then it could of killed many people. Some people are allergic to brazil nuts, some of these can have an anaphylactic shock and die. The only reason this gm crop was stopped was because during research at a university it was found that people had an allergic reation to the crop as well. Also biotech companies, like Monsanto, had previously stated GM crops won't cross pollenate with wild plants or crops. But it has been shown they do. Because of this Monsanto successfully sued a corn farmer in Aberta Canada. Pollen from a field of Monsanto corn cross pollenated with his corn. Just as farmers have done throughout history, he kept some of his crop for seeds for the following year, then Monsanto found their GM in his corn and sued him. One logical conclusion is that biotech companies want to control food crops and therefore the food supply.

    Falcon