"The Seoul of Clones"

[ub4me]

Very interesting article.
Chopstick theory?

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[Cerb]

Nah, Chopstick theory doesn't cut it. Not that it has nothing to do with being able to become such great tech folks, but lack of religious idiots getting in the way has much more to do with it.

 

[Gigantopithecus]

Thanks for the link, it was a good read. I particularly agree with the way Korean labs are run vs. the way American/European labs are run. However, I believe the most significant factor contributing to their success is the complete lack of social pressure from the medieval-minded that faces American scientists. I've met more than a few brilliant biologists who simply won't go near stem cell research for fear of attracting the wrong type of attention.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

thanks for a great read!

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Not that it has nothing to do with being able to become such great tech folks, but lack of religious idiots getting in the way has much more to do with it.

100% Agreed.

 

[sonz70]

nvm

 

[maddogchen]

China also has strong stem-cell reseach programs. They also don't have the moral hindrance that we in the US do. They have the opposite. To them not having a boy is worse than abortion, or killing or leaving the unwanted girl. So in their culture, working with embryos is a good thing if in the future it will allow them to clone sons or have only boys.

edit: oh yeah I also forgot to mention that some Chinese scientists hope that cloning can save the Panda from the endangered species list. Since the Panda is a national symbol, they are looking into any way to save it.

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: The Pentium Guy

Not that it has nothing to do with being able to become such great tech folks, but lack of religious idiots getting in the way has much more to do with it.

100% Agreed.

 

[sonz70]

Originally posted by: maddogchen
China also has strong stem-cell reseach programs. They also don't have the moral hindrance that we in the US do. They have the opposite. To them not having a boy is worse than abortion, or killing or leaving the unwanted girl. So in their culture, working with embryos is a good thing if in the future it will allow them to clone sons or have only boys.

edit: oh yeah I also forgot to mention that some Chinese scientists hope that cloning can save the Panda from the endangered species list. Since the Panda is a national symbol, they are looking into any way to save it.

Another notch for china/SE Asia pouring more into Science

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: Cerb
Nah, Chopstick theory doesn't cut it. Not that it has nothing to do with being able to become such great tech folks, but lack of religious idiots getting in the way has much more to do with it.

er the very first reason under the 'Why' question was this.

 

[ailetlvo]

Originally posted by: maddogchen
China also has strong stem-cell reseach programs. They also don't have the moral hindrance that we in the US do. They have the opposite. To them not having a boy is worse than abortion, or killing or leaving the unwanted girl. So in their culture, working with embryos is a good thing if in the future it will allow them to clone sons or have only boys.

edit: oh yeah I also forgot to mention that some Chinese scientists hope that cloning can save the Panda from the endangered species list. Since the Panda is a national symbol, they are looking into any way to save it.

Let them have only boys...then their national population will drop tremendously within 50 years if they don't have females Though according to my friends the stigmata of having a daughter has worn off a lot and people don't care as much these days.

As for saving a Panda by cloning it...that still won't necessarily work. Undertaking such a task would be difficult because then you have to ensure the genetic diversity of the population itself. And I'm not sure how they will be able to modify the panda genome in a "natural" way.
Think of it like this:

Clone 10000 pandas. Great you just helped out the population like crazy. Now insert a single disease into the population that kills one of the pandas. The problem is since all are exactly identical by giving it the ability to kill one of the pandas you have now killed pretty much all of the pandas because genetically every single one of the same. You've now gone from 10,000 to 0 pandas. Just like how humans are 99.9% identical in the genome, Pandas are as well. But it is that .1%[outside for the parts that just code for exactly how we look like] that gives enough genetic diversity to where some people can be strong enough to survive diseases whereas others will perish (Though that is obviously not the only factor...getting medical care also improves your chances, especially when you follow it )