First there was footage of Sanger himself, hair long, dressed like a bum, walking between two guys in hazmat suits. He looked even worse than he had feared. The corporate flunky reading the news was mouthing all the buzzwords: Sanger wasunemployed . He was anuneducated drifter. He was afanatic and aloner who hadgenetic engineering materials in hiscramped, filthy apartment, and he was considereddangerous because he fit the classicbioterrorist profile.
Next, a bearded San Francisco lawyer from some environmental defense group said Sanger should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Sanger had caused irreparable harm to an endangered species, and had jeopardized the very existence of the species by his depredations.
Sanger frowned: what the hell was he talking about?
Next the TV showed a picture of a leatherback turtle and a map of Costa Rica. Now it seemed that authorities had been alerted to Sanger's activities because he had visited Tortuguero, on the Atlantic coast of Costa Rica, sometime before. And because he had madeserious threats to the environment regarding leatherback turtles.
Sanger couldn't follow this. He had never made any threats. He had wanted to help, that was all. And the fact was, once he got back to his apartment, he had been unable to carry out his plans. He bought stacks of genetics textbooks, but the whole thing was much too complicated. He opened the shortest of the texts and scanned some of the captions to graphics: "A plasmid harboring a normal LoxP has little chance of remaining integrated in a genome at a similar LoxP site since the Cre recombinase will eliminate the integrated DNA fragment..." "Lentiviral vectors injected into one-cell embryos or incubated with embryos from which zona pellucida was withdrawn were particularly..." "A more efficient way to replace a gene relies on the use of mutant ES cells devoid of the HPRT gene (hypoxanthine phosphoribosyl transferase). These cells cannot survive in the HAT medium, which contains hypoxanthine, aminopterine, and thymidine. The HPRT gene is introduced at the targeted site by a double homologous recombination..."
Sanger had stopped reading.
And now the TV screen showed turtles on the beach at night, glowing a weird purple color...and they thought that he had done that? The very idea was ridiculous. But a fascist state demanded blood for any transgression, real or imagined. Sanger could foresee himself thrown in jail for a crime he hadn't committed - a crime that he didn't even knowhow to commit.
New Transgenic Pets on Horizon
Giant Cockroaches, Permanent Pups
Artists, Industry Hard at Work
Yale-trained artist Lisa Hensley has joined forces with the genetic firm of Borger and Snodd Ltd. to create giant cockroaches to be sold as pets. The GM cockroaches will be three feet long and stand approximately one foot off the ground. "They will be the size of large dachshunds," says Hensley, "although of course they won't bark."
Hensley regards the pets as works of art, intended to raise human awareness of the insect community. "The overwhelming majority of living matter on our planet consists of insects," she said. "Yet we maintain an irrational prejudice against them. We should embrace our insect brethren. Kiss them. Love them."
She observed that "the real danger of global warming is that we may render so many insects extinct." Hensley acknowledged that she was inspired by the work of artist Catherine Chalmers (B.S. Engineering, Stanford University), whose project American Cockroach first elevated cockroaches to a major theme of contemporary art.
Meanwhile, in suburban New Jersey, the firm of Kumnick Genomics is hard at work creating an animal they believe dog owners really want: permanent puppies. "Kumnick's Perma-Puppies will never grow up," according to spokesperson Lyn Kumnick. "When you buy a PermaPuppy, it stays a puppy forever." The firm is working to eliminate unwanted puppy behavior, such as chewing shoes, which gets on dog owners' nerves. "Once the teeth are in, this behavior stops," Kumnick said. "Unfortunately, at this point our genetic interventions have prevented the growth of teeth altogether, but we'll solve that." She said that rumors they were going to market a toothless animal called a GummyDog were untrue.
Kumnick observes that since adulthood in human beings is being replaced by permanent adolescence, people naturally wish to be accompanied through life by similarly youthful dogs. "Like Peter Pan, we never want to grow up," she says. "Genetics makes it possible!"
CHapter 075
Still lost,now driving through very hilly terrain, Stan Milgram squinted at the road sign emerging from the darkness ahead.PALOMAR MOUNTAIN 37MILES. Where the hell was that? He had never realized California was so big. He had passed through a couple of towns a ways back, but at three in the morning everything was closed, including gas stations. And then he was once more in dark, empty countryside.
He should have brought a map.
Stan was exhausted, irritable, and he needed to pull over and sleep. But the damn bird would start shrieking as soon as he stopped the car.
Gerard had been silent for the last hour, but now, inexplicably, he began to make telephone dial tones. As if he were calling someone.
"Stop it, Gerard," Stan said.
And the bird stopped. At least for a moment. Stan was able to drive in silence. But of course it didn't last.
"I'm hungry," Gerard said.
"You and me both."
"You bring any chips?"
"The chips are gone." They had eaten the last of them, back in the town of Earp. An hour ago? Two hours ago?
"Nobody knows the trouble I've seen," Gerard said, humming.
"Don't do it," Stan warned.
"Nobody knows, 'cept Jesus..."