BioTech + Art
Typical BioArt of microscopic parasites |
This week’s topic is on biotechnology and art. Art expands
with technology, in biotechnology, artist are also scientists that creates
their art through scientific process at cellular level. It is a very interesting topic, but there
is much controversy into it.
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Glowing Flowers in Exhibition in Hong Kong |
Natural Selection proposed by Charles Darwin has been
the one theory defining our evolution for centuries. On the other hand, we have
artificial selection where we human interfere and chooses the organism to breed.
It was used to be done by cross-breeding and can only success if the organisms
used for cross-breeding are closely-related. However, with modern technology,
especially biotechnology, we can modify living things at cellular level. So we
can literally extract a gene from one organism and put it into another
organism. One example can be the flower that glow in the dark. This is an
engineer for beauty where fluorescent protein from jelly fish is injected to
the flower, giving it the ability to glow in the dark. This kind of glowing
flower are often used by artists to create astonishing effect even at night.
What is this GM "Tomato" Made of? |
While having its artistic aspect, genetic
modification has been condemned for a variety of reasons. One of the most
controversial topic in such biotechnology lies in GM food. Food has always been
the key area for biotechnology. In the past, farmers artificially select the
crop to grow by a range of criteria such as the productivity and pest
resistivity. Nowadays, with biotechnology, genetic modified food has proven to
be a lot more successful in the aspects that traditional farmers were seeking. However,
it comes with debates. There are researches claiming genetically modified food
leads to allergies. Also, there are people claiming the GMO companies are bullying
the farmers. These are just some of the ongoing debates. So is GMO really
helpful? As an individual, all my concern is what I eat and GMO is telling me
that I won’t know what I eat because the food is a mixture of genes from
different organisms. That is pretty scary to me at least.
There are other areas of controversies of course, for
example the use of pig to grow human organs for transplantation. To all these
issues, there are debates over the ethical and safety aspects. For us
commoners, we don’t really get to influence the direction genetic modification
go. However, we should be aware of such things. Nonetheless, genetic
modification can bring much benefits, especially if the negative aspects can be
prevented.
References:
Institute for Responsible Technology. "Genetically Engineered Food May Cause Rising Food Allergies(Part 1)". http://responsibletechnology.org/genetically-engineered-foods-may-cause-rising-food-allergies-part-one/ Accessed May 14 2017
Skwarecki, Beth. LifeHacker. "The Biggest Concern About GMO Food Aren't Really About GMOs". http://vitals.lifehacker.com/the-biggest-concerns-about-gmo-food-arent-really-about-1702906290 Accessed May 14 2017
Vesna, Victoria. Lecture. DESMA. Accessed May 14 2017
Whitfield, John. Nature. "A Rosy Glow".
Vesna, Victoria. Lecture. DESMA. Accessed May 14 2017
Whitfield, John. Nature. "A Rosy Glow".
http://www.nature.com/news/2001/011025/full/news011025-8.html Accessed May 14 2017
Wikipedia. "BioArt". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioArt Accessed May 14 2017
Wikipedia. "Natural Selection". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_selection Accessed May 14 2017
Your article is very interesting as you discussed transplanting genes from one species to another. The practice really does post lots of controversy and may cause potential danger. As you said, the biggest concern for ordinary people is whether the GM food we are consuming is safe. I hope scientists could be more prudent in making more alien food species.
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