Week 6: Biotechnology and Art
Many of the technologies this week I had previously only considered for very scientific, academic reasons. I had learned about GFP in the context of ontogenetics and mouse neurons, and about white blood cells in the context of immunology. I had never considered that someone might inject different genes into an organism for art purposes, as Eduardo Kac did with his GFP Bunny, using transgenic art to make an albino bunny glow green under ultraviolet light (Kac). This does make me question the ethics behind transgenic art: are we, humans, at liberty to mess with the natural order of the world? How far is too far? I think I agree with the scientists who consider this idea interesting, but silly – with so many things that we do not know about genetics, diseases, and the human body, it seems that the resources used to make the green bunny could be put towards helping people instead (Vesna). Kac's GFP Bunny Kathy High’s ...

Comments
Post a Comment