It’s taken a while, but Faces, the third book in the Masks of Aygrima triolgy, is coming out in audiobook firnat to join the audiobooks of the first two, Masks and Shadows. All are produced by Recorded …
I’m pleased to announce that I’m a finalist for two Aurora Awards this year. Star Song is a finalist for the Best Young Adult Novel Award, while my podcast, The Worldshapers, is a finalist, for …
Each of the past two years I’ve successfully Kickstarted an anthology featuring authors who were guests of my Aurora Award-winning podcast, The Worldshapers, where I talk to other science fiction and fantasy authors about the …
But even before that, I’m open to submissions for Shadowpaw Press’s Reprise imprint of rights-reverted, previously published books by authors who (like me) may have had novels or nonfiction orphaned by the collapse of one …
Shapers of Worlds Volume II, the anthology I Kickstarted earlier this year featuring short fiction by authors who were guests during the second year of my Aurora Award-winning podcast, The Worldshapers, is now available pretty …
Available directly from Shadowpaw Press or get it now from your favorite vendor! Read the first two chapters My newest novel is a young adult science fiction adventure in the style of Robert A. Heinlein and Andre Norton, …
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Genetic modification of large animals just got easier

Efforts to genetically modify large animals have been hindered by the fact that the two methods currently used to effect it, somatic cell nuclear transfer or pronuclear injection, are costly, inefficient, difficult, and carry a risk of producing abnormal offspring. Now researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine have successfully produced genetically modified mice and goats by transferring modified genetic information via a harmless virus to male reproductive cells, which then passed the modification on naturally to about 10 percent of the offspring. In other words, genetic modification via gene therapy.
Of course, using this technique on humans in combination with in-vitro fertilization and careful weeding of the resulting embryos in order to create a genetically modified super race with abilities surpassing normal humans’ would be completely illegal and unethical, and only a deranged science fiction writer such as myself whose next book features genetically modified humans would even think of it as a possibility.
So, no worries.
(Via PhysOrg.)
(Also posted to Futurismic.)
Permanent link to this article: https://edwardwillett.com/2007/09/genetic-modification-of-large-animals-just-got-easier/