Have you ever looked at one of those optical illusions floating around the internet these days? If you look at the picture one way, you see a glamorous young woman wearing a hat. But if you look at it another way, you see an old hag with a crooked nose.
That‘s kind of how I felt the other day. I came across an article about how scientists have been able to restore color perception to color-blind monkeys. I‘m color blind, so I admit, the story piqued my interest.
According to Jay Neitz, the study‘s lead researcher, "The great challenge of finding a way to cure color blindness is solved. Now, the great problem is transforming this technology so it can be used on humans and be perfectly safe."
Wow! They found the cure for color blindness! Sounds amazing, doesn‘t it? Well, what about the flip side? Where‘s the old hag?
Sure enough. She was easy to spot.
You see, Dr. Neitz used gene therapy to "cure" the monkeys of their color-blindness. In fact, Neitz‘s team attached the missing gene to a virus and injected it into the monkeys‘ eyes.
And, voila, there was my "aha" moment looking at the illusion.
You see, gene therapy research scares the bejeezus out of me. There are many reasons why I‘m against it; none of which is remotely religious.
From a purely medical standpoint, I‘m extremely wary of this kind of genetic tinkering. And that‘s because unplanned side effects accompany every single genetic manipulation.
According to the article, the monkeys are "still alive" and doing well. But that hardly reassures me. I‘d rather have my (relatively severe) color-blindness any day of the week!
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