Ignite talk on Cloning Einstein
Recently, i gave a talk in Ignite Chennai. The idea of Ignite is , if you are given 5 minutes and just 20 slides, What would you say? The idea is to present ideas concisely and briefly and ignite thoughts in the minds of listeners. In Chennai, this is the first ignite that is held and was conducted by Thoughtworks, the company where i currently work on. This is article is derived from the talk that i gave there.
Just to arouse the curiosity of the listeners, i decided to name it as “How would it be to clone Einstein”. In-fact, When people talk about cloning, what immediately flashes in human brain is cloning an individual. After all, even Time magazine has run more than 3 covers advertising the same conception. The irony is thescience of cloning is not just creating an identical copy of human beings, but a lot more.
Cloning can be broadly classified into two groups, Reproductive Cloning and Therapeutical Cloning. Reproductive cloning is concerned more about creating identical copies of an organism and this is the most common type of cloning that we hear in news, like Dolly the Sheep and the Interp. Ibex. The less known type of cloning is Therapeutical Cloning which has a lot of tricks up the sleeve that can increase the longevity of an individual.
Reproductive Cloning is a very imperfect science(link to xkcd comic) and it might take many generations to reach perfection. Instead, what Therapeutical Cloning concerns itself is with whatever we have in hand, how can we put it to benefit of the human society. Stem cell research is one such branch of cloning which concerns itself on organ replacement.
When a tree’s branch is cut down, The tree has a unique ability to grow the same kind of part, in this case leaves to serve the same function(photosynthesis). Given that a plant can re-create a cut down part by creating a re-placement to satisfy the function is something the ‘things’ in animal kingdom(i mean most of them, there are some animals which grow after a part is cut) lack. Stem cell research tries to get a solution for this. In this case, it just does not limit itself to external visible parts such as hands or legs.
Stem Cell Research attempts to fix this gap by using highly replicable cells such as the embryonic cells and cells from bone marrow. This is a lot different as we create only parts of the human body to aid the longevity. For example, a person with a defective heart or blood cancer could use the help of Stem Cells to heal the heart or blood cancer. Its a elixir which could save the life of countless ailing people, only that this time its from scientists and not from monks.
Recent Statistics point out that there are more than 153,000 deaths every day and the global life expectancy is put at 70 years around the globe. But not all who people die are 70 years old. Coupled to this is the fact that average life expectancy is decreasing owing to our increasingly bad lifestyle. Of course, Stem cell research will not solve all the healthcare problems that face us, but could at-least help someway or the other.
