The Null Device

*sigh* Scientists in Australia recently transferred the nucleus of a human cell into a pig's ovum, an experiment which may someday lead to regrowing organs for patients in need of transplants. The Sunday Times beat the story up, turning it into a "pig-human hybrid", and rousing knee-jerk international condemnation. It seems that a lot of people have superstitions about the sacred inviolability of human DNA, and are all too ready to exclaim their outrage like Frankenstein's torch-wielding peasants at the very hint of this taboo being violated, without ever looking at the facts.

If more people realised that biologically, humans are just animals like any other (albeit with more elaborate cognitive faculties) and stopped taking ancient creation myths literally, then we'd have more of a chance of actually understanding how nature really works, and be closer to solving more of our problems. But then again, this is the world in which the theory of evolution is still controversial, not because the facts don't agree with it but because popular prejudices don't. Sometimes I wonder whether there is hope for humanity.

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