Bio-Tech in and out of SF

Norman S. Murray

Copyright (c) 1990

A growing trend in Science Fiction is the use of biotechnology. What is biotechnology you might ask? That is the question which I hope to answer for you in this article.

The first thing that I would like to point out, is that the biological sciences are one of the fastest growing fields today. The main advances are coming in genetic engineering, developmental biology, immunology, pharmaceutical development. There are also advances being made in nanotechnology, which, for the purposes of this article only, I will lump into the biotechnology field (as the only appreciable nanotechnology we now have is the purely biological equipment in every one of us).

In current fiction, I have seen everything from cloning, to "little pills to cure everything" (nanomachines that repair every damaged cell in your body) allowing one to live "forever." I have also seen the engineering of animals for transportation, i.e. strap yourself onto the back of a giant cat, and drive to work at seventy kilometers per hour! Also in older works, we have tissue banks for every person, so that when they get old, or injured, you already have enough tissue mass to replace their entire body. There has also been stories where a disease is created, specific to one persons DNA, as a method to catch criminals. There have also been many cases where a gene from one species was isolated and transferred into another species.

These are truly amazing ideas, well worthy of being in science fiction when each of them was written. Interestingly, however, we can now do some things from the older list. We have taken the gene for producing human insulin, and placed it into an E. coli (a bacteria native to the human large intestine, that is THE subject of genetic manipulations (there are many others but none used half as much)). These have been grown in giant vats, and the insulin they produce is commercially available. This is a necessity for some people who are allergic to the more traditional sources from pigs and sheep. We have also been able to grow animal proteins out of a tobacco plant, and have increased crop productivity through genetic engineering.

The other thing we have been able to do is to make transplants common, but they are still too life threatening to be called routine. This is a step towards being able to replace any bodypart in anyone's body at a few days notice, assuming life support technology to keep the individual alive until such time. Another thing we have done has put us onto the path of creating the bionic man, nowadays known as a cyborg. The early steps to this are old and too large to fit inside the human body. Newer ones are capable of much more and can be implanted into the body. Of course, I'm talking about the old (but still used) iron lungs, and dialysis machines, and the newer artificial heart.

A new, experimental contraceptive technique has been used in lab rats, using the rats own immune system to attack the sperm binding sites on her own egg, preventing fertilization from taking place. Right now it is about 75% effective for the first month, and then begins to drop off on an individual basis over the next few months. This will hopefully become a standard form of contraceptive in humans, but there is much testing left to be done - so maybe in five or ten years... [1]

As for the other items on the "wish list," they shall remain on that list for several years. The first to appear will probably be cloning, but beware - your clone will have to grow for about 20 years before you can have an intelligent conversation with it. It will be a very impractical thing to grow a clone of a person, but it will be technologically possible. A scary possibility for the near future is the ability to create a disease so specific that it will infect only redheads (or those who carry one gene for redheadedness, since it is a recessive trait), or any person carrying on their DNA, a preselected code, thus making it possible to infect everyone who is female, while leaving the males perfectly healthy.

This, of course, brings up a Pandora's box of moral questions in biology. Is it right to build an entire species to serve our own needs? and if so where does it stop being acceptable, and start being slavery. Is it morally responsible to "dial-up" a baby to order - hair, and eye color, IQ, height, etc...? These are the questions that must be answered by the time we get to this level of technology. Did you know that in the U.S.A. it is legal to patent a new life form?

I don't know what is feeding on what, the science fiction upon real life or vice versa, but there is a definite revolution sweeping the worlds of reality and science fiction.

[1] Taylor, Robert, "Zona Pellucida Peptite Blocks Fertilization", The Journal of NIH Research, January-February 1990 Vol. II

Norm Murray is a sophomore biology major, at Carnegie Mellon University, concentrating in genetics and computer applications in biology. He is also an assistant editor of this magazine. He would like to be able to spend time and learn how to write science fiction, but for now he is content to meerly read it. He also has a new baby sister (Jan. 31) - and likes to use ' 's and -'s, as well as ( and ) as decorations when he's typing something. In two words or less, he's "mostly harmless."

nm0y+@andrew.cmu.edu