Legend has it that God created Adam, the first man in the world, from clay, and then took his ribs to create Eve, making them husband and wife and ancestors of mankind.
They live in the sacred Garden of Eden and live a happy and harmonious life. But later, they were lured by snakes, ate the forbidden fruit from the tree, understood love and shame, and became smart, so they were punished by God, expelled from the Garden of Eden and suffered on earth. Since then, there have been hardships and disasters.
It is said that after Pangu created the world, I don't know how many years passed, and the mother goddess Nuwa suddenly appeared between heaven and earth. In this desolate world, Nu Wa feels very lonely. One day, she saw her own shadow in the water and said that if there were more little people like her between heaven and earth, it would be nice to talk to each other.
According to the works of Greek mythologist Higginus, Persephone (the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture) found some clay when crossing the river, and she used it to shape people's images.
When Zeus came, Persephone asked Zeus to give life to the man she had created. Zeus agreed to her request and gave the clay figurine a fresh life.
But when Persephone wanted to name the newly created person after himself, Zeus disagreed, because he also wanted to name the new life after himself.
Later, Gaia (Demeter), the mother of the earth, joined the dispute because she felt that the new life should be named after herself.
Finally, God Cronus ruled that after death, the soul belongs to Zeus and the body belongs to Kaya, and Persephone, who shaped man, can dominate his life while he is alive.
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It is a myth that God created human beings.
Today, with the development of science and technology, gene editing gives the myth the possibility of becoming a reality.
Think about it, if we use genetic surgery to transform human cells, block the alienation of the virus after entering the human body, and control the stress response of the immune system in the human body, so that a series of insurmountable congenital and acquired diseases such as leukemia, HIV (AIDS), albinism, Huntington's disease and sickle cell anemia can be cured. In fact, gene surgery has achieved small-scale clinical success in the above diseases.
By extension, since it can help people get healthier bodies, do I want to be more beautiful? Double eyelids, high nose, or, I want to delay aging and stay young forever. I also want to be smarter, and my IQ, language ability, analytical ability and temperament should be greatly improved. Oh, and my children.
Can they be guaranteed to be excellent through genetic screening? I hope my child will become a pianist in the future, so his fingers must be long enough and his hearing sensitivity should be improved.
However, does the planned newborn have an independent life and personality? Maybe they are just tools to meet family expectations and social needs? Can the so-called "excellent" individuals really assume the responsibility of social evolution? If rich and powerful families can use genetic technology to occupy more competitive advantages, it will mean that the injustice of human society will be further solidified.
Wang Liming, a professor at Zhejiang University and winner of the Golden Book Award, peeled onions one after another in A Brief History of God's Scalpel Gene Editing (published by Zhejiang People's Publishing House), which logically and clearly promoted the development.
The flowers are getting more and more charming. When we are in a daze, the world suddenly turns around. We have experienced the confusion, excitement, surprise and ecstasy that scientists have experienced.
From "Darwin's troubles" to Mendel's humble soybean, the winding path leads to a secluded place, and all roads lead to the same goal, so modern genetics began. Knowing nothing about chaos in the initial research era, scientists want to understand "what is genetic material". In the mid-20th century, with the discovery of the double helix by francis crick and james watson, it was basically completed.
After that, scientists mainly solved "how to do it" and how to make genetic research available to human beings. This is an exciting chapter in the history of science. This is not only the process of human overcoming diseases, but also the pursuit of commercial capital and the contest of human nature.
In the struggle against virus infection, human beings are undoubtedly at a strategic disadvantage. Our genome is huge, and any gene replication error will threaten human life.
Scientists imagine: find the position that needs editing on the long chain of DNA, cut two fractures with a pair of scissors, take out the wrong DNA fragment, replace it with the correct sequence, and then sew it up with a needle and thread. The specific implementation process is obviously impossible to complete simply.
Imagine: our human body started from a fertilized egg, and after hundreds of trillions of cell divisions, the DNA molecules in the fertilized egg cells experienced hundreds of thousands of semi-conservative replications, which made us what we are today.
In this process, the total length of DNA molecules in the human body has expanded to hundreds of billions of kilometers. Every small mistake may lead to irreparable mistakes. /kloc-the death of Jesse Kissinger, a 0/8-year-old boy, aroused public doubts, innocent lives paid the price, and scientific research itself was once stagnant.
Why does zinc finger protein combination become genomic GPS? Why do transcription factors have the ability to accurately recognize and bind specific DNA sequences? How did scientists come up with the idea of using viruses to transport specific genes to designated locations? How to overcome the side effects of virus entering human body?
What are the suitable natural scissors, robots, needles and threads? How to ensure the accuracy of patching, without loss or increase? Every detail is completed and every step is advanced, which is like an exhausted battle.
Looking back on the past century, especially the last 20 years, from the birth of Dolly the sheep cloned in 1996 to the human embryo experiment conducted by Huang Jun of Sun Yat-sen University in China on 20 15, the criticism and controversy in the ethical context have been accompanied by the development of gene technology, and the double-edged sword effect is worrying.
Wang Liming said that the progress of gene editing, a technical means, "will eventually move from science to ethics, touching on the ultimate issues such as the definition of human beings and the independence of human individuals". The pace of science can't stop, so we can only keep groping in the dilemma and try our best to balance it. In any case, it is destined to be a wonderful journey.
People's Network-Gene Editing, Rewriting the Future of Human Beings