Ell Donsaii 13: DNA (30 page)

The End

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This is a comment on the “science” in this science fiction novel. I’ve always been partial to science fiction that posed a “what if” question. Not everything in the story has to be scientifically plausible, but you suspend your disbelief regarding one or two things that aren’t thought to be possible. Essentially you ask, “what if” something (such as faster than light travel) were possible, how might that change our world? Each of the stories tries to ask such questions.

“DNA” asks about some of the things that may come to pass as we learn to control our own DNA. Though many have great fear of what may happen when humans begin to manipulate their own DNA, feeling that it is unethical to do so, they ignore the fact that DNA has been modified by evolution since the dawn of life here on earth. In historical times, purposeful animal breeding by humans has been modifying DNA as well. I believe that intelligently guided evolution
is
going to happen. The first genetic edits will be to cure horrific genetic diseases. Conditions which are so ghastly that—once we are able to modify the patient’s genome for a cure—almost everyone will agree that correcting the victim’s DNA is the ethical thing to do. Then we will start down the slippery slope of correcting our children’s “not so great” genes, then selecting “super” genes for our children because we feel they won’t be able to compete if we don’t. Once we find ways to modify genes in adults as well as embryos, each of us will face our personal decision about whether to modify our own genes to reduce our risk of cancer, then to improve our endurance/strength/intelligence/lifespan, then our beauty—each decision perhaps a little less ethical. As we make these decisions some will be horrified that others are doing it, calling them unethical, yet eventually seduced to do it themselves by the siren song of the improvements they want for their lives and the lives of their children.

DNA also asks, “What if” non-technological aliens have evolved means for correcting, adjusting, and improving their own DNA? Like dogs, whose olfactory systems are so much better than our own that they can sense and recognize just a few molecules per million. What if these aliens could sense the sequence of DNA molecules and further had an organ that allowed them to generate modifications of those molecules? What if they evolved on a planet with high background radiation like Mars, requiring that they evolve and perhaps self-generate their own means for correcting DNA damage in order to live in that high radiation environment? Since large numbers of the cancers that afflict the human race are due to DNA errors from radiation and other mutagens, learning how to more accurately repair DNA damage from such aliens would reduce our risk of cancer. What if we were able to trade with such aliens, not “things,” but knowledge?”

It again asks, “What if obesity really is a communicable disease ‘epidemic’?” What if the mechanism for that epidemic has to do with Trim28, a gene known to result in obesity when its activity is reduced? Perhaps a virus or a change in the bacteria inhabiting your intestines switches Trim28 off? There are, after all, known to be viruses and changes in the intestinal microbiota which influence obesity.

This story continues to explore the (to me) fascinating possibility that other life bearing worlds may have enormously different atmospheric pressures than Earth. In most science fiction, other living worlds are colder, or hotter, or heavier, or lighter, or have a (to us) unbreathable atmosphere due to a lack of oxygen or the presence of toxic gases. But, even if we had a breathable mix and a reasonable temperature, if the pressure was markedly different it could make it impossible for us to live on those worlds. If we just look at the range of atmospheric pressures on the second, third and fourth planets of our own solar system we can see a huge range of variability (Mars = 0.6% of earth’s pressure; Venus = 90X earth’s pressure – neither pressure is even
close
to livable for humans or other earth animals even if they did have the right mix of gases). But animals
can
evolve to live at high pressures; witness the depths of our own oceans. So aliens might have evolved to thrive at high pressures. Personally, I believe that tides in our atmosphere induced by the close proximity of a large gravitational body (our moon) have been resulting in the loss of atmosphere over millions of years and that the subsequent thinning of our atmosphere at least partly explains why flying and land animals are so much smaller than they were in the past (a dense atmosphere would have provided such large animals support).

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the editing and advice of Gail Gilman, Nora Dahners, Mike Alsobrook, Jeff Durham, Ken Pence, and Abiola Streete, each of whom significantly improved this story.