Read Online Medusa's Gaze and Vampire's Bite: The Science of Monsters by Matt Kaplan - Free Book Online Page B

of a newly developed Alzheimer’s drug on primates with the development of human intelligence among the apes themselves. Like The Island of Dr. Moreau, Rise of the Planet of the Apes again raises the question of who or what the monster actually is. Humans certainly have their moments of villainy in the story, but the apes, with their disturbingly human facial characteristics and ability to so effectively slink through the shadows once they escape from captivity, definitely are frightening. Are they the heroes? It certainly feels that way when a valiant gorilla sacrifices itself to save the leader ape, Caesar, from gunfire. Indeed, there is much here that is similar to King Kong, with sympathy building for the creatures that would typically be identified as monsters. That there is a lot of ambiguity is unquestionable and, based upon where modern science is headed, understandable.
    The creatures of Wells’s imagination are not as far from reality as they might seem. Numerous mice, rabbits, sheep, fish, and birds have already been genetically engineered to carry and express the genes of other animals, including the genes of humans. The methods that are used vary. Some techniques directly insert genetic material from one animal into the area where the genes of a developing egg cell are found. Some labs are engineering viruses to carry genetic material and inject it into the newly developing cells of an embryo. Perhaps the most widely known technique adds genes to stem cells, which have the ability to become other types of cells in the body. By altering stem cells in this way and then adding these altered stem cells to a developing embryo, the added genes become expressed as the embryo grows.
    Such techniques have already made it possible for teams to create a mouse with the liver of a rat. This might not sound like a big deal, since mice and rats are closely related, but giving one speciesthe ability to grow and live off of the organs of another is not that far from what Wells was writing about. 23 Indeed, the journal Nature published an editorial in 2011 titled “The Legacy of Doctor Moreau,” arguing that even though the blending of animal and human characteristics will likely be viewed by modern audiences with the same level of horror as Victorian audiences greeted Wells’s beast folk, such horror must be overcome for the sake of science and properly managed by a well-established framework of rules.
    A mouse with a rat liver does not inspire horror among the public, but what about a rodent born with furless human skin? The skin is, in fact, just another organ and, genetically speaking, creating such a rodent in the lab is something researchers are on the verge of doing. This will likely be met with widespread revulsion, 24 but for the sake of finding treatments for life-threatening skin diseases, like skin cancer, should such revulsion be overcome? Nature certainly argues for this, with the caveat of careful government oversight. But what of a monkey being born with a human brain?
    Based upon how far research has progressed in recent years, such a creature is now no longer outside the realm of possibilities. Although it will not be created in a lab tomorrow or next year, in the coming decades an animal of this sort may well become very real. But what would such a creature endure? We would have to apply all ethical regulations afforded to humans to a monkey with a human brain, but the mere possibility of such an organism being created and the terrible questions that such scientific work raises are understandably frightening. Could it ever learn to speak? Would it go insane? Might it resent its creators and plot revenge?
    To help keep the nightmares at bay and maintain some level of ethical control, the Academy of Medical Sciences in London has setout a number of rules intended to guide genetics work during the years ahead. Among other things, it clarifies the practices that should be considered reasonable during the