[Genetic Engineering] Faster, Stronger, Hardier

[Gustav32Vasa]

They said they have a colony of changed mouse, but they changed muscle cells, not germline cells?

And what was that about its impossible to do genetherapy on muscle cells in humans? It has been test for DNA vaccins on humans, and it involved the insertion of genes in muclecells.

[Broomstick]

Just like that B-movie I once saw. It had a giant rat commanding an army of not-giant rats that ate people. The giant rat ended up attacking a hooker. That hooker's fake-blooded face was screaming for, like, an hour (of bad acting).

Was that Ben? Where Michael Jackson sings the movie theme song?

Another possible B-movie plot: an escaped (neo)Nazi supersoldier with superstrength, supermetabolism, and the ability of supersex. And it's up to this team of prudish Mossad agents, who are Jews (duh, and one is a rabbi), to stop the Nazi superman from fucking hundreds blue-eyed blondes to spread his SuperAryan genes. It'd be like Species, crossed over with Munich.

Oi - I'm pretty sure I saw that one on Sci-Fi, but I forget what they called it.

[Shroom Man 777]

Hey, does anyone know if these supermouses produce viable offspring? There's mention of lots of sex but...can they make babies?

Man, mommy supermouse is gonna get pissed when, after she spawns those hyperaggressive supermetabolic little shits (assuming they don't nibble their way through her mousy little womb), they end up fighting over her mommy milk and end up chewing her teats off.

Was that Ben? Where Michael Jackson sings the movie theme song?

Nah, it was a recenter Sci-Fi flick. I think. We don't have Sci-Fi but Cinemax shows Sci-Fi shit like Boa vs. Python vs. Anaconda vs. Komodo vs. King Cobra vs. Vampire vs. Werewolf vs. Frankenfrog. Michael Jackson would've made it watchable, rather than forcing me to look on in fascinated revulsion as a hooker dies of bad acting upon being ravaged by a giant bipedal rat.

Oi - I'm pretty sure I saw that one on Sci-Fi, but I forget what they called it.

Yeah. But that Super Aryan didn't have fair skin, it had purple skin. And had a grotesque Boba Fett mask instead of a headfull of blonde hair and blue eyes. And there was no sex or rabbi. And it was set in WWII.

That's if I got that movie right. 'Cause if there's actually a movie where Rabbis from the Mossad are out to stop Nazi Supermen from having lots of (dirty Nazi) sex...

[Gustav32Vasa]

Hey, does anyone know if these supermouses produce viable offspring? There's mention of lots of sex but...can they make babies?

They can proably make babies but they will not have the gene. They seemed to have changed only somatic cells. I think. They do mentionen colonies.

[Admiral Valdemar]

I don't know, the "60% more kcals required" catch doesn't sound very good. In the event of some kind of major social collapse, it would not be good for our survivability.

(No, the Bene Gesserit do not approve.)

Also, the long distance running thing might be more problematic than it sounds. IIRC there's some recent evidence indicating that "the burn" isn't a buildup of lactic acid in the muscle tissue, but your central nervous system taking measures to keep you from depleting all your glycogen (and preventing the resultant coma, brain damage, and probably death). Umm, let's see... here it is. According to the article:

As Broom pointed out, we evolved the way we did because we didn't have civilisation as we have now even 150 years ago. We're living in an anomaly which has caused no end of medical problems for us, from rampant obesity to various mental illnesses manifesting as we eat more, interact with various new chemicals and live longer doing totally alien things to our bodies. If anyone was going to take gene therapy to benefit from the improved efficiency of this metabolic pathway, they'd have to revert back as soon as we hit a limited resource period again, which we're about to.

So I'd not be jumping on this band wagon unless you can actively control the gene's activity via a hormone or electrode or other stimulus mechanism.

[Balrog]

Yeah. But that Super Aryan didn't have fair skin, it had purple skin. And had a grotesque Boba Fett mask instead of a headfull of blonde hair and blue eyes. And there was no sex or rabbi. And it was set in WWII.

That's if I got that movie right.

No, you're right, SciFi had a movie like that, but your idea is much better

I wonder how much longer before other groups get wind of this and start with the "ZOMG no playin teh God!!"

[Shroom Man 777]

The article already had a bit about how gene engineering for faster, stronger, and hardier humans must never be done everrr.

[wolveraptor]

Although I do find it interesting that they can live longer while still having these overdrive metabolisms.

They're lab rats, no doubt they're well fed. Unless the scientists got a supermouse and a normal mouse, starved them, and observed which mouse died first.

That's not the issue. Of course they get enough food. The problem is that in nature, creatures with faster metabolisms simply age and die faster. They live their whole lives faster than we do. That's why it's unusual that these mice can live longer with accelerated metabolisms.

[Admiral Valdemar]

I wonder how this affects their regeneration capabilities. If you could also splice the primeval genes that exist in certain reptiles and nematodes that allow regeneration of whole limbs and other body parts, the increased metabolism could make for much more resilient organisms. At the end of the day, how fast your cells can actively respire and undergo mitosis decides how fast you can repair yourself. A cell that more efficiently uses stored energy deposits and produces little to no lactic acid must have some effect on regrowth.

It should at the very least let us reassess how we view ageing and other forms of damage to our bodies, given the lower calorie diet concept has been touted as one to allow for much increased longevity. That now seems patently false.

EDIT: Seems I'm late in thinking of this.

[TithonusSyndrome]

Is this research connected to the Methuselah Prize?