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Scientists Create Sheep That Are 15 Percent Human
anthemaniac writes "Professor Esmail Zanjani and colleagues at the University of Nevada-Reno have created sheep that are 15 percent human at the cellular level. Half the organs in the sheep are human. The idea, of course, is to harvest those organs to transplant into human patients. From the article: 'He has already created a sheep liver which has a large proportion of human cells and eventually hopes to precisely match a sheep to a transplant patient, using their own stem cells to create their own flock of sheep.' One scientists worries, however, that the work could lead to new viruses that cross from animals to humans."
When I saw this, I thought the amazing thing was how the human organs managed to maintain much of their functionality in sheep. The idea of harvesting them for later use back in humans seems cool, but sensationalist at this point. IMHO, the most remarkable thing here is that one could get a very realistic model of human diseases in animals, upon which to dissect out the mechanisms of diseases and look for/test treatments.
I hope they isolate these sheep from other sheep populations. If the diseases can adapt to attack the human organs in the sheep environment, then we've potentially got a very large set of new diseases waiting to trickle in to the human population as they adapt to the new organs.
I believe there's already been at least one fictional book on this topic already. Ah, here it is.
Ryan Fenton
God can go fuck himself and so can you.
Seriously, if God's all powerful, let's see him come down here and stop us. None of this magical wind shit. None of this saint in a borrito shit. Get in your Jesus suit and come down here.
Yeah, that's what I thought.
Your religion is all talk.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Does this mean sheep shagging is no longer bestiality? OTOH, if it is human, a sheep dies long before reaching the age of consent so you'd get in trouble for sex with a minor.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Upset the food chain?
They feed chickens to cows, cows to chickens, fish to both, and GM corn with antibiotics to the chickens in the first place. The food chain looks like a fractal, not a line with humans at the top.
This won't fuck up the food chain any more than we already have.
And if I was dying (at a faster rate than the default) then I'd try out any new thing that could give me hope or maybe help out some other folks after me. So what if I have a sheep's liver, a robotic heart, and an embedded neural stabilizer?
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ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
I would of gave you points if you had a name. Oryx and Crake is spot on. For those that haven't read it, part of the story deals with genetics and what has come of it. In particular there are pigs that have human organs for transplants.
"And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you even as the green herb have I given you all things." - Genesis 9:2-3
"And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. A nd there came a voice to him ``Rise, Peter, kill and eat''." - Acts 10:11-13
"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils: Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron, Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth." - 1 Tim 4:1-3
Chill. I doubt he fears you or your arguments - especially that they seem to come from a sense of frustration.
And it's true. Mostly, atheists are talking to each other when making logical arguments against religion - mostly to provide each of us with "make the proseltyzer feel stupid so he'll leave me alone" ammo.
Most of us realize that you'll drop the imaginary friend in your own time, or maybe you won't; either way, nothing we say will change it. For that segment of us, it's to create a bullet-proof anti-preacher sheild. What fun is it, for example, to be told you're going to hell if you don't have a good argument as to why hell probably doesn't exist?
That said, the majority of us aren't really looking for an argument. We know arguments happen; we're quite outnumbered in the world, and it's very hard to keep the fact that you don't actually believe in God to yourself. You know. It comes up - and nine times out of ten, when it does, you end up getting the third degree by someone who was satisfied with 'Because God made it that way' for their whole lives or the 'flavor of the month' theist who is newly converted and wants to share (read: force) her new insights with you. Initially, argument prep is self-defence, though it often migrates to preemptive defense and outright flaming.
We should be more mature than that, and in fact, most of us are. It's just that, like any group, you get the teenagers and the adults who never left high school who are so damned sure of themselves that they can't be bothered to respect the choices of others.
I try to reprimand my fellow atheists occasionally when they step out of line; responses to insane proseltyzing that includes threats of damnation don't get rebuffed, but once in a while you'll get the genuinely curious question about atheism and the vitrolic atheist auto-reponse - and I'll shoot that down every time.
I can't moderate all the 'fuck God!' posts. I'd go crazy. But I just want to let you know that most of us aren't actually like that. We're good, normal people who just happen to not believe in a deity or deities.
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Not quite. Co-culturing cells allows them to exchange proteins and even fragments of their DNA.
This is the very same reason that none of the currently aproved human embryonic stem cell lines can be uses to cure humans: these cells have been grown on the mouse feeder cells back in 2001 and are expressing some mouse proteins (and are thus no longer 100% human).
I totally agree, which is why I'm a Vegan. I switched about a year and a half ago and have since lost 70 pounds (I started out at 240) and my cholesterol and heart rate are down the line perfect. I'm not a PETA supporter, I still wear leather, I can not stand most animals and for the most part am just an average Joe. I'm not a Vegan for the sake of the animals, I'm a Vegan for my own well being.
The book at this link: http://www.drfuhrman.com/weightloss/about.aspx/ convinced me to become Vegan. If you are having any health problems (like sleep apnea or type 2 diabetes) you should run, not walk, to amazon.com to buy that book (I think you can get it used for under $5), it will change your life.
There is a lot of confusing information about diet out there, this book cuts through all that and basically tells you what's up. I want to walk up to overweight people and shake them and say "There's a better way! Read this!"
To end my commercial (for which I get paid nothing) I'd say: It has a very "Hack your body" feel to it, which is perfect for the Slashdot crowd. He goes into the details of the numbers of calories, nutrients, protein, fat, sugar, etc. It's an amazingly fast read, especially for a technical person.
TK