The Evolution of Atlas: A Breeding (and Chat) Thread

[1muttsfan]

I know we've talked a little about DNA testing. Well, here is how the corporations doing it are going to further monetize the data that they have already been paid by users to generate. And how to get your privacy back.
https://www.businessinsider.com/dna...nvMwEH_Wk044D5oCt4bhwdhk0UUq5CuhtSaw7TCXvPVps

 

[getaclue]

1mutt, it mentions that they don't discard the saliva, but the DNA genetic test results can be deleted, which gives a totally false sense of security to the donor of the material. Here's the thing, at what point will the health insurance companies get involved, being able to tell what runs through a family's DNA? They could use it to effectively deny coverage, possibly as preexisting, but not yet showing symptoms, or charge more for coverage, at a certain age, because this is when certain things will begin to show up. Not too long ago, women with breast cancer fought one of the pharmaceutical companies in court, because they wanted to legally claim exclusive rights to all breast cancer biopsy material sent in for testing, and the pharmaceutical company lost. This has much farther reaching implications than what people realize, especially for the future.

 

[h2oratt]

I will get the centrifuge....

You can get a good centrifuge for around 50 dollars.

 

[1muttsfan]

Yes, the whole genetics testing industry has a very scary side.

 

[getaclue]

Yes, it does. Consider too that some of our laws, rules, and regulations regarding some of these things anticipate a modicum of ethics, morals, and good judgement to guide the research and development of things. Too, research and development can outpace existing regulations, since they tend to deal with emerging, and new things.

Google "scientists trying to bring back mastodons", and some very credible universities, and research centers are actually trying to use new DNA technology to bring back some of the extinct species of animals. Instead of the "wow" reaction, most of the scientific community should be having a "why" reaction. The question of "we can, but should we?" seems lost on these people. Having the knowledge, without the wisdom to guide it, rarely ends up well over the long haul. Sometimes it's a disaster waiting to happen, given time.

 

[Pyxis]

Google "scientists trying to bring back mastodons", and some very credible universities, and research centers are actually trying to use new DNA technology to bring back some of the extinct species of animals.

This would be very cool to use to bring back species driven into extinction by man, like dodos and thylacines, that never 'should' have gone extinct except that we as humans overhunted them or destroyed their habitat and drove them into extinction.

But species that 'naturally' went extinct, we really probably should just leave be. There could be the argument made that humans actually were what drove mastodons and mammoths into extinction. Climate change and the end of the ice age certainly weren't helping, but there is evidence that overhunting by humans is what finally pushed them over the edge.

This is related and interesting: http://www.pleistocenepark.ru/en/background/

I believe in the past the creator of this park has said they would be interested in having mammoths/mastodons reintroduced there, were they ever brought back.

 

[1muttsfan]

That sort of thing seldom works the way it is meant to. The Law of Unintended Circumstances usually bites someone in the behind. Those creatures lived on a very different planet from the one we have now.

 

[getaclue]

Exactly 1mutts. That was my point. The modern elephant is a descendant of the mastodons. Today's tigers are descended from the sabretooth tigers of yesteryear. No, it would not be cool to bring them back. They are gone for a reason, whether it be that primitive man hunted them to extinction (doubtful), natural selection (most likely) or if there were other unknown factors (likely).

 

[Pyxis]

Exactly 1mutts. That was my point. The modern elephant is a descendant of the mastodons. Today's tigers are descended from the sabretooth tigers of yesteryear. No, it would not be cool to bring them back. They are gone for a reason, whether it be that primitive man hunted them to extinction (doubtful), natural selection (most likely) or if there were other unknown factors (likely).

I don't disagree I think it would be put to good use saving modern species that are on their way out due to human interference though, like, well, African elephants, for example, which are in danger of becoming extinct in the next ten years if poaching continues at the same rate it is now.

And just because I am a total paleontology nerd, I hope you don't mind if I correct that a bit Modern elephants and mastodons had a common ancestor, but modern day Asian and African elephants evolved independently of Mammut (mastodons) and Mammuthus (mammoths); they aren't their descendants. Same for saber toothed cats and modern tigers. There actually is no such thing as a saber-toothed tiger, since tigers hadn't evolved then. There were saber toothed cats though, and Smilodon was the most famous of these. It and the other saber toothed cats also shared a common ancestor with modern-day big cats, but the entire branch went extinct and modern tigers are not their descendants.

 

[1muttsfan]

Well said.