Category Archives: Human Genetic Engineering

Covid-19 has changed life as we know it. It has also accelerated already rapid trends in innovation and collaboration across the scientific community.

As the pandemic spreads across the globe, researchers are racing to develop diagnostics, vaccines and treatments. In the pursuit of new solutions to tackle SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19, researchers have been turning to machine learning, AI and high-throughput experimental automation that aid in development. Another powerful tool they are using to accelerate the process is CRISPR. This gene-targeting and gene-editing technology, based on the mechanism that bacteria naturally use to fight viruses, is already proving useful in our joint fight against this new virus.

CRISPR Advances Covid-19 TestingWe know early detection of SARS-CoV-2 is essential to isolating infected patients and managing appropriate healthcare responses. Recently, researchers at MIT published a rapid CRISPR-Cas13-based COVID-19 detection assay protocol.Since CRISPR can be modified to target nearly any genetic sequence, it can be used to detect SARS-CoV-2 RNA in a patient sample. This assay utilizes an RNA-targeting CRISPR nuclease to help scientists detect the SARS-CoV-2 RNA from patient samples within 60 minutes. More recently, an improved assay was developed by researchers at MIT that was shown to provide faster and more robust results.

Utilizing another CRISPR nuclease that is thermostable, they developed a test that in one step copies the viral RNA in a patient sample, such as saliva, into the more stable DNA and then specifically identifies a SARS-CoV-2 gene sequence. Performing this point-of-care assay requires minimal lab equipment and resources, as it only needs a few reagents and a heat source, delivering results in as little as 40 minutes. Supplementing existing tests with new CRISPR-based approaches can broaden accessibility to Covid-19 testing, a key strategy for stopping the spread through track and trace efforts, as outlined by the World Health Organization.

CRISPR Helps Engineer Future TreatmentsPreviously, the genome-engineering power of CRISPR has been directed at fighting genetic diseases. But more recently, its also being harnessed to fight infectious diseases, now including the new coronavirus.

Understanding how a pathogenic disease operates at the host-pathogen interface is critical to developing new treatments. CRISPR-based genome engineering enables researchers to study how SARS-CoV-2 interacts with human cells and generate the appropriate cell models that could lead to faster discovery of a potential new treatment or an existing drug combination that may provide a treatment solution. Once a potential treatment is identified, CRISPR makes the next step drug target screening more efficient, advancing us more quickly to a viable treatment option.

As an example of this approach in action, researchers are exploring if CRISPR can be used to verify the functional relevance of human genes recently identified to interact with SARS-CoV-2 proteins. The investigation of the molecular mechanisms of the novel virus can ultimately help identify drug combinations that have the best potential to treat those infected.

Current Fight for the Future of Human HealthGenome engineering has been rapidly harnessed by academic and non-profit institutions, the biopharma industry, and scientific pioneers to develop Covid-19 testing and treatment solutions. CRISPR-based genome engineering enables researchers to study how SARS-CoV-2 interacts with human cells and generate the appropriate cell models that could lead to faster discovery of a potential new treatment or an existing drug combination that may provide a treatment solution.

Beyond this, the unprecedented innovation taking place in response to the Covid-19 pandemic will provide a foundation for improving human health in the future. Additionally, as technologies and understanding mature, new approaches, such as engineered cell therapies, will become part of the toolkit in future responses to global health challenges.

The current scientific response is representative of the future of life sciences a future where we integrate multiple technologies and disciplines including high throughput experimental automation, machine learning and agile, programmable tools such as CRISPR to fundamentally change our approach to research and development. We are seeing a new bar being set on the speed of science as the research community comes together, leveraging these technologies to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic at unprecedented velocity. Once the public health crisis subsides and the research halted by the pandemic resumes, the need for these transformative tools, technologies and approaches to life science research and development will be greater than ever.

Photo: wildpixel, Getty Images

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How CRISPR can help us win the fight against the pandemic - MedCity News

Nature can help heal nature. Scientists and businesses increasingly are looking to biology to use the natural resources we extract more productively and to tackle climate change.

Until the COVID-19 pandemic broke, climate change was the most complex and pressing challenge of our times. Indeed, there is a link. Climate change is a threat multiplier that, scientists argue, is raising the risk of infectious diseases by, for instance, depriving animals of the genetic diversity they need to control viruses that through zoonotic transfer can be transferred to humans.

A Bio Revolution is underway that could make a contribution to broader efforts to slow or reverse climate change. This revolution is being propelled by rapid advances in our ability to sequence DNA and use that information to engineer genes to cure human disease, to innovate new forms of biology-based manufacturing and to improve yield and resilience in farming aided by ever more sophisticated (and cheaper) computing, data analytics and engineering.

By 2040 to 2050, the research finds that these 400 applications alone could reduce annual average man-made greenhouse-gas emissions by 7 to 9 percent from 2018 emissions levels.

In a new report, "The Bio Revolution: Innovations transforming economies, societies and our lives," the McKinsey Global Institute research compiled a library of about 400 applications, almost all of which are scientifically feasible today, that could have direct economic impact of up to $4 trillion a year over the next 10 to 20 years. Taking into account potential knock-on effects, new applications yet to emerge and additional scientific breakthroughs, the full potential could be far larger.

Undoubtedly many challenges are ahead, and some of the science remains to be fully developed. However, by 2040 to 2050, the research finds that these 400 applications alone could reduce annual average man-made greenhouse gas emissions by 7 to 9 percent from 2018 emissions levels. This is the equivalent of up to eight times the total carbon dioxide emissions of the global airline industry in 2018.

Debate about how to slow climate change has tended to focus on the burning of fossil fuels, but increasingly the role of food systems is coming into focus. Raising animals for meat, eggs and milk generates 14.5 percent of global GHG emissions, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Today, one-third of all cropland is used to produce animal feed.

A shift toward alternative proteins could reduce carbon emissions, free up cropland for human use or habitat restoration and, indeed, prevent deforestation in the first place. The taste and texture of plant-based meat substitutes is getting close to animal protein, and these products are competing with animal meats in grocery aisles and restaurant menus. Plant-based milk accounts for 15 percent of retail milk sales in the United States and 8 percent in Britain.

The new frontier, however, is cultured meat and seafood using tissue-culture technology. There are major technical challenges in finding a cost-effective way of growing cells, but lab-grown protein could compete on cost with conventional animal production within 10 years. Singapore-based Shio Meats is already trying out its lab-grown shrimp in dumplings.

The other fast-developing area of innovation with potentially large implications for sustainability is increasing use of biological means to manufacture materials, chemicals and energy.

The potential is enormous. As much as 60 percent of the worlds physical inputs are already biological (think wood or animals reared for food) or nonbiological (such as plastics, cement and aviation fuels) but that could be produced, or substituted for, using biology.

Fermentation, for centuries used to make bread and brew beer, is being used to create fabrics such as artificial spider silk. One cosmetics company is selling skincare products using moisturizing oil squalene made from genetically engineered yeast rather than processing liver oil from endangered deep-sea sharks. Leather is being made from mushroom roots instead of animal hide.

Biotech company Zymergen is creating renewable biomaterials for optical films used in displays; hard, scratch-proof coatings; and flexible electronics circuits. Nylon, for instance, is already being made using genetically engineered yeast instead of petrochemicals.

Some companies are using genetically engineered microbes to create biofuels for the aviation and marine industries. One startup is using microorganisms to create an alternative to traditional cement that produces far fewer carbon emissions during its manufacture.

In Norway, cruise ship and ferry company Hurtigruten is planning to power its ships by processing fish waste from the fishing and animal-feed industries into a liquid oil. However, while some of these innovations have come to market, a major challenge is competing on cost with products made the traditional way.

There are also new possibilities for carbon capture given widespread deforestation. Reforesting and less human land use has to be the answer, but biological innovations also can help.

For instance, genetically engineered plants potentially can store more carbon dioxide for longer periods than their natural counterparts Algae have a carbon-dioxide fixation efficiency of up to 50 times higher than terrestrial plants.

For now, healthcare is the most advanced strand of the Biological Revolution. But the next frontier is innovations that reduce the human footprint on the natural world. There are many challenges ahead, but also huge promise.

More:
A bio revolution to heal the natural world | Greenbiz - GreenBiz

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Cell Therapy - Technologies, Markets and Companies" report from Jain PharmaBiotech has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The cell-based markets was analyzed for 2018, and projected to 2028. The markets are analyzed according to therapeutic categories, technologies and geographical areas. The largest expansion will be in diseases of the central nervous system, cancer and cardiovascular disorders. Skin and soft tissue repair as well as diabetes mellitus will be other major markets.

The number of companies involved in cell therapy has increased remarkably during the past few years. More than 500 companies have been identified to be involved in cell therapy and 309 of these are profiled in part II of the report along with tabulation of 302 alliances. Of these companies, 170 are involved in stem cells.

Profiles of 72 academic institutions in the US involved in cell therapy are also included in part II along with their commercial collaborations. The text is supplemented with 67 Tables and 25 Figures. The bibliography contains 1,200 selected references, which are cited in the text.

This report contains information on the following:

The report describes and evaluates cell therapy technologies and methods, which have already started to play an important role in the practice of medicine. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is replacing the old fashioned bone marrow transplants. Role of cells in drug discovery is also described. Cell therapy is bound to become a part of medical practice.

Stem cells are discussed in detail in one chapter. Some light is thrown on the current controversy of embryonic sources of stem cells and comparison with adult sources. Other sources of stem cells such as the placenta, cord blood and fat removed by liposuction are also discussed. Stem cells can also be genetically modified prior to transplantation.

Cell therapy technologies overlap with those of gene therapy, cancer vaccines, drug delivery, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Pharmaceutical applications of stem cells including those in drug discovery are also described. Various types of cells used, methods of preparation and culture, encapsulation and genetic engineering of cells are discussed. Sources of cells, both human and animal (xenotransplantation) are discussed. Methods of delivery of cell therapy range from injections to surgical implantation using special devices.

Cell therapy has applications in a large number of disorders. The most important are diseases of the nervous system and cancer which are the topics for separate chapters. Other applications include cardiac disorders (myocardial infarction and heart failure), diabetes mellitus, diseases of bones and joints, genetic disorders, and wounds of the skin and soft tissues.

Regulatory and ethical issues involving cell therapy are important and are discussed. Current political debate on the use of stem cells from embryonic sources (hESCs) is also presented. Safety is an essential consideration of any new therapy and regulations for cell therapy are those for biological preparations.

Key Topics Covered

Part I: Technologies, Ethics & Regulations

Executive Summary

1. Introduction to Cell Therapy

2. Cell Therapy Technologies

3. Stem Cells

4. Clinical Applications of Cell Therapy

5. Cell Therapy for Cardiovascular Disorders

6. Cell Therapy for Cancer

7. Cell Therapy for Neurological Disorders

8. Ethical, Legal and Political Aspects of Cell therapy

9. Safety and Regulatory Aspects of Cell Therapy

Part II: Markets, Companies & Academic Institutions

10. Markets and Future Prospects for Cell Therapy

11. Companies Involved in Cell Therapy

12. Academic Institutions

13. References

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/7h12ne

Read more from the original source:
The Cell Therapy Industry to 2028: Global Market & Technology Analysis, Company Profiles of 309 Players (170 Involved in Stem Cells) -...

During a March 15, 2020 interview, beginning at the 27:40 time point, Dr Ralph Baric, noted coronavirus scientist at the University of North Carolina, said the following when asked about the animal origin of the human COVID-19 pandemic:

As far as I know they [the Chinese] have not identified the actual reservoir species. There were reports about pangolins [scaly anteaters] as being potentially being the intermediate host, but pangolins viruses are 88-90% identical to SARS-2 [COVID-19] in comparison civet and racoon dog strains of SARS coronavirus were 99.8 identical to SARS coronavirus from 2003. In other words, you are talking about a handful of mutations between civet strains, racoon dog strains and human strains in 2003. Pangolins have over 3,000 nucleotide changes - no way they are the reservoir species [for COVID-19], absolutely no chance.

Here is what Dr Baric was saying.

It was logical to conclude that the coronavirus from the human 2003 SARS outbreak could have originated in animals because the coronavirus circulating in the civet and racoon dog populations was 99.8 per cent the same as the coronavirus eventually found in humans. That would, therefore, require only a relative handful of naturally-occurring mutations to jump to humans.

In contrast, pangolin coronaviruses are only 88-90 per cent the same as COVID-19. The huge number of naturally-occurring mutations required for pangolins to act as a reservoir species and intermediate host for COVID-19 would make it practically impossible.

Despite that, an article published by scientists from Guangzhou, China on May 7, 2020 in the prestigious journal Nature directly contradicts the comments made by Dr Baric, concluding:

The isolation of a coronavirus that is highly related to SARS-CoV-2 [COVID-19] in pangolins suggests that they have the potential to act as the intermediate hosts for SARS-CoV-2 [COVID-19].

The Guangzhou scientists concede that the bat coronavirus RaTG13, which is actually BtCoV/4991, has about a 96 per centsequence identity to SARS-CoV-2 [COVID-19] at the whole-genome level and it is reasonable to assume that bats are the native host of SARS-CoV-2 [COVID-19].

Agreeing with Dr Baric, the authors admit that, although genetically similar, it is unlikely that coronaviruses usually found in pangolins are directly linked to the outbreak because of their overall substantial sequence differences from COVID-19.

The Guangzhou group states, however, that the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of a pangolin coronavirus is nearly identical to the same structure in COVID-19, having only a single amino acid difference.

The Chinese scientists claim that a pangolin coronavirus appears to have donated the RBD to COVID-19, presumably through some type of recombinant event occurring between a bat coronavirus and a pangolin coronavirus inside a pangolin host.

The close identity of COVID-19s RBD to that of pangolins has been widely reported, but the recombinant scenario suggested by the Guangzhou research team is purely speculatively for which they provide no supporting data.

Chinas own scientists may have inadvertently stumbled upon the truth. A far more likely explanation is that the pangolin RBD was inserted into a bat coronavirus by genetic engineering.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

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Here`s what China`s scientists have to say about the origin of COVID-19 - WION

This story is from The Pulse, a weekly health and science podcast.

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Back in mid-March, when most of us were hearing the words shelter in place for the first time, research labs across the country were busy with what they call sacking.

There are a lot of different terms that are used that I think people use to protect themselves from the reality of this, said Anneka Allman, a research technician at a University of Pennsylvania lab that works with hundreds of mice as part of cancer studies. Personally, I prefer to say we kill them, but the common term is sacking.

Sacking, because thats where the animals end up after theyre killed in a sack, in a freezer.

Research mice, you might imagine, generally are not long for this world. At her lab, Allman is usually the one to send them into the hereafter. Most of the mice born there even in normal times arent suitable for experiments for some reason or another so, straight to the sack.

Id say maybe we only actually use like a tenth of the mice that we breed, Allman said. Euthanizing these mice on a regular basis is just part of the job, and its not a fun part of the job, but it is a necessity.

Still, what happened back in March, on Friday the 13th, it was different it was a massacre.

We have a weekly lab meeting and we had it virtually, and we were like, OK, we need to figure out how to shut everything down she recalled.

They had some 500 cages of mice, and a looming stay-at-home order for most staff. You just cant take that many mice home with you, and many cant survive outside sterile settings. So most of the mice, they were going to get sacked.

It was just like piles and piles of cages just on top of each other empty cages, Allman said.

She personally euthanized hundreds of the mice.

Its actually very simple. You take their cages, take off the tops, put it in a machine called the Euthan-X which I have a lot of feelings about, but its essentially just a CO2 chamber, Allman said. And you turn the button on, and you wait for 20 minutes to half an hour, and they die.

Allman only worked that Friday before she was sent home for safety, but a skeleton crew stayed behind and sacking continued.

We did get an email about, I think, two weeks in that basically requested that we stop asking them to do it because of the emotional toll that it was having on them because of the masses that they had to kill, Allman said.

The animals deaths didnt hit her on that level. Before you get the wrong idea about Allman, know shes a self-described animal lover, a vegetarian; one of her pet cats scurried across her laptop during an interview. But she didnt mourn the euthanized mice, so much as the science the mice represented.

I had to kill mice that I had planned experiments for, that Im still upset theyre dead and not because of their lives, unfortunately for them, but because to do this research its going to be a lot. Its going to take a lot longer.

Untold thousands of mice were sacked in the early weeks of the United States pandemic response. The animals in Allmans lab, and in hundreds of labs like it, are the bedrock of research into human diseases.

Pick a disorder, an illness. Theres a mouse model for that, a mouse created specifically to study that disease.

Cat Lutz is director of the mouse repository at the Jackson Laboratory in Maine.

So whatever disease you can think of, you know, epilepsy, obesity, metabolic syndrome, anything that you can think of, we have a mouse model that you can genetically engineer to recapitulate that particular disease, Lutz said.

The Jackson Lab is a nonprofit where many labs get founder mice to start colonies of their own for research. It has about 11,000 strains of designer mice cryopreserved in its repository 80% of which dont exist anywhere else.

Mice first found their way into labs by way of so-called mouse fanciers.

They would keep mice as pets, and they would also select those mice that had spontaneous mutations, for example, coat color or ears or craniofacial features, long tails, kinky tails, maybe spotted mice or things like that, and they would start inbreeding them, Lutz said.

Mice breed very quickly and very often, so mutations tend to spring up fairly regularly. Fanciers were after aesthetic mutations, but scientists quickly found fanciers could provide mice with more utilitarian mutations. This mouse with a kinky tail, it can develop diabetes, or colon cancer, or this rare neurological disease.

Between mouse and humans, the gene conservation is incredibly high at the level of the coding sequence, so it was really quite translational, Lutz said.

Mice and people share about 98% of their genetic code.

The mutations that you would see in the mice would often translate to the mutations that you see in people, she said. They really have become the model animal for humans.

So if you can cure a cancer in a mouse, thats a step closer toward curing it in a person.

See the article here:
The great research mouse rescue amid the pandemic - WHYY

Todays recognized facts in science are incomplete because they ignore spirit, will, and emotions. But more and more scientists have the courage to transfer knowledge from quantum physics and philosophy to everyday life. Dr. Ulrich Warnke explains how consciousness and subconscious mind control reality formation and shows how we activate these abilities in ourselves as it is written in many mystical texts. The key to a new world creation are certain states of consciousness that we can learn. This gives us effective tools to change our living conditions for the better. Source.

Ulrich Warnke (* 1945), photo, is a German biologist. He studied biology, physics, geography and pedagogy and received his doctorate in 1973. He taught as a senior academic at the Saarland University and has been retired since March 2010. One of his focal points is the effect of electromagnetic vibrations and fields, including light, on organisms. [Playlist with videos]

Wikipedia [which is a by a clan-like group of higher educated students, people, scientists, run, maintained and constantly updated website, where all info that does not fit within the mainstream [=wrong] concept of science is named pseudo-science or worse, and frequently even removed]: His statements on questions of the importance of quantum physics experiments are controversial. In his books he tries to correlate quantum physical experiments and results with spiritual experiences.

My comment: this sentence unveils that the author(s) of the Wikipedia article does/do not know by experience which spiritual experience is meant, or worse: that spiritual experiences are imaginations. Spirituality is real and not a belief or a religion, but a state of being as a part of the total existence, to be experienced in every day life, during work, in meditation and/or contemplation. An authentic spiritual experience cannot be acted. Kundalini is an authentic spiritual experience. There are explanations on the web what kundalini is, but the most are not correct. There are even people who pretend to be able to awaken this energy in others. It is not necessary to awaken it, not even healthy, because it has to develop in a totally natural way, and only then it occurs on the right moment. It is difficult to explain what it is. One can read about it to get an idea. The first time I saw the term kundalini was when I was reading an old book that I found in a library in the Netherlands, about yogi in India: those who practice yoga. That was in the seventies of the former century. My first experience with this energy dates from the end of the seventies and I did not know what exactly was happening, did not even remember what I had read about it. The experience is for everybody who undergoes it, different, but one recognizes it in what is written about it anyway.

Also Carl Gustav Jung had kundalini experiences and in his Red Book he is explaining the process of it, via texts and drawings, paintings. I prefer to name kundalini an evolutionary experience, instead of spiritual experience, though it is both, but I chose this to avoid silly remarks of those who do/did NOT experience it. One of the results of this process is a deeper sense for reality, wholeness, and oneself. Scientists are not, generally, aware of a wholeness, because they did NOT experience this, are evolutionary (far) back in the, in the meantime normal, human process of evolution especially in younger people and sometimes even children. That means that these scientists, who are still in the majority, show a lack of ethics, and absence of awareness, where also quantum physics work with. This has created the madness, the absolute chaos we live in, today. Science, as one could expect, does not exist any more, and IF, it is rejected as pseudo-science and ridiculed. They, who make themselves guilty of that, expose themselves as silly, ignorant, but are, logically, not even aware of that, because they belong somewhere in the lower degrees of the human evolution:

Spiritual Evolution

Reason for creating this blog article, is the tweet that I found coincidentally today, on May 14, 2020, and in which the subtitle of the website The World Foundation of Natural Science is ridiculed, because of the terms divine and the name of what we learned to categorize as saint: Francis of Assisi. One cannot find anything on the Wikipedia page, on not any page or website, that could categorize publications of a website that mentions the name of Francis of Assisi, to be based on conspiracy theories, as if the term spiritual, or divine, belongs to those who believe in something that does not exist: God. God does indeed not exist as a human-like being on a cloud and no I do not believe in a church, but I do believe in the church of nature, earth, Life, Universe, All Existence. That church is not a building where you can go in or out, but where one is constantly in, even if one does not realize it, or even denies it. Francis of Assisi is mentioned on the website of the World Foundation of Natural Sciences because of his view on nature and the environment. Very honourable. One cannot say that the one who tweets and writes about people in the way he is used to, is honourable. On the contrary. He is even creating conspiracy theories himself around a website that is not hiding its convictions and views on life and nature, and that is undeniable related with an unsolved problem in the persons own unconsciousness.

Another remarkable fact is, that the science as it has become, and where the Twitter professor is talking about as real science, is comparable with a church, a religion, and a real Pope. All laws are accepted as right and followed up, even mandated. The role of the Pope in science is performed by the industry, and this Popes College of Cardinals has the name ICNIRP. The Twitter professor has written lots of protest articles in his blog about the industry-popes College of Cardinals: ICNIRP. There are more priests (scientists) that oppose the rules of the Industry Pope, but several priests show to have the same ethics as those they say to oppose, as several of these rebellious priests show on Twitter: they even protect the College of Cardinals ICNIRP, retweet the ICNIRP Gospels and at the same time they write letters against ICNIRP on their website. Can you follow it? This group of dubious priests (scientists) are rejected world wide even in all newspapers, and named conspiracy theorists, or just named, and blown away with names of priests and cardinals that matter in and for the industry. The hard core scientists, the Frankenstein Scientists. That is the situation on this moment. The titles scientist, doctor and professor should be protected. The titles are used and abused by all kinds of humans and are not any guarantee for Truth. One can factually only expect Truth in those who respect spirit, spirituality, but just a few dare to speak about spirit, and spirituality.

The only reason that the Twitter professor was able to find the link to the newsletter of the World Foundation is this (my) blog, and I suspect him for being in this blog more often, as the stats of my blog show from which countries there have been searchings. I know where he lives. Why I suspect him of visiting my blog? Because of the facts that follow after. One of these is his tweet of today, about a newsletter that nobody else has shared, than me.

In the following excerpts, by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho , one can learn to understand more about science, real science. What has become out of what once was science and what has lost the most essential facets of what once was science. Mainstream science is not science, but a deformed clone of what once was science: Frankenstein science.

I found the name of Dr. Mae-Wan Ho in the newsletter of The World Foundation of Natural Science, the newsletter that has been ridiculed by the one who tweeted about it and who has marked it as based on conspiracy theories. He wants, he writes in the tweet, real science. Well. The newsletter contains 31 evidence based facts in the references. With other words: the so-called twitter professor, dressed in an oversized white blouse on his Twitter profile picture, is lying. To underline that: here is Dr. Mae-Wan Ho, with her view on real science.

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The End of Bad Science and Beginning Again with Life (Excerpts)By: Dr. Mae-Wan Ho (1941-2016) Paragraph: The two-way connection between science and society

Genetic engineering biotechnology is not just about food production. It is about any and every way of exploiting life and our life-support system for profit. It is the ultimate in the dominant way of life that knows the monetary cost of everything and the value of nothing.17

There is a two-way connection between science and society. Science is both shaped by the politics and the mores of society and it can reinforce them. And nowhere is it more clearly seen in the mechanistic, instrumental worldview that pervades the scientific mainstream and the dominant culture at large.

The mechanistic paradigm of western science is really a direct legacy of the Judaeo-Christian tradition. The tradition inspired the search for eternal laws, ordained by God, which could make the universe move in predictable, mechanical ways. Through Copernicus, Galileo and Descartes, this strand of thought culminated in Newtons mathematical laws of mechanics. Mechanical explanations seem so compelling that every event in nature came to be seen in a mechanical perspective.

Another strand in the legacy of the Judaeo-Christian tradition is that human beings are supposed to be created in the image of God and to have immortal souls, while animals and the rest of nature are to be used by human beings. Descartes established the dualistic separation of human beings from nature, of mind from body and matter from spirit. He maintained that only human beings can reason, that animals are unfeeling machines; and condoned cruel experiments on dogs and cats. Francis Bacon, similarly, urged that it was our right to extend our power and dominion over the universe.18

Thomas Hobbes went further. For him, nothing exists except matter and motion, the universe including human being are to be explained mechanically. He argued that human beings are ruled purely by their appetites and aversions, and without a powerful king to restrain and channel those impulses, our lives would be poor, nasty, brutish and short. In other words, absolute government is necessary to prevent the war of each against all to which natural selfishness inevitably leads19. Hobbes was writing when mercantilism reached its high point in Europe, and brought great power to those princes and merchants who successfully accumulated vast quantities of gold and other precious metals.

Hobbes influence has passed down to us via Charles Darwin in an age that saw the birth of capitalism and the expansion of the free market under the military might of the British Empire. Nature became ultimately reduced to isolated atoms jostling and competing in the struggle for survival of the fittest. In its present-day form, neo-Darwinian sociobiology has changed very little from social Darwinism. Neo-liberal economic theory is in many ways much more pernicious than Adam Smiths laissez-faire economics, which is based on competition tempered by moral restraint20. And so, through the self-fulfilling prophecy, mechanistic science has created a dysfunctional social milieu and a globalized economy which is destroying our planet and failing to serve the physical and spiritual needs of the vast majority of humanity21. That was why fifty thousand people from all walks of life and of all ages took to the streets at the World Trade Organization conference in Seattle at the end of November, 1999.

It is clear that the mechanistic paradigm has failed the reality test in life as in science. But the discredited paradigm is still perpetrated by mainstream academic institutions as though no alternatives exist.

Paragraph: Frankenstein science

Mechanistic biology has reached its logical conclusion when organisms including human beings are to be genetically manipulated and cloned. The first human clone has been created, by injecting the genetic material of a human being into a cows egg22, a scene reminiscent of Mary Shelleys prophetic parable of Frankenstein.

Dr. Frankenstein, in a role not unlike the contemporary genetic engineer, is a scientist obsessed with mastery over nature; so much so that he attempts to create the perfect human being. Instead, he created a monster. Mary Shelleys classic is as much a parable of the mechanistic science that inspires the deed as it is of the scientist playing God.

All species are being genetically manipulated. Millions of transgenic mice are being created to serve as dubious models of human diseases, and an increasing number have to be sacrificed to make room for more. Livestock are humanized to provide spare organs for transplanting into human beings, or engineered and cloned as bioreactors to produce pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals in their milk, blood, urine and semen, and with tens of thousands of failures and abnormalities.23

Apart from the potential hazards of creating new viruses that cross species barriers, the excessive suffering inflicted on the animals violates the most basic moral code of human society. Michael Fox strongly questions the right of human beings to interfere so profoundly with the inherent nature or telos of other species24. Indeed, each species has its own intrinsic value, its own purpose in the scheme of nature, which we violate at our own peril. This is also the most abiding ecological wisdom which western science has lost touch with, and is only now rediscovering.

Paragraph: The organic revolution and the new ethic of science

Genetic determinism offers a simplistic, reductionist description which is a travesty of the interdependence and complexity of organic reality. It has no concept of the organism as a whole, nor of societies or ecosystems. That is one reason why genetic engineering, at least in its current form, can never work. It is based on misconceptions that organisms are machines, and on a denial of the complexity and flexibility of the organic whole.

This brings us to the kind of science appropriate to society, which can transcend the existing dominant ethos, to support the necessary transition to sustainable ways of life, and to connect with the organic uprising that is coming from the grassroots all over the world. Many remarkable individuals and local communities are indeed changing their own lives and the world around them for the better. They all do so by learning from nature and recognizing that it is the symbiotic, mutualistic relationships which sustain ecosystems and make all life prosper, including the human beings who are active, sensitive participants in the ecosystem as a whole.25

The same organic revolution has been happening in western science over the past thirty years. Jim Lovelocks Gaia theory, for example, invites us to see the earth as one super-organism26. Even more remarkable is the message from quantum theory: that we may be inseparably entangled with one another and with all nature, which we participate in co-creating. In other words, the universe is an entangled whole consisting of organisms that are themselves wholes. From my own work, I have shown that the organism is so perfectly whole that it approaches quantum coherence: a state of both maximum local freedom and global cohesion27. The organisms activities are fully coordinated from the molecular to the macroscopic, and that is why, with a special imaging technique invented in my laboratory, we can see the living, moving organism as a liquid crystalline being.

It is this holistic, organic perspective that can enable us to negotiate our path to a sustainable future. It also provides the basis of a new ethic of science that can reshape society and transform the very texture and meaning of our lives. Seattle has shown us that things can be different. Society does not have to be ruled by the dominant culture. Science can transcend the dominant status quo to reshape society for the public good, which is also the private good. We begin to appreciate how the purpose of each organism and species is entangled with that of every other. Our humanity is a function of this entangled whole, and we cannot do arbitrary violence to one another, nor to the nature of other species without violating our own nature.

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References of the used excerpts:

17. See Ho, 1998, 1999 (note 2).18. See Fox, M. (1999). Beyond Evolution, Chapter 5, The Lyons Press, New York.19. See Korten, D.C. (1998). The Post-Corporate World, Life After Capitalism, Kumarian Press, West Hartford and Berett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco.20. See Korten, 1998 (note 20).21. See Mander, J. and Goldsmith, E. (1996). The Case Against the Global Economy, And For a Turn Toward the Local, Sierra Club Books, San Francisco.22. Fears that a baby could be cloned Ian Cobain, Daily Mail, 17 June, 1999.23. See Ho, M.W. (2000). Towards a new ethic of science. In Ethical Careers Guide for Young Scientist, Scientist for Global Responsibility, London.24. Fox, 1999 (note 19).25. See Korten, 1998 (note 20); also, Hawken, P., Lovins, A. and Lovins, L.H. (1999). Natural Capitalism,26. Lovelock, J.E. (1988). The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our Living Earth, Norton, New York.27. Ho, M.W. (1993, 1998). The Rainbow and The Worm, The Physics of Organisms, World Scientific, Singapore.

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