"Joseph Delaney - Brainchild" - читать интересную книгу автора (Delaney Joseph)

cell trait or Tay-Sachs; all systemic diseases of genetic origin. Their
incidence among the population conforms with the known laws of
genetics. Statistically, they're insignificant when you consider humanity as
a whole. They're not communicable except through the reproductive
process, and then only to offspring with the right ancestry.
"Genetics affects communicable disease organisms, too, and its victims.
This is where genetic engineering really started. Because of the built-in
plan of the genetic code, certain organisms became genetically acceptable
hosts for genetically compatible parasites. As a result certain classes of
microorganisms could make certain other classes of life sick.
 "Here again was an opportunity to use the selective process to cure the
illness; to identify and isolate the organism, grow it and find out what
killed it; to change the host body at the cellular level and cause it to
produce defensive mechanisms it wasn't born with. The process was
crude, hit or miss. Statistically, however, it was completely valid and as a
result there aren't many communicable diseases we can't cure or prevent.
Some organisms, such as gonococci and flu virus, fight back with their
own mutations, but by and large it still works."
"This is all very interesting, Dr. Blatchley. But I'd like to get down to
basics ..."
"We are down to basics, young manтАФbasic basics. I'm talking down to
you already. I thought you wanted to understand this process."
There were snickers from the spectators, some even from the jury.
There wasn't a face in the courtroom without a smile, except Monte's.
"Well, Dr. BlatchleyтАФWhat I'd like you to tell the court is how all of this
relates to the production of the creature who is the subject of this
prosecution."
"I told you I'd get back to the question of heredity, didn't I?"
"Yes, you did, Dr. Blatchley. Would you please do so?"
"O.K., heredity means that the offspring of any parents share the
characteristics of each, whether these are observable in one or the other
adult or not. Some characteristics are called dominant; they appear in the
offspring and one or both parents simultaneously. The recessives don't.
They appear only in the offspring and result from the combination of two
or more genes not dominant in either parent but dominant in
combination. It's like adding two small numbers together to make one big
number.
"Mutations are seldom dominant, but they occasionally combine in
their effects with recessive genes and produce a new characteristic.
Sometimes the new characteristic is beneficial, sometimes it's harmful,
and on most other occasions they're simply harmless.
"Dr. Schoonover was working on harmful effectsтАФthe results of past
mutations to the gene plasm that either alone or in combination produced
what the public used to call feeblemindedness.
"Now, there are four common sources of mutations. First, there's
radiation, natural or manmade. There's no way to eliminate all of it
because it comes in from outer space and out of the earth. We have to live
with it. Another source is other organisms, such as viruses, which enter
the reproductive cells and change them. It's not as important as radiation,
but it is there. The third, biggest, present cause is chemical. Modern man