Tardigrade DNA inserted into human cells gives them X-ray resistance

a reply to: eisegesis

Tardigrades are exquisitely engineered creatures...they can live in the vacuum of outerspace.....and now this!!

shout out to Hecate who introduced me to them so many years ago....

"water bears"




(just FYI, I've shared your thread to FB. Hope that doesn't bother you....if so, please advise, and I'll retract it.)

a reply to: Xenogears

That is the future that is possible through advanced genetic engineering of the species, there will be those that will stand in the way of progress but history is littered with their corpses... Time and again they will fail to halt the deterministic path of the race.

Do you agree that there are no doubt other races "out there" who have already surpassed where we are now?

originally posted by: BuzzyWigs
a reply to: Xenogears

That is the future that is possible through advanced genetic engineering of the species, there will be those that will stand in the way of progress but history is littered with their corpses... Time and again they will fail to halt the deterministic path of the race.

Do you agree that there are no doubt other races "out there" who have already surpassed where we are now?

Very possibly. If reality itself is malleable we may be sitting in the upper layer of some kind of construct.

a reply to: Boomy327

Am I the only one that is extremely worried by this? The implications are not only vast and exciting but extremely dangerous. We are screwing with things that we DO NOT fully understand.

Actually, they are screwing with things that you don't fully understand.

But, understanding comes from screwing with things, so...

a reply to: eisegesis

This post is awesome.

I cannot wait until it is possible for us to be able to augment our DNA as we see fit--using the entire animal kingdom as inspiration.

How awesome would it be, to be able to zero in on the exact sequence that gives hawks excellent eyesight, and then to alter your own DNA with that exact sequence?

Or to figure out what sequence of DNA allows tortoises to live for so long, and to copy that sequence into our DNA.

There are so many possibilities.

a reply to: Xenogears

Untold beauty, untold grace, untold intrinsic happiness(just as some are prone to depression others are prone and have a basic state of high levels of happiness and satisfaction irregardless of circumstances they show resiliience), untold wellbeing. That is the future that is possible through advanced genetic engineering of the species, there will be those that will stand in the way of progress but history is littered with their corpses... Time and again they will fail to halt the deterministic path of the race.

Exactly this, I can't wait.

Where do I get the retrovirus to insert this into my DNA?

originally posted by: starwarsisreal
Oh oh I wonder what would be the future consequences for this?

There is a movie that covers the issue of what happens when you create a GM human

In a side note would there be a divide between Psychics and GM Humans? While yes they both have extraordinary powers, only one group are born naturally with it.

Perhaps these genes or proteins could be introduced into the body during chemotherapy or radiological treatment.

That's badass I read it all, now just o integrate this into human dna

originally posted by: Zeimten
That's badass I read it all, now just o integrate this into human dna

If they do, you end up looking like a caterpillar with a vacuum snoz. Just bigger.

Bummer Update

Tardigrades became more famous recently when it was suggested that their DNA was a mix of animal and bacterial segments, making them "Frankenstein" hybrids. The new research has now laid the Frankenstein idea to rest by arguing that tardigrade DNA looks "normal," with no evidence that these special animals use extraordinary means to survive. Previous ideas that they might have taken up large numbers of foreign genes from bacteria are shown to be due simply to contamination.

Tardigrades are a distinct type of animal whose closest relatives are arthropods (insects, spiders and their allies) and nematodes (roundworms). But which is closest? While the accepted view is that their four pairs of stubby legs make them more closely related to arthropods, the DNA evidence surprisingly strongly favoured a closer kinship with nematodes.

phys.org - Secrets of the amazing tardigrades revealed by their DNA.

Bummer that the horizontal DNA thing is not how they acquired such strange abilities. They know that they did not subsume DNA but they still don't know how tardigrades are able to do what they do!

I saw this article the other day on Gizmodo: Scientists Say Tardigrades Will Be the Last Animals On Earth.

They will survive until all the oceans boil away! Now that is a survivor!