Might have included a mention of "golden rice" (I read about it in REASON), that supplies missing vitamin A for areas where there is a deficency, but anti-GMO types have been preventing it being used... so kids are going blind. Not a valid tradeoff in my opinion. I'm writing from memory, so you should research details yourself. Maybe the situation has improved.
Thank you for this lengthy yet accessible and well balanced review. God gave us brains to use and throughout history we continue to develop technology that makes life better for us. We make mistakes along the way but overall it is progress. Your list of the many companies that are working on developing, improving, and using this technology to cure disease is impressive and makes me optimistic that we will see remarkable improvements in health and longevity int he next generation. Thanks for highlighting this!
Loved this article! My wife died of breast cancer 9 years ago @56 yrs. old. It was a 14 year battle. Unfortunately it got in her lymph nodes and lied dormant for many years after the chemo and double mastectomy. When it came back for the 3rd time, it had metastized into her lumbar spine and she had to use a walker because her lumbar was in almost a state of collapse. My 3 daughters have all been tested for the Braca gene.
As an aside, I'll never forget the White House news conference on the front lawn where President Bill Clinton and Michael Haseltine, CEO of Human Genome Sciences announced the complete discovery sequencing of the DNA strand.
IMO, one of the most important days in human history.
There are supposedly two rules about cancer. Pancreatic cancer is the most deadly, and my wife ended up having bone cancer, which is the most painful. She was on the 3 day Fentanyl patch and also Oxycintin and STILL had breakthrough pain. The last few months were horrible.
I've done the same but started at 49 with recurrence 5 years later. It's been a bunch of years now but I have that worry in the back of my brain, like a ticking time bomb. So far nothing in lymph nodes so I keep hoping it won't come back again though I know the odds aren't with me. 🙁
Excellent article. Quite a Brave New World we are creating.
Among the most impressive things I have heard of is epidural electrical stimulation, where electrodes are implanted to help people with spinal cord injury walk again. Very impressive. But not as impressive as being miraculously healed, as Jesus and His disciples used to do. That will come back, when the time is right. Right now, we're doing pretty well saving ourselves. :)
Interesting article. One thing about Angelina Jolie - she was, maybe still is, a heavy smoker, am sure that also greatly increased her chances of developing cancer overall.
Didn't know that, thanks. Diet and lifestyle is often more important than genes. Heart disease runs in the family. But, I eat a plant based diet (i.e., 'vegan') and abide by the '8 doctors,' and am pretty healthy for an old man. 8 doctors:
1. Clean air. Move out of the city.
2. Clean water. Preferably, distilled water. A distant second best is reverse osmosis water.
3. Real food, properly combined. Real food is fruits, grains, vegetables, and nuts. Yes, a vegan diet. For verification, search for vegan weightlifter, or vegan athlete. Or ask a gorilla or chimpanzee. (Yes, I know that some chimps eat meat.) The food should be organically grown, no GMO's. Eat fruit by itself, non-starchy vegetables with starches or proteins. Do not eat protein and starch together, unless they are naturally combined, as in beans and peanuts, etc. If you think lack of meat will cause you to die, eat no more than one ounce per day, organically grown, with the blood drained out of it, along with plenty of non-starchy vegetables. The largest meal should be in the morning, and unless you do physical labor two meals a day are usually sufficient. All of this also assumes: No drugs or stimulants. This includes coffee, alcohol, black pepper and chocolate.
4. Exercise. Most people need no more than a brisk 20 minute walk, twice a day.
5. Sunshine. Early morning and late afternoon. You can combine with 1 and 4, and kill three birds with one stone.
6. Rest. At least 7-8 hours of sleep per night. The best rest is before 12 midnight.
7. Have a spiritual life.
8. Help others.
The results will be proportionate to your desire to adhere to the principles above.
One thing some people don't know...some heart problems stay hidden for years, such as aortic stenosis. This often happens when people have a two-flap aortic valve vice the normal three-flap valve. This is found via certain types of echocardiograms. Treatment is replacing the valve. Now many aortic valves are replaced via catheter vide open-heart surgery.
I haven't been to an allopathic doctor in 50 years. I think I will do better by continuing that. To each their own, of course. Doctors have great marketing. What other service provider can tell the customer, 'if you don't get this procedure/take this drug/get this surgery, you're going to die!' It's the ultimate sales pitch. Most allopathic doctors probably even believe their own sales pitch.
Wow. Lots of good stuff here, that will take a more careful reread to sort out. Many thanks for this! Lots of room for optimism, better outcomes, better health.
Educative and enjoyable article. Well done. As a point of historical accuracy the barley that helped transform the growing of malting barley in Scotland was Golden Promise. A short-strawed , early, wind -resistant variety of high malting quality. It was produced by irradiating Maythorpe a traditional long-strawed variety.
The 'anti' people are a scurge for people that have any human condition that could be helped by research teams. The problem is to differentiate between the good and the bad.
Great big picture survey of how fast gene editing is moving. The shift from crude cutting to base and prime editing, plus the role of AI in predicting downstream effects, really demonstrates the increase in sophistication of this technology. What do you think is the main bottleneck now: delivery, safety, cost, or regulation?
Thankyou for your extensive review of genetic engineering. It is a topic that has interested me for many years, and your review illuminated many changes that have occurred since I last looked into it.
With respect to your paper, while you do give good coverage of some of the risks, I didn’t see anything about the possibility that the Covid pandemic might have arisen as a result of genetically engineered corona viruses in Wuhan. I appreciate that the case is not closed, but the scale of potential consequences of a GM mishap is one of the main reasons why there is concern about the technology.
IMHO genetic engineers would benefit from accepting a few principles that mostly they currently do not.
1) The onus on scientists is to prove safety, rather than the onus being on sceptics to prove risk.
2) Safety of one example of genetic engineering carries no guarantee of the safety of another. Safety of aspirin carries no evidence of safety of thalidomide.
Here is a blog I have written to bring together some items relevant to the possibility that Covid came from a GM event. You will note that I give space to arguments for a zoonotic origin from the wet-market, in particular the arguments of Peter Miller.
Covid-19, genetic engineering, and the Wuhan lab-leak theory
Really enjoyable, optimistic article.
Might have included a mention of "golden rice" (I read about it in REASON), that supplies missing vitamin A for areas where there is a deficency, but anti-GMO types have been preventing it being used... so kids are going blind. Not a valid tradeoff in my opinion. I'm writing from memory, so you should research details yourself. Maybe the situation has improved.
Apparently “Golden Rice” is still being blocked, and people are dying…
https://reason.com/2026/06/17/over-100000-kids-have-died-due-to-greenpeace-blocking-genetically-enhanced-rice-new-calculation-shows/
Thank you for this lengthy yet accessible and well balanced review. God gave us brains to use and throughout history we continue to develop technology that makes life better for us. We make mistakes along the way but overall it is progress. Your list of the many companies that are working on developing, improving, and using this technology to cure disease is impressive and makes me optimistic that we will see remarkable improvements in health and longevity int he next generation. Thanks for highlighting this!
Loved this article! My wife died of breast cancer 9 years ago @56 yrs. old. It was a 14 year battle. Unfortunately it got in her lymph nodes and lied dormant for many years after the chemo and double mastectomy. When it came back for the 3rd time, it had metastized into her lumbar spine and she had to use a walker because her lumbar was in almost a state of collapse. My 3 daughters have all been tested for the Braca gene.
As an aside, I'll never forget the White House news conference on the front lawn where President Bill Clinton and Michael Haseltine, CEO of Human Genome Sciences announced the complete discovery sequencing of the DNA strand.
IMO, one of the most important days in human history.
There are supposedly two rules about cancer. Pancreatic cancer is the most deadly, and my wife ended up having bone cancer, which is the most painful. She was on the 3 day Fentanyl patch and also Oxycintin and STILL had breakthrough pain. The last few months were horrible.
I'm so sorry about your wife.
I've done the same but started at 49 with recurrence 5 years later. It's been a bunch of years now but I have that worry in the back of my brain, like a ticking time bomb. So far nothing in lymph nodes so I keep hoping it won't come back again though I know the odds aren't with me. 🙁
Excellent article. Quite a Brave New World we are creating.
Among the most impressive things I have heard of is epidural electrical stimulation, where electrodes are implanted to help people with spinal cord injury walk again. Very impressive. But not as impressive as being miraculously healed, as Jesus and His disciples used to do. That will come back, when the time is right. Right now, we're doing pretty well saving ourselves. :)
Interesting article. One thing about Angelina Jolie - she was, maybe still is, a heavy smoker, am sure that also greatly increased her chances of developing cancer overall.
Didn't know that, thanks. Diet and lifestyle is often more important than genes. Heart disease runs in the family. But, I eat a plant based diet (i.e., 'vegan') and abide by the '8 doctors,' and am pretty healthy for an old man. 8 doctors:
1. Clean air. Move out of the city.
2. Clean water. Preferably, distilled water. A distant second best is reverse osmosis water.
3. Real food, properly combined. Real food is fruits, grains, vegetables, and nuts. Yes, a vegan diet. For verification, search for vegan weightlifter, or vegan athlete. Or ask a gorilla or chimpanzee. (Yes, I know that some chimps eat meat.) The food should be organically grown, no GMO's. Eat fruit by itself, non-starchy vegetables with starches or proteins. Do not eat protein and starch together, unless they are naturally combined, as in beans and peanuts, etc. If you think lack of meat will cause you to die, eat no more than one ounce per day, organically grown, with the blood drained out of it, along with plenty of non-starchy vegetables. The largest meal should be in the morning, and unless you do physical labor two meals a day are usually sufficient. All of this also assumes: No drugs or stimulants. This includes coffee, alcohol, black pepper and chocolate.
4. Exercise. Most people need no more than a brisk 20 minute walk, twice a day.
5. Sunshine. Early morning and late afternoon. You can combine with 1 and 4, and kill three birds with one stone.
6. Rest. At least 7-8 hours of sleep per night. The best rest is before 12 midnight.
7. Have a spiritual life.
8. Help others.
The results will be proportionate to your desire to adhere to the principles above.
One thing some people don't know...some heart problems stay hidden for years, such as aortic stenosis. This often happens when people have a two-flap aortic valve vice the normal three-flap valve. This is found via certain types of echocardiograms. Treatment is replacing the valve. Now many aortic valves are replaced via catheter vide open-heart surgery.
I haven't been to an allopathic doctor in 50 years. I think I will do better by continuing that. To each their own, of course. Doctors have great marketing. What other service provider can tell the customer, 'if you don't get this procedure/take this drug/get this surgery, you're going to die!' It's the ultimate sales pitch. Most allopathic doctors probably even believe their own sales pitch.
Wow. Lots of good stuff here, that will take a more careful reread to sort out. Many thanks for this! Lots of room for optimism, better outcomes, better health.
When a considerbthe results of the billions of years,
I tend to be very enthusiastic about speeding up the process.
Reminds of story of a parson voisitng a man tending to a beautiful garden.
Parson: Isn't it wonderful what God helping you do here?
Parishiner: You should have seen the syaye god left it in before I got it.
Category error.
Thank you for writing so clearly.
Your exuberance for your craft is plainly evident
Very good review. Wish you hadn’t chosen a provocative title
The title is perfect. I appreciate the author's honesty.
Educative and enjoyable article. Well done. As a point of historical accuracy the barley that helped transform the growing of malting barley in Scotland was Golden Promise. A short-strawed , early, wind -resistant variety of high malting quality. It was produced by irradiating Maythorpe a traditional long-strawed variety.
The 'anti' people are a scurge for people that have any human condition that could be helped by research teams. The problem is to differentiate between the good and the bad.
Great big picture survey of how fast gene editing is moving. The shift from crude cutting to base and prime editing, plus the role of AI in predicting downstream effects, really demonstrates the increase in sophistication of this technology. What do you think is the main bottleneck now: delivery, safety, cost, or regulation?
Dear David,
Thankyou for your extensive review of genetic engineering. It is a topic that has interested me for many years, and your review illuminated many changes that have occurred since I last looked into it.
With respect to your paper, while you do give good coverage of some of the risks, I didn’t see anything about the possibility that the Covid pandemic might have arisen as a result of genetically engineered corona viruses in Wuhan. I appreciate that the case is not closed, but the scale of potential consequences of a GM mishap is one of the main reasons why there is concern about the technology.
IMHO genetic engineers would benefit from accepting a few principles that mostly they currently do not.
1) The onus on scientists is to prove safety, rather than the onus being on sceptics to prove risk.
2) Safety of one example of genetic engineering carries no guarantee of the safety of another. Safety of aspirin carries no evidence of safety of thalidomide.
Here is a blog I have written to bring together some items relevant to the possibility that Covid came from a GM event. You will note that I give space to arguments for a zoonotic origin from the wet-market, in particular the arguments of Peter Miller.
Covid-19, genetic engineering, and the Wuhan lab-leak theory
https://imagesandraves.blogspot.com/2022/01/covid-19-genetic-engineering-and-wuhan.html
Kind regards,
David