Some scientists are manipulating genes in bizarre ways that
seem to have no practical use. Are they creating science or
art? Or are they just making monsters?
New Scientist reports that Laura Cinti has created a cactus
that grows human hair. She says, "Hair is a sign of
reproduction, a sign of our bodies changing, becoming or
being sexual. So the cactus with hair becomes a sexual
symbol." To create it, she combined human genetic material
with cactus DNA. She says, "Bald men are particularly
interested in the work."
Alas, most of her genetically-modified cacti are not doing
well. "They've been imploding, shriveling," she says.
Oron Catts created wings for pigs. He says, "We took the
statement 'pigs could fly'?and decided to literally grow pigs'
wings?" He admits this raises "huge ethical and
epistemological questions which people haven't begun to
think about."
To make them, he says, "We harvested pig bone marrow stem
cells left over from scientific experiments?Once we had the
semi-living tissue wings we took them and fixed them with
formalin, then dried them and coated them with gold to
preserve them." None of them have been transplanted onto
pigs yet.
Catts played music to the pig cells to make them grow. He
says, "Before Napster collapsed we downloaded lots of pig
songs?from Looney Tunes to heavy metal?and played them
to the cells while they were seeding in the bioreactor. We did
seem to get better distribution of the cells when we played
the music."
Marta de Menezes creates butterfly art?with live butterflies.
She says, "I became incredibly excited at the idea that I
could create an art-piece in a butterfly. It would have the
characteristics of a painting, but also something more
important because the butterfly was already a life form itself.
My butterflies have wing patterns never before seen in
nature. I created them by interfering with their normal
developmental mechanisms with a very thin needle while the
butterfly was still in the cocoon. You can do this to a high
degree of accuracy."
She alters only one wing of her butterflies because "by
changing one wing I would be changing the butterfly into
something that was definitely not natural."
She says, "People were very shocked at first. They didn't
think it a good idea." For her next project: "?I plan to make
the stripes of zebrafish vertical instead of horizontal so that
they look more like zebras. I'd do this through selection and
breeding, so the changes would be inherited."
Can we send our minds beyond the boundaries of the ordinary
and learn to do incredible things. Do pigs have wings? Well,
yes they do and Russell Targ can show
you how to discover which of your own dreams are
precognitive, become capable of remote diagnosis of the
illnesses of others, and many other things that we are told by
a lying media are impossible?all on this week's
Dreamland. Subscribers: Meet Laurel Chiten, who
knew nothing about abductees until she met Dr. John Mack,
and decided to make a film about him.
For more information, click here.
