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Alyeris

Genetics is a strange strange thing...

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by
Alyeris
, June 10th, 2012 at 08:53 PM (3955 Views)
I was driving by a forest today, and commented to my friend in the passenger's seat about how fast the trees seemed to grow. His reply was:

"Of course they do, they are all genetically engineered for that."

... Hah?

I don't have anything against GE, but I didn't realise that it was so widespread in NZ. Heck, most people here have an allergic reaction to the G word. From what my friend said, the trees are engineered to grow faster, straighter, and resist disease. The various harvesting companies also plant 15 million new saplings a year.

... Why do I suddenly have an image in my head of the trees suddenly ripping themselves out of the earth to attack humanity?
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Comments

  1. Mike1984's Avatar
    Yeah, if you planted trees like that over here, people would go absolutely nuts.
  2. Fingolfin's Avatar
    There's a movie about this, you know. Origin's something (I don't remember the name that well) where they made some fancy genetically engineered trees on the moon, that then proceeded to destroy said moon and bring forth the apocalypse. Don't worry, humanity survived. Technology just kind of died off, as the world was consumed by forestation.
  3. Neir's Avatar
    You know, selective breeding is also genetic engineering.
  4. Lianru's Avatar
    People don't ever like to think that we've been genetically engineering since, like, forever.
  5. Mike1984's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Neir
    You know, selective breeding is also genetic engineering.
    Yeah, in a sense, but it doesn't have the same "ohh, scary people in lab coats are making two-headed fish" feel to it....