It’s not smart to mess with nature

I heard on my way to work Friday morning that Hiroshima scientists have made transparent frogs. My first thought was why? What good could a transparent frog be to anyone?

According to them, these see-through frogs will be used by researchers to help in the study of diseases and in the development of medical treatments by allowing laboratory scientists to check the status of internal organs and blood vessels while the frogs are alive and without having to dissect them.

The frogs were made by breeding two specimens of Japanese brown frog that had a genetic mutation giving them pale skin. By selectively breeding their offspring, the researchers were able to create a frog that remains transparent for its entire life cycle.

For me, I’m not sure about breeding animals to enhance a genetic mutation is such a wonderful thing. Despite what they give as a reason for doing it, I think the main reason was entirely different ‘ because they can.

I saw the picture of the frog and by the looks of it, the only thing visible is the organs right under the skin. There is no way to see through the frog to the organs or in the organs themselves.

To me, scientists have way too much money, too much time on their hands, and not enough regulations. The world seems to have gone wild on genetic altering. It’s a selective-breeding craze.

Now we have transparent frogs, glow-in-the-dark fish, short-legged cats, hypoallergenic cats, cloned animals and killer bees, just to name a few. We seem to be fooling around with nature and the results could be drastic.

Who could possibly need a glow-in-the-dark fish? A Taiwanese company created that little jewel by genetically modifying zebra fish that are being sold for consumer aquariums. Even Americans are getting fishy. Our researchers are seeking approval for a super-size salmon, retooled with growth hormones.

Incidentally, a company in Canada, Nexia Biotechnologies Inc., is injecting spider genes into goats to produce milk that can be refined and woven into BioSteel for use in surgical sutures and ballistic protection.

What happens when one of these frogs or an altered fish gets set loose on an environment that just can’t handle it? Although they look fine, about as fine as they can get being kind of weird, what about what we can’t see? What happens when they breed with other animals or get eaten by other predators?

Look where Africanized bees, known as killer bees, got us. That started with a great idea too. In 1956, these bees were imported into Brazil by scientists attempting to breed a honey bee better adapted to the South American tropics. Oops! Some escaped a year later and began breeding with Brazilian honey bees.

Since 1990 in the U.S., we have killer bees that viciously attack people and animals just because they get too close. You don’t even have to get close. One simple noise and they attack with the intent of killing.

Not only are they attacking us, they are destroying our bee colonies. They enter a colony and before you know it, you have a group of hybrid bees that are very aggressive as well. All we can do is try and figure out a way to protect ourselves because scientists are going way too far and messing around with nature way too much.

Thanks, but no thanks I say. I would really like to have a cat but I’m allergic to them. Regardless, I’ll still pass on hypoallergenic cats that selective breeding has gotten us. And if I want to see my fish, I’ll turn on the light.

Lisa Hobbs is a reporter for the Standard. She can be reached at 472-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].