h a l f b a k e r y"Bun is such a sad word, is it not?" -- Watt, "Waiting for Godot"
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Some years ago there was a "campy" sort of movie called "Flash Gordon", based on the comic series of the early/milddle 20th Century. One scene I thought was kind of funny, in which Emperor Ming kills a rebellious prince with the prince's own sword --and the prince bled blue.
Well, he was a humanoid
alien and fictional, but we know for a fact that blue blood can really exist. The entire "mollusc" family of sea creatures has blue blood, which is based on the copper atom (not the iron atom that gives us red blood).
Obviously, then, it would make sense for some snooty/uppity personages to think, "Aha! Thanks to genetic engineering, we can ensure our offspring are treated like the blue-bloods they most certainly will be!"
Those personages merely need to have their genetic material edited, to replace all the hemoglobin-related stuff with hemocyanin-related stuff, before fertilization occurs. If enough such personages do this, then the genetic pool of their blue-blooded offspring can be large enough so that no more genetic engineering will be required -- they can perpetuate their blue blood indefinitely, in the normal way.
Note that the number of genetic changes needed to accomplish this goal is likely to define this group as a new species of humans, unable to interbreed successfully with ordinary Homo Sapiens Sapiens (almost certainly to the joy of the snooty/uppity). What should they be called, then? "Homo Cyano Sapiens?"
Whether or not they can perpetuate a sense of superiority is an entirely different matter, of course! (I can see the insults now: "Your parents were so greedy for power they bred with octopi, the better for you to grasp things!")
About Hemocyanin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemocyanin
In case you want to know more. [Vernon, May 17 2011]
About Malaria
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaria
Mentioned in an annotation. [Vernon, May 17 2011]
About lobsters
http://www.scienced...9de191&searchtype=a
//totally malaria-resistant// however. [mouseposture, May 17 2011]
About the Flash Gordon movie
http://en.wikipedia...Flash_Gordon_(film)
Should have posted this sooner! [Vernon, May 18 2011]
About a Boy
http://www.amazon.c...d=1305892859&sr=1-6
...by Nick Hornby. Don't know if it's any good. Never read it. And nothing to do with this idea. [DrBob, May 20 2011]
[link]
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So, if you can get one to blush, they'll look like a Smurf? |
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Superior folk struggle with crabbiness. |
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All your [Vernon] are belong to us. |
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Things might not be so simple. Last time I checked, creatures with blue blood had to have about seven hearts. |
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The rich will always want ways to distinguish
themselves from hoi polloi, and it's getting harder
all the time. This is a completely reasonable,
potentially
profitable idea, implementation details aside. I'm
sure some way could be found, maybe not
hemocyanin. [+] |
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PS: Alternate name for the species Homo cyanin. |
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// replace all the hemoglobin-related stuff with
hemocyanin-related stuff // |
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Keep doing it until they're blue in the face. |
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I think I'll predict that as soon as the snooty/uppity do this, and then try to forbid others to similiarly ensure their offspring have blue blood, a black market will arise, for this particular genetic engineering process. |
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More, I'll note that such humans should be naturally and totally malaria-resistant --the Hemocyanin link indicates that there needn't be such a thing as "blue blood cells" --because without the equivalent of red blood cells, the malaria microorganism can't do its thing. So, this fact will increase even more the desire for this particular genetic engineering process. |
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Well, now this is a much more workable idea.
You'll have to do quite a bit of work, though. |
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For starters, human haemoglobin is tailored pretty
precisely to meet our oxygen needs and
atmosphere. It has to load up with oxygen in the
lungs, then release oxygen where it's needed,
where the oxygen concentration is only a bit
lower. My guess is that mollusc haemocyanins will
operate in a much lower oxygen range (grabbing
oxygen from oxygen-poor seawater, and releasing
it to tissues with an even lower oxygen tension).
In humans, they'd just saturate with oxygen and
never release it. (You'd have reactionless blood.) |
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Haemoglobin is also plugged into a whole bunch of
regulatory loops so that its tendency to take up or
release oxygen can be fine-tuned according to
needs. |
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Also, I'm not sure if haemocyanins show
"cooperativity", which mammalian haemoglobins
do. (It means that the graph of oxygen saturation
versus oxygen tension is sigmoidal, making
haemoglobin very delicately tuned over a specific
range of oxygen tensions.) |
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You'll also have to re-fit the liver and dogs know
what else to handle copper, deal with
haemocyanin breakdown products and what-not. |
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However, it's probably more attainable than tails.
You're also right about its preventing malaria (and
probably a lot of other parasitic infections, and
quite possibly many non-parasitic infections). So,
[+] from me. |
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//totally malaria-resistant//
Fat lot of good that'll do <link> Not many ecological
niches go unexploited, especially by parasites. |
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There must be a reason why creatures with copper based blue blood lost out in the competition to populate the earth. |
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Hemo sapiens ?
Homo hemo ? |
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Humanoids with copper-based blood already exist in fiction. As well as malaria, it also makes you immune to the attack of intelligent, space travelling, time shifting, blood-sucking clouds...as revealed in the Star Trek episode "Obsession". |
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//lost out in the competition// |
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How do you mean "lost out?" They're still here,
aren't they? And before you answer "But there are
fewer of them than of red-blooded organisms," ask
yourself how many organisms (species, total
biomass) have no blood at all. |
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@ MB: The genetics for producing humans with a short but very real tail are already known. Although currently seen as a deformity the production of a "human with a tail" is not only far far simpler than this idea, it is well within the realm of what is possible in the current day. The barriers to this idea include, but are not limited to: copper toxicity to almost every tissue in the body, incompatibility with the gas balance of our respiratory system and the substantial de-rating of metabolism throughout the body. MB, tails are a parlor trick by comparison. |
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I agree. Even gills would probably be easier than this. |
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However, it might allow one to survive more than the regulation 30 seconds before dying of asphyxiation after being thrown out of a space ship. |
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[WcW] you are right - I picked a bad example. Tails
(and even gills) are easyish because the raw data is
still there in our DNA. |
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So in theory it wold be possible to genetically engineer a frenchman, only with a working conscience ? Or is that too far-fetched ? |
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While we're at it with the genetic engineering, how hard would it be to give people superior octopus eyes? |
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Modelled on those octopuses that look down on others over their pince-nez. It would hardly be fitting to have supplicating, inferior octopus eyes. |
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Octupi have noses to perch pince-nez on ? |
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Then again, without ears, they can hardly wear conventional spectacles. Contact lenses would probably be the best option .. |
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They wear them on their beaks, but the term pince-bec is not really in vogue. |
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