Tag: DNA

Using CRISPR on Human Embryos.

Using CRISPR on Human Embryos.

Augment Khan Noonian Singh

Using CRISPR as we feared could be here. I don’t want to alarm you, but it is here. The Eugenics Wars of Star Trek fame are just another example of Trek fiction about to come true. I’d love to know what your thoughts are on the subject.

Evolution by natural selection is about to end for Homo sapiens.   CRISPR BABIES

I have interrupted my writing jag to bring you this article as soon as I heard about it. Of course, this kind of science is the foundation of my current series, The Jackson Saga. That aside, as this technology is honed and focused, which I think is marvelous, I also worry. I worry that someone “in charge” will be deciding what is a disease, what is a mutation, what’s worth fiddling with, and do we want to end up like the society in GATTACA?

OVERPOPULATION.

I expand on this theme with the biggest single threat

Embryos of augmented humans

to humanity: Overpopulation. I’m not talking numbers of bodies here. I’m talking about the carrying capacity of the planet to support humans and their need for power (yes, both political and electrical). The United States, by the standards of carrying capacity, is the most overpopulated country on the planet. Americans are about 5% of world population and use 20% of the world resources. Americans waste more food, hence energy and political power, than some people have to eat in the whole day.  We use more for cars (tires, gasoline, junkyards), trash (landfills), and especially electricity (air conditioners, big screen televisions, refrigeration).

This could roll on a tangent, but when India and China live their lives at the same standard as Americans (and why shouldn’t they?) overpopulation will finally move to the forefront as the foundation for climate change, food shortages, medical and elderly care issues, with a host of others, including poverty and war (power is both energy and politics).

Genetic Engineering

to remove harmful “whatever” is not my argument. In fact, as I said, Paradox is all about the risk of a genetically engineered vaccine. After administration it carries on in the offspring of vaccinated adults, but with unexpected results. Millions and millions of humans die prematurely or become sterile. When we play with Natural Selection, we must also play with Reproductive Rights. Are those with money, who can afford this medical technology, going to dictate who can and cannot have children without diseases? Will it be available to everyone regardless of their political views or the color of their skin or the money in their bank account?

From the article, I quote:

Gene-editing scientist, Fyodor Urnov* reviewed the Chinese documents said called the undertaking cause for “regret and concern over the fact that gene editing—a powerful and useful technique—was put to use in a setting where it was unnecessary.” Indeed, studies are already under way to edit the same gene in the bodies of adults with HIV. “It is a hard-to-explain foray into human germ-line genetic engineering that may overshadow in the mind of the public a decade of progress in gene editing of adults and children to treat existing disease,” he says.

Stop and Think

I find it a revolutionary tool, and worth exploring to the fullest possible good it can do. I wouldn’t want to wish disabilities on people just to keep the population from explosion, but clear, rules must be in place. We must prevent a group from using this to take power, placing genetic superiority in the hands of the wealthy alone, the political party of party alone, or, without looking forward to reduce the chances of a “Eugenics War”.  If one race becomes so powerful the world over, humans will lose the diversity of our evolution. We are amazing animals, adapted to various climates, producing different cultures, and having the ability to see that we have so much more in common than we we have as differences. Let us keep what makes us human, and remove what hurts us most.

This is indeed a slippery slope, but an adventurous one to be sure. Talk about the Final Frontier. We should let Nature run the most of the show. It’s done a pretty fair job so far.

 

*associate director of the Altius Institute for Biomedical Sciences, a nonprofit in Seattle, Washington.

Books

 

More Science, Less Fiction, Man-Made Molecules

More Science, Less Fiction, Man-Made Molecules

Science and molecules go “hand in hand”.

Science is my passion. And by hand in hand I’m talking about the right and left.  My first full length novel, Paradox: The Alien Genome, was first an ember from Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, a morsel from one of his The Incredible Universe science episodes. He discussed in some detail the nature of chiral molecules, their ‘handedness’, and how on Earth amino acids natural link up and tweak one direction, while the molecules that link up as sugars link in the opposite direction. He said he’d like to read a book about astronauts on a planet where the spirals were reversed.

science - caraway or spearmint?
Same molecule, different flavors?

So I wrote it.  (By the way, Dr. Tyson, I’d love to send you an autographed copy!) And it was a journey of discovery as I researched DNA and chiral bonds. Thalidomide is a chiral molecule. Unbeknownst to its creators, if they could force the molecule in the other direction, it would not have caused birth defects in fetuses back in the late 50s. I found long and detailed information about this and I nearly took a vacation from my novel to investigate the science further.

Synthesized Proteins

Most molecules are chiral. We can make these things in the laboratory and change them, creating totally new things but with the same atomic structure. A couple months back, I received a link to an article about two MIT chemists, Zachary P. Gates and Brad Pentelute, who could synthesize millions of novel, non-natural proteins to be used as drugs against Ebola and other viruses. They call it Xenoprotein etching. Critically, these man-made structures don’t have to be kept refrigerated. This enhances not only their shelf life, but also their potential use. They can be delivered “in the field” where disease lurks. People wouldn’t have to travel to clinics or doctors. In developing populations, transportation is not always available. When time is of the essence, days could mean lives.

MIT Chemists Synthesize Proteins. 

Why Science Matters

I had to reflect on their ingenuity and how their work ‘mirrors’ (sorry, I couldn’t resist) to some degree my imaginary DNA splicing Malaria vaccine that replicated itself into the haploid cells of the children of vaccinated humans. Through some complex biochemical, yet founded in reality, sci-fi technobabble, this leads to sterility. Humans were unable to create a molecule that was reversed (and which divided, not like sugar which is static). They embarked on a hunting trip in space that lasted two years. They hoped to finding living creatures with this reversed chirality in their DNA. If you’ve read the novel, you know the rest. If not, I won’t give spoilers.

Nevertheless, this article proves once again that no matter how far-fetched of a thing a science fiction writer can dream up, it might very well be possible. We may not be able to transverse space faster than light, but perhaps in the future. I’m sure the Greeks and Romans 3000 years ago never thought of flying commercially, or to another planet. Technology hadn’t come far enough. It’s barely been 100 years since we abandoned the horse and buggy for fossil fueled vehicles. And don’t forget the saying of the Boomer Generation: If we can go to the moon, we can (fill in the blank with any impossible task, like, cure cancer, go solar, stop war).

That’s what makes writing science fiction so much fun. I like to think we are more enlightened and educated enough to leap beyond our current civilization, to question all that we are, and what we could be. I refer to the forward thinking sci-fi, not the, apocalyptic, dystopian, doom and gloom, an earth ruined by war sci fi. And a wise person once said – “Be careful what you ask for. You might get it.” I certainly hope so!

Based on Reality

If you’re a Star Trek fan,enjoy the tales of Michael Crichton (Jurrasic Park, ER, Congo), the works of Isaac Asimov, you may discover just what you’re looking for here.  Do you like hard sci fi, medical missions, runaway bacteria, asteroids, and aliens?  You will enjoy my two series, The Pioneer Missions, and the as yet untitled full length novels about an intrepid star ship captain who finds his soul mate in an alien . Find all my work here.

 

Spring has Sprung

Spring has Sprung

Spring means new stars in the northern hemisphere; Sky Guide can help you find them. Sirius hangs near the horizon, under the moon, around 8 pm. West of the moon, you will still see Orion in the sky, including Betelgeuse and Rigel.  Taurus’ horns are up and he is diving down in the west. Winter is over, and it’s time for new star gazing with warmer weather finally. Do you know your stars and constellations? If you’re rusty, there’s a great app I may have mentioned in the past that you will find hard to believe. It’s a few dollars, and worth every penny. It also has a monthly subscription!

Sky Guide

Sky Guide Search
Search Screen from Sky Guide
Sky Guide Star Map
Sky Guide morning of August 8 2016

Sky Guide – you can get the regular app or the monthly subscription if you’re even more crazy than I am about the sky. I like it better with a pad than a phone just because you can see so much more at once, but do check it out. I can’t do it justice here, so go ha fun and look at it for yourself in the app store. No affiliate here for recommending this, I just happen to love it.

About the books …

The new book, Jeopardy, will be out before summer. I had some diversions over the winter and have been spending some time letting people know about Paradox, Symbiosis, and now Jeopardy: Firestones and Aliens. After the initial launch, I’ll be offering the three as a set, but this is an ongoing series, and as long as there’s a story to tell, I will keep going.

Book Symbiosis: Titans of Cassiopeia by H S Rivney

New covers! Paradox and Symbiosis have been redesigned with new covers fit for paperbacks! Descriptions are also getting a face lift, and for e-book lovers, more links to the science that you can examine in depth. It’s going to be a fabulous year!

Paradox, The Alien Genome, 5 star Reader’s Choice Awards

Would love to hear your feedback for novellas on the other characters, namely, Quixote, a reptilian from Draconia, and Dr Jane Ferris, descendant of a chimera. Some will be set pre- 2160, some post 2170. More novellas to come on Captain Jackson’s earlier years on the Linus Pauling, and before that, as a pilot on the carrier Saratoga.

Don’t forget to tell me what you’d like to see in the upcoming stories. I write for you – what do you want to read?

Feedback? ↓

Homochirality – the foundation of life

Homochirality – the foundation of life

This is interesting as hell if you are a geek. If you’re too busy ranting about the election, sitting in front of a game console, or watching soaps, go ahead and skip this post. For those of you still with me, we’re talking about the subject of my first novel, PARADOX. We’re talking about chemicals, DNA, atoms, and the forces that make the world go round.

limone

The image above is the molecule LIMONENE. A molecule is a compound of atoms, remember, which are the smallest units of a single element. A center has the neutrons and protons, and in shells around the nucleus zing the electrons. Molecules, like atoms, are three dimensional things. Think of them as Tinkertoys, it helps.

Water is a molecule, made of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. It is always the same no matter how it combines because the two hydrogen atoms always sit in the outermost shell of the oxygen atom. That will never change.

Most molecules are chiral. They can exist only if the atoms hook up together in the correct order at the correct electron. DNA is one of those molecules. You’ve all seen an illustration showing the twisting molecule, sometimes two meters long, all scrunched up into a microscopic package – it’s truly amazing. All biological DNA but for a few archaic bacteria twist to the right.

Huh? Thglow-dnae only way I can explain it is this: The strips of DNA in the foreground are spiraling down FROM the right in the picture. If you see a drawing of the strips in the foreground going left, it is drawn incorrectly. But that’s not what the post is about. What I want to explain is how it got like this and why it’s important. The geeky part is coming, hang in there.

IT MATTERS which way the thing goes, because if you take a look at the LIMONE molecule above, if it chirals to the left, (L or S) it smells and tastes like lemons. If it spirals to the right (R or D) it smells and tastes like oranges. The molecule cannot match up with it’s own mirror image in 3D. Your hands are like that. The palms can meet, but that is not because they are symmetric. If they were symmetric they would look the same from your viewpoint. Place one over the other in front of you (not palm to palm).They are not mirror images of each other.

Where am I going with this? Remember, salts, minerals, chemicals can and mostly are asymmetrical. All over the world with few exceptions (which I’ll theorize about shortly) amino acids spiral to the right and sugars spiral to the left. In a lab environment, we’ve created compounds that still spiral, but in both directions. Why in nature are these compounds homochiral, but heterochiral in the lab?

soupWhat mechanism drives the biological compounds to homochirality back in the prebiotic world? If you think back to our atoms and their electrons, could it be that a tiny (really tiny) bit of energy happened to pull the molecule a little one way or the other? It could have just as easily been to the left as to the right. This small imbalance in the two different enantiomers is real and in my humble opinion could have been the result of the direction of planetary motion. Earth revolves counterclockwise around the sun and its own axis. By considering the earlier Earth and its molten core, a bit of centrifugal motion may have been the magic ingredient to push biology one direction or another.

I’m at the really geeky part now. If this might be true, then it might be true that on Venus, which spins clockwise on its axis, lifeforms would have the opposite chirality. And here is something we don’t know. How long ago did Venus flip? Most likely, it was early on when the solar system was forming, and models suggest that it was hit by some planetessimal, possibly the fragment of which became Mercury. Another time for that avenue.

So, if Venus were not such a hot and hostile place, would we be able to eat vegetation that arose there or only if it formed before the planet was kicked over? Are the theoretical life forms on Venus opposite from Earthlings and does their DNA spiral left? Are there both biological creatures – those that developed before the collision and after? Wouldn’t it be a fantastic mission, to land on Venus, pick up some creatures, and find out which way they tick?darwin-soup-252x300

More fodder for my science fiction novels, Paradox is exactly this scenario. The planet around Beta Hydri suffered a collision with a space body and was turned upside down so that the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. And the first life forms to develop were similar to Earth – right enantiomer DNA until the planet changed, and then new life forms developed with left enantiomer DNA.

In the last 20 years or so, the classification of biological life forms has itself evolved, and now we have Daredevil Kooky Prince Charles On Friday Goes Surfing. Daredevil stands for DOMAIN, and further divides the kingdoms into Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya (this last one holds fungi, plants, and animal kingdoms).  Should we find such life forms, on Mars or one of Jupiter’s moons how will we classify them? Do they get their own Domain or Kingdom,  will they exhibit the D enantiomer or the L, and why? Finding life on another world is more than exciting, it’s an entirely new science to explore. A hundred years ago there was no job for the pizza delivery man. A hundred years from now, I guarantee we will have exobiologists answering these very questions.

 

23 Skiidoo

23 Skiidoo

Just what are chromosomes? You hear about them all the time these days, in the media and the internet. Are those 23 wiggly strips of DNA that cursed you through high school biology class exams even worth your time when groceries, soccer, kids, work, traffic, and family all take a piece of you already?

glow-dnaGenetic engineering is arguably the most significant single tool humans possess to change their future. It affects everything you can think of. Eradicating viruses, eliminating bacterial resistance, stopping birth defects, cleaning up polluted water, increasing crop yields, all on the radar in the genomic future of humans. I’d like to elaborate on each of those, but suffice to say the essay would become a text book.

I’m only thinking of the human condition for this little blog. Let’s take a look at just a couple chromosomes so the task is manageable. By the way, I want to plant an image in your mind of the correct direction of a helix. As you look at the right side of the drawing, the bands in the fore of the diagram should be as this diagram displays, from the right downward. Why? Because a molecule of DNA is a chiral molecule, and on Earth at least, amino acids twist to the right (most sugars, however, twist to the left, chirally speaking. This is an entirely separate subject). Take my word for it or you can go see a detailed explanation here.

So back to chromosomes. Note that the letter N is not part of the word chromosome, I just want to draw your attention to that if you need to write the word and your spell checker is asleep. A chromosome, of which we have 23 pairs, is a really, really, long, long, long, complex molecule of nucleic acids, perhaps two meters long in some cases, all curled up tight and folded over itself countless times. Some of these chromosomes have as many as 5000 base pairs, those little bars that cross from one side to the other. So let that sink in. A two meter strand of microscopic nucleic acids, thousands of them, all compressed so small that 46 of them fit inside the nucleus of a single cell. Tiny is an understatement. I’m not sure I can think of an appropriate word other than microscopic or quantum to impress upon the eency weenciness and complexity of such structures. Suffice to say, they’re really small.

what-is-down-syndrome1Genetic engineers have found a way to reduce the severity of mental retardation in children with an extra chromosome 21 (Down’s syndrome) if they are aware of the mutation and can intervene before 10 weeks when the neural pathways begin to develop. New technology allows doctors to use fragments of fetal DNA found in the mother’s blood to diagnose the condition so an amniocentesis or CVS doesn’t have to be performed (increasing chance of miscarriage), which by the way is performed too late to correct the issue. Although heart development and characteristic features are already set, the mental retardation that accompanies Down’s Syndrome can be significantly reduced offering these children a more traditional future of independence and community acceptance.

We should respect nature, but not fear our ability to reduce suffering and lifelong disabilities if the technology supports intervention. We also will find that we must define what is a disability and to what degree. Is total blindness a given fix but nearsightedness on the fence? How much of a disability is really a disability? Will gene manipulation one day be used in the everyday care of pregnancy that an engineer can fix incurable disorders or will the simply undesirable disorders also be up for grabs? As we wade into the shallow waters of the primordial gene pool, we should be excited, responsible, and consider as many angles as possible before we go over The Cliff of No Return.

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