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Next – Michael Crichton

Posted on 2:47 AM by 4 8 15 16 23 42 and filed under ,


Ok, so in this second( or first) post I want to write about the novel “Next” written by Michael Chrichton.



A few words about the author, he is/was one of the best (for me the best) science fiction writers in the world. He is very well know of the great books he has written such as Sphere, Jurassic Park, Lost World, Disclosure, Rising Sun etc. All of them are masterpieces he also directed well-known TV series“ER”.




The most amazing part of his writing style that he tells you real facts, real scientific events, real discussions and he also presents all this information in a such thrilling story line. His most recent books are “State of Fear” about global warming (I’m starting it tonight) and “Next” about usages of genetic engineering and biotech.

 

After I’ve read Next, I understood I knew almost nothing about the subject and this book taught me a lot. I mean A LOTT!!

Don’t worry, my intention is not telling you the end of the story I just want to share some real facts from which the author itself got inspired too. 


Transgenic Art

 This is a concept I’ve never heard before. Transgenic Art is defined, according to contemporary artist Eduardo Kac, as

"Transgenic art, I propose, is a new art form based on the use of genetic engineering techniques to transfer synthetic genes to an organism or to transfer natural genetic material from one species into another, to create unique living beings “

 

So transgenic artists transfer genes from some species to other species and create SHOCKING results. Here are a couple of examples:

  •       Glowing Rabbit Alba (2000)  : Alba is one of the most famous transgenic art  examples of Eduardo Kac. It’s a genetically modified rabbit that “glows” in the dark. Artist took GFP gene that fluorescences green found in jelly fish etc., implemented it on rabbit cells and created “Alba”. 


  •       Cactus that grows human hair(2002) : This example of transgenic art performed by artist Laura Cinti, is a cactus that grows real human hair. She obtained this result by implementing keratin genes in our hair to the cactus genome.



Animals with developed communication skills 



Koko: Koko is gorilla with extensive language capabilities. He can understand more than 2000 English words and 1000 signs based on sign language.

 



 N’kisi: N’kisi is an African grey parrot with a vocabulary of approximately 950  words. There's an  audio of N'Kisi in conversation with his owner Aimee.    


Apparently Grey Parrots are animals with really special communication capabilities( I wish I  had oneJ ). 

I personally think all this stuff are pretty amazing, and shocking. It’s true that in this era we are faced with different usages of genetic engineering, and biotechnology is one the most important topics of 21st century.


 So actually there are a  lot more in the book, but I don’t wanna cover all the topics. I highly recommend you to read the book and enjoy.



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Response to ... Next – Michael Crichton
Anonymous said... February 11, 2009 at 4:58 AM

really nice post!!
teşekkürler:)

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