By Mark Thomas


Human beings are by nature fairly social. They live in societies. Now, given the social nature of the species, the societies they live in are generally composed of different communities. Those communities can be further broken down into families and friend groups. Even that can still be whittled down to individual people. But that is not where it stops. An individual person can be broken down into different overlapping systems, the respiratory, the nervous system and so on and so forth. But that is not where it ends, because everything in the world is made of up of cells, and those cells are composed of other organelles. Now, humanity is a species that likes to exert control over its surroundings, so they will experiment with a genetically engineered organelle or two to exert control over something that the naked eye is incapable of perceiving.

Organelles should be examined before moving on any further. It should be said that a human being has internal organs, and every single one of them, barring the appendix, have a specific function. The heart pumps blood, the lungs deliver oxygen to the blood, the brain controls everything etcetera, etcetera. Organelles are fairly similar to that. They are the internal organs of the cell.

Take for example the mitochondria. Yes, there be many jokes on the internet about how it is the powerhouse of a cell, mostly by adults who learned about it in high school and yet never learned anything useful like how to register to vote or acquire their own health insurance. But that is exactly what it is. It is the part of the cell that turns energy into a form that a cell can use.

Now up for explanation is genetic engineering. It is when the genetic structure of an organism is altered to some extent. This is generally done with by an outside entity. In essence, it is fairly similar evolution. Except that it is done by a human scientist as opposed to nature.

Now, there are a lot of practical applications of it. For example, crops can be modified to produce higher yields. This means that there is more edible crop that can be harvested, one of the great pathways to ending world hunger. Not to mention that it can also be used on people, removing inherited predispositions for things like obesity and diabetes.

But pretty much everything that may look like it moves the species forward is going to have its detractors. Because life is funny like that. There are some sectors of society that believe that there is secretly some cabal of ill intentioned scientists out there looking to turn humanity into some genetically perfect master race of tall, well built individuals who all speak a dozen languages and are in perfect health.

Scientists may be somewhat hard to find. This is because those who can engineer organelles are generally specialists in the field of genetics. And specialists in any field are pretty hard to come by. But top research universities should have at least some of them.

But there are some things that should be adhered to when conducting a science experiment. For example, the scientific method should be followed. Then there are local laws restricting certain types of experimentation.

Progress is the nature of the world. There be those who can push that progress forward. They should just be given the opportunity to do so. There be those who look to stop them, however the thing about progress is that its not something that can be denied. It will happen, it can be slowed down, however it can never be stopped.




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