I totally agree with Teelie here, and some of the others.
I think it's kind of funny when people are afraid of genetic manipulation, considering that newer methods are actually more likely to result in what we want and less likely to result in something we don't want. I had a teacher i used to argue with about this sort of thing and when he said some people with nut allergies couldn't eat some kinds of GM corn because it had almond genes, I thought, well that is something to be concerned about, but it's the about first real problem i've heard of.
As for the glofish, well I think I saw some on TV a long time ago, but I had the idea thay were giant danios for some reason, maybe I just thought they'd look neat glowing. Anyway, what annoyed me is that they said they were illegal in California, and I wanted some. I don't think there's anything dangerous about them. It is true that there are already too many varieties to choose from, but I don't think that's a good reason to limit new frontiers. I've never bought a "painted glass fish", but I did think they looked neat before I learned how they are created and decided not to support the practice of dying by buying them. (by the way, I don't know if I should ask here, but are the "mixed fruit tetras" a similar thing?)
Anyway, I think of this glow gene as being a little more like in vitro fertilization, or test tube babies. I can appreciate people not liking the idea, but personnally, it doesn't bother me. I think we're more sensitive with animals, or species we can almost relate to. I haven't seen as much concern about breeding unnatural plants. I have heard of mice that were given glow genes for scientific or medical research reasons, and I understand concern about animal research, but it can help people. I believe that's how we got bald rodents too. They're interesting, but I do like fur.
I probably shouldn't even get into the debate over whether they are hybrids or not. I always thought of hybrids as having aproximately equal parts of 2 related species, but I think I was looking for this topic on the hybrid forum when I first heard about the critters. I was thinking of the proposed cure for cystic fibrosis in humans, which would involve grafting healthier genes onto a virus that would spilce the genes into the sick people when they breathe it in. Last I heard they had not tried it on any humans, but I was wondering if they could be called hybrids. I wouldn't say so, but that's a little different anyway. I think the genes they want to graft in are human, but maybe you would say the carrier virus is a hybrid with human genes. It's definitely wierd to think about, but I think practicing and studying this sort of thing will ultimately lead to real benefits as well as some fun side effects. Yes glofish are unnecesary, but so is ice cream, and everyone likes ice cream, according to a song I heard on a Sesame Street reccord.
/www.glofish.com
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