A Holiday Feel Good Story

Has there ever been a more prescient work of art than that written by an eighteen year old maiden in 1815? The book laid out, in a vivid metaphorical fashion, the repercussions of mankind thinking it is possible to improve upon the Creator's handiwork. The name of the book, of course, was Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus.

"This may sound like science fiction, yet a new technique for making gelatin from human DNA is attracting “increasing interest from research and industrial circles”, according to a new study by scientists from the Beijing University of Chemical Technology. The paper, published recently in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, revealed that successful experiments had been carried out in which human genes were inserted into a strain of yeast to “grow” large amounts of recombinant (genetically engineered) human gelatin.

Gelatin has a long history of use as a gelling agent by the food industry – and, according to the journal’s publisher, the American Chemical Society, human-derived gelatin “could become a substitute for some of the 300,000 tons of animal-based gelatin produced annually for desserts, marshmallows, candy and innumerable other products”.

What could possibly go wrong?

Read more:       Chinese Scientists Make Gelatin Using Human DNA       The Telegraph