Reversing Evolution?????

I have just read this article from the BBC website and just pondering on the moral issues surrounding this, are we, as Homo Sapiens next!! do they want to find our neolithic genes ?

We here alot about genetic engineering, well here it is but in reverse. Anyway i have a couple of questions for people here re this subject

BBC Link

1) How do we know we have the original gene that split to cause the evolution in Mammals, by my reckoning the only way to confirm it is to have an original gene to cross ref with

2) Does this benefit us in anyway "great we have the original gene, what do we do with it" does it cure and prevent life threatening illnesses or does it just satisfy the scientist curiosity!

3) What does it prove? That we evolved! i'm sure that most of us know that some sort of evolution has taken place over the millenia, depending on who you speak too!

Please everyone if you want tear this thread too shreads and my questioning. This is genuine though I don't have a clue as too why they would do this! and what we achieve by doing so!

[edit on 8/8/2006 by evo1981]

Originally posted by evo1981
1) How do we know we have the original gene that split to cause the evolution in Mammals, by my reckoning the only way to confirm it is to have an original gene to cross ref with

Good question. I doubt fossils from 500 million years ago would give enough DNA for reference. Maybe they have done it by simply reverse engineering genes as far back as they can. Sort of like genetic backtracking

2) Does this benefit us in anyway "great we have the original gene, what do we do with it" does it cure and prevent life threatening illnesses or does it just satisfy the scientist curiosity!

Who knows? it could be good, bad, or neither. Maybe some older genes provided protection against certain illnesses.

3) What does it prove? That we evolved! i'm sure that most of us know that some sort of evolution has taken place over the millenia, depending on who you speak too!

It might unlock other questions about how life evolves and the history of the pre human genome.

Please everyone if you want tear this thread too shreads and my questioning. This is genuine though I don't have a clue as too why they would do this! and what we achieve by doing so!

I don't see why anyone would tear this thread up. Its quite legitimate, and you pose some good questions. Evolution and biology aren't my strong points, so I can only give speculation.

skadi, we all speculate and if we do enough im sure we will accumulate the answers....in time.

With regard to my thread being ripped to bits, unfortunatley it seems that we have a lot of people on this site who tend to just cause havoc and ruin civil discussions. Obviously i got a reply from someone who has manners!

Reverse engineering eh, if they can go back why can't they go forward?

Originally posted by evo1981
1) How do we know we have the original gene that split to cause the evolution in Mammals,

Thats not what they are saying. They are saying that there was a gene, it was passed into many lineages. It collected errors, aka mutations, different ones in each lineage. This continued to the point that the mutated gene in different lineages had different functions, ie, became a different gene.
They then took their understanding of how genes mutate, looked at the two current genes, and extrapolated backwards to what that original gene would've looked like, givne their current understanding of how genes behave.

2) Does this benefit us in anyway "great we have the original gene, what do we do with it" does it cure and prevent life threatening illnesses or does it just satisfy the scientist curiosity!

It allows us to understand genes.

3) What does it prove?

It could be argued that our understanding of how genes operate through lineages is generally accurate, given that the gene seems to be functional.

This is genuine though I don't have a clue as too why they would do this! and what we achieve by doing so!

Why do you think it was done in order to acheive something? The researchers had an idea, wanted to try it out, and if it got funding, it was because it looks like its solid basic research. The bulk of research has no sudden practicale import.

we all speculate and if we do enough im sure we will accumulate the answers....in time.

I beleive that you have just answered you question, as to why the researchers did this.

if they can go back why can't they go forward?

Genetic engineering already exists.