LEGO Genetics: Difference between revisions
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* A good number of modern [[
* Has happened both ways when [[Marvel Comics]] mutants have lost their powers. Sometimes they transform to human; sometimes they keep physical changes such as a tail or wings. But then, most lost their powers when a powerful [[Reality Warper|reality-warping]] [[Scarlet Witch]] said "No more mutants..." and the results varied even then: some become completely human, some retain their altered appearance but have no powers, and a few who had physical mutations that disagree with the laws of physics lost [[Required Secondary Powers|whatever made it work before]]. (A long-necked woman's neck snapped and killed her, Chamber's "energy furnace" disappeared, leaving him without multiple internal organs, a [[Giant Flyer]] fell from the sky.)
* All over the place in ''[[Ultimate Marvel]]''. Most ridiculously, [[The Wasp]] once injected herself with a genetic [[Super Serum]] and within ''seconds'' gained the ability to grow 60 feet tall.
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* In [[Orson Scott Card]]'s ''Alvin Maker'' series, at one point young Arthur Stuart, the child of a runaway slave, is being tracked so his owner can reclaim him. The trackers are using magical ability to follow him via his genetic code: they have a lock of his hair, and this allows them to find him anywhere. Alvin's solution? He ''rewrites Arthur's entire DNA so it doesn't match the sample. By concentrating really hard.'' To get around the problem of Arthur's cells dying too quickly to be replaced, he dunks the kid in a river and then "orders" all the cells to adopt the new DNA simultaneously. The only negative effect this has on Arthur is that he loses his ability to mimic others' voices perfectly.
** Mind you, in some ways, this is more acceptable than many other examples. Alvin picks a few spots in Arthur's DNA and changes them to match his own, rather than make random changes or try to give him frog DNA or something. And this doesn't magically give Arthur Alvin's not-inconsiderable range of powers, either, which is a miracle in and of itself given the rest of this page.
* Octavia Butler's ''Lilith's Brood'' trilogy is centered around the Oankali, an alien race that is capable of probing and sequencing genes on an instinctual level and that flies around the galaxy engaging in "trade" of gene
* The CDF's genetically engineered [[Super Soldier]] bodies in ''[[Old Man's War]]'' are stated to blend DNA from a variety of sources, including aliens. However the mixture of genes makes them all sterile, which may have been intentional as it gives recruits an incentive to defend humanity instead of trying to replace it.
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** The explanation for all these abilities (and the driving force behind most of the plot points) is Rapture's form of [[Unobtainium]], ADAM. Its exact functions are unclear, but it makes the Little Sisters (who produce ADAM via a sea slug implanted in their guts...yeah) virtually invincible, as any wound they sustain is healed almost instantly by [[Healing Factor|accelerated cell division.]] It is also what allows gene splicing by injection, and is apparently very addictive.
* ''[[Impossible Creatures]]'' is based pretty much entirely on this trope, and aptly named.
* Becomes a major plot point (with a twist) in ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]] IV''. The [[Big Bad
* Used slightly believably in ''[[Crusader: No Remorse]]'', where a [[Mad Scientist]] explains to you that the "new generation" of [[Super Soldier|Silencers]] does not have the Silencer's "fatal flaw" (that being something vaguely approximating a conscience). Depending on how much understanding of genetics human science acquires this may not be entirely implausible.
* A much older game with a similar premise to Spore, ''EVO: The Search for Eden'', runs on this trope. Every time you add or remove a part, the change is done instantly. This can be exploitable in boss battles by changing one's neck from short to long or vice-versa whenever you get low on health, completely refilling your health. The neck is the cheapest part to change, but you can substitute any part and do the same thing.
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** Therefore, an odd physical trait in a domestic dog tends to result from one mutation with a large effect, rather than the accumulation of many genes with small effects seen in the wild.
** This is made all the more remarkable when we remember that the genetic engineering techniques used here were of the oldest variety known to humanity.
* Modifications that work on the chemical level ''do'' have lego characteristics. Most prominent would be the coding of fluorescent proteins derived from jellyfish, inserted into the DNA of various animals as advanced as mammals and actually
** [http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9833107-7.html Glow In The Dark Cats], anyone?
*** However, note also that this is a logistical problem, not a genetics or physics issue. There's nothing physically impossible about taking an adult organism, and going through every one of its cells one by one, making the same change in them all. We "just" don't have the technology to do so while not killing them, not missing any, and doing it all fast enough to outrun and overtake the continual introduction of new cells. Of course, even if you did manage to do so, there's no telling what would result from applying the "new" chemistry to the "old" existing structures, the end result may still be very different from having made that same genetic change at the single-cell stage, or even a few years, days, or even hours earlier or later in the creature's life cycle.
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** Completely synthetic DNA has now been made, it just needs to be injected in a microbe to kick-start it. It's more complicated than that of course, but it's ''awesome''.
* Grad students modified E. coli to [http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/life_sciences/report-74702.html smell like mint.]
* Bacteria, being basically protein-producing sacks of cytoplasm, don't have to deal with the complexities of large-scale structures in their bodies. Not only can they be artificially injected with entirely foreign DNA to produce new proteins and behave in new ways (like producing human insulin or eating oil slicks), but they regularly drop bits of their own DNA and pick up bits that were left behind by other bacteria as part of their natural life cycle. That includes bits dropped by other species - in fact, the typical definition of "species" doesn't really apply to bacteria at all, since they all have the ability to take bits and pieces of each other, the entire bacterial ecosystem is more of a loosely-bound genetic "marketplace" with
** This "horizontal gene transfer" ability can cause significant problems in the battle of humans against dangerous bacteria - for instance, if you use too many antibiotic medicines when you don't need them, you could put pressure on the harmless, symbiotic bacteria living in your body to become immune to them. Not too much of a problem on its own - but if a dangerous bacterium ends up in there later, the dangerous bacterial strain will sometimes grab the "immunity gene" from the harmless bacteria already living in your body and become a drug-resistant pathogen from the start.
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