Vital Signs – Designer Babies

Bring your partner, grab a seat, pick up your baby catalog and start choosing.

Would you be comfortable selecting what cosmetic features you want your baby to have?

Will you go for the brown hair or blond? Would you prefer tall or short? Funny or clever? Girl or boy? And do you want them to be a muscle-bound sports hero? Or a slender and intelligent book worm?

When you’re done selecting, head to the counter and it’s time to start creating your new child.

Does this sound like a scary thought?

With rapid advances in scientific knowledge of the human genome and our increasing ability to modify and change genes, this scenario of “designing” your baby could well be possible in the near future.

Techniques of genetic screening are already being used — whereby embryos can be selected by sex and checked for certain disease-bearing genes. This can lead to either the termination of a pregnancy, or if analyzed at a pre-implantation stage when using In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), can enable the pregnancy to be created using only non-disease bearing genes.

British scientists last week developed a “genetic MoT” test, which offers a universal method of screening embryos for diseases using a new technique of karyomapping, which is more efficient than previous processes.

The test would be taken on a two-day-old IVF embryo and is yet to be validated, but it could mark a significant change; allowing doctors to screen for gene combinations that create higher risks of diabetes, heart disease or cancer.

Experts estimate the test, if licensed by the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority, could be available for around $3000.

In the future we may also be able to “cure” genetic diseases in embryos by replacing faulty sections of DNA with healthy DNA, in a process called germ line therapy. This has been performed on animal embryos but is currently illegal for humans.

Furthermore, the developing technologies of genetic alteration open up a whole new set of possibilities — which could result in so-called “designer babies.”

The technique — known as inheritable genetic modification — modifies genes in eggs, sperm or early embryos and results in the altered genes being passed on to future generations. Should parents be allowed to create their babies?

This could potentially irreversibly alter the human species. So, the obvious question arises: should we be doing this?

Some countries have made genetic screening or alteration illegal by law, and the ethical questions surrounding the uses of the technology are vast — creating a palpable tension over the subject.

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In September, Internet giants Google and Microsoft withdrew adverts for sex selection products and other services considered illegal in India when they were threatened with legal action.

The Center for Genetics and Society is trying to encourage debate on the topic — as soon as possible.

Executive director of the organization, Richard Hayes, told CNN that the general public of most countries was missing out on taking part in the debate.

“The debate has taken place amongst scientists and science journalists, but average people feel overwhelmed with the technical detail. They feel disempowered.”

Hayes said his organization supported the use of embryo screening to help prevent the passing on of serious diseases and disorders like Cystic Fibrosis, but is wary of other technologies and how genetic screening and alteration can be misused.

“We support the use of that to allow couples at risk to have healthy children. But for non-medical, cosmetic purposes, we believe this would undermine humanity and create a techno-eugenic rat race,” Hayes said.

He said there were immense amounts of resources being poured into developing gene altering techniques and no laws in many countries to stop them from starting clinics that could offer selected cosmetic traits.

“As technology advances it is possible that any number of human characteristics in part influenced by genes could come under human control. Right now there is an enormous amount of research being conducted to correlate specific genes with specific characteristics.”

One of the organizations researching genetic alteration is the University of California Irvine’s Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center.

Professor of biological chemistry and developmental and cell biology, and co-director of the Center, Peter Donovan, feels the research could have massive benefits.

After his team discovered a greatly improved method for genetically manipulating human embryonic stem cells earlier this year, Donovan said:

“The ability to generate large quantities of cells with altered genes opens the door to new research into many devastating disorders.

“Not only will it allow us to study diseases more in-depth, it also could be a key step in the successful development of future stem cell therapies,” Donovan

But according to Hayes the potential for misuse of this technology could have dire consequences for the human race.

“This runs many risks. It’s used in many countries to avoid the birth of female children.

“The technologies are going to be accessible to affluent couples and would be used in ways that could increase inequality. The last thing we need now is a genetic elite.

“This designing aspect would also lead to an objectification of children as commodities.”

Hayes said it was important that people began debating the issues now so the correct “rules, regulations and regulatory oversights” could be established before the technology was complete and accessible.

YOUTUBE – on Their Go to Movies.

NEW YORK — For months, YouTube has been making a pitch to Hollywood studios: Give us your films, and we’ll make you money.

The studios balked. Sure, they reasoned, YouTube had a massive audience of 74 million monthly users. But the Google- (GOOG, Fortune 500)owned site only wanted to give them a share of its ad revenues. It wasn’t offering them any money upfront.

Now Hollywood is warming up to the Internet’s top video site. On Monday, YouTube will announce an ad-revenue sharing deal with MGM – home of James Bond, the Pink Panther and Rocky – that will let the site show full-length movies for the first time from a major Hollywood studio.

Jordan Hoffner, YouTube’s head of content partnerships, called the agreement a “watershed moment’ for the company: “We are really happy about MGM. They have an incredible library.”

It’s easy to understand why YouTube is excited. Founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen want the site to be more than just a destination for clips of skateboarding dogs, experiments involving Mentos and Diet Coke and the occasional Simpson episode that needs to be taken down immediately because of copyright infringement.

After all, there are only so many ads YouTube can put into a short clip like “Tiger vs. Bear.” A feature-length film like “Rocky IV” has room from many more marketing messages.

The site is already showing full-length independent movies like “Harold Buttelman, Daredevil Stuntman.” Now YouTube can boast that it has the kind of big budget movies that people can watch on Hulu.com., News Corp (NWS, Fortune 500).’s partnership with NBC Universal. (GE, Fortune 500)

There’s only one catch. MGM – owned by an investor group led by Providence Equity Partners, Sony and Comcast (CMST) – will only be posting only a few of its 4,000 movies on YouTube at first.

“I don’t think you are going to be seeing a James Bond movie on YouTube,” said Jim Packer, MGM’s co-president of worldwide television. “That’s a very special franchise for us. We are very cautions about where we put those movies.”

He said MGM would offer lesser-known movies that aren’t as easy to sell to television networks and on DVD. Its initially plan is to share films it also shows on Impact, its video-on-demand cable partnership with Comcast devoted to action movies.

The first MGM movie to go up on YouTube will be a Lone Wolf McQuade, a Chuck Norris vehicle, “Bulletproof Monk,” starring Chow Yun-Fat.

Packer said MGM is also thinking about creating a special YouTube site for women to show films like “Fame” and television shows from its vault such as “Cagney & Lacey.”

The YouTube deal would enable MGM to both make money on such less-sought-after content and also promote its DVD and theatrical releases, according to Packer.

“YouTube has a lot of traffic,” he said. “It’s no different from being in Wal-Mart. You want to be in a store that has a lot of traffic.”

Hoffner says YouTube expects to reach similar agreements soon with other movie studios. He points out that the site already has content-sharing partnerships with television networks like CBS (CBS, Fortune 500), BBC Worldwide, Fox, Showtime and HBO.

“We’ve launched longer form content, and the monetization is really kicking in,” Hoffner says. “This is a good time to get a partner like MGM up and run

iCEphone: Quad band, two hinges, one cool phone

It is no surprise that the official slogan of the iCEphone is “the changing shape of mobile communications”. After all, it is common to see a mobile device that can fold out with one hinge, but this iCEphone has two hinges.

So, this three-sectioned phone is a four-in-one device. Not only is it a quadband 3G touchscreen cell phone, it is also a PDA with a QWERTY keyboard, a games console with a controller pad, and a GPS navigation system.

All of these features, except for the games console, are designed to help doctors. The iCEphone is billed as “the medical phone”, and it comes with on-board first aid software, medical history storage, and caller collect international emergency helpline.

Other features include two SIM slots as well as a slot for microSD. There is also Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a 3.1 megapixel camera.

I believe that this phone was originally designed for British military standards. I’m not certain how it ended up being billed as “a medical phone”, but I can see this phone being used by everybody. Who wouldn’t want to have all these features on their cellular phone, and I’m not even a doctor or a soldier.

My source nor the official site give a price on this item, which is a shame. I would like to know where to buy it, and how much it is.

LIFT Concept Car takes parking up

One of our present-day problems that will only get worse in the future is parking. There are only so many places to put cars in the big city. I’m not looking forward to the days when parking garages will be as high as the Empire State Building.

Maybe we can use the parking method seen in I, Robot. Remember the scene where Will Smith parks his car, and then a giant robot arm takes his car and parks his car in a futuristic rack full of cars?

There is similar option for parking in the future called the LIFT. As you can see, this three-wheeled car has a back wheel behind it that can connect to an overhead track. Now the car can be put in an out-of-the-way place.

As you can see, the car is only designed for one person, which of course brings up a separate issue entirely. I suppose one-person cars might take up less space on the road. Considering most people drive to work and don’t carpool, one-person vehicles actually make a lot of sense.

I am wondering if putting cars on railings is a feasible option to getting more parking space. If all these cars are in a row, how do you get one car out that is in the middle?

Well, we shall see. I’m not certain when this will be available. As you can see, these pictures look a little CG.