Ridecamp: Re: [RC] Bioengineered Endurance Athletes?

In the Scientific American in 2000, it stated that while the muscle 
tissue could be manipulated the result might be (in the sprinter case) 
muscles that would rip the connective tissue to shreds. I am sure there 
are drawbacks with going the other way also.

So yes while we a verging on a "brave new world," I'm not sure we will 
see much impact in our lifetime.

An interesting aside. Ted Williams recently died. He lives in FL not too 
far form me so we have been seeing this soap opera being played out in 
our local paper. It seems his son had convinced him he should be frozen 
( he has specified cremation in his will ) so that some day he could be 
cloned. Ted Williams was the last truly great hitter in baseball. The 
last person the bat 400, and if he hadn't have gone into the WWII during 
his prime he would have most likely rewritten the record book. So he 
left a handwritten note saying he wanted to be freeze dried instead of 
cremated. Well a judge has verified that the writing is really Ted 
Williams so it seems he will be frozen.

But as one scientist pointed out that to clone the ability of Williams 
to hit a baseball, there is much more to it than one single gene. There 
is the eye hand coordination, the eyesight, the work ethic to keep 
hitting baseballs long after everyone else has gone to the showers. Much 
of this work ethic is as much environmental as genetic. So we probably 
won't be seeing an more Ted Williams anytime soon was his conclusion.

Truman

Lif Strand wrote:

> At 02:07 AM 8/19/02, Lynne Glazer wrote:
>
> > Spiegelman cautions that there is still five to 10 years of work to 
> > be done before PGC-1 based treatments will be available.
>
>
> If this actually is the wave of the future, that's 10 - 15 years of 
> endurance as we know it, allowing for the fact that a transgenetic 
> horse would have to have the gene manipulation done at the egg level.  
> I guess that also means I'll never be a transgenetic athlete!
>
> And this might call for another *rule* (yippee)!  AERC board of 
> directors better consider whether transgenetic horses would be allowed 
> to compete in endurance rides.  Or maybe we should have a separate 
> division.  Just think - LDs that would routinely be over in less than 
> an hour (we could finally get TV coverage and get into the Olympics)!  
> Cutoff times for 100 milers of 5 hours (that allows for a one hour vet 
> check in the middle).  No more need for overnight camping!  The 
> benefits of PCG-1 are just mind boggling!!
>
> I better stop breeding right now and wait till I can create my own 
> transgenetic super athlete horses, because all of what I now could 
> produce will just be old slow pokes and we all know that faster is 
> better.
>
> Hmmm.  Wonder what will happen to those non-transgenetic bones and 
> ligaments the new super athlete horses will have?
>        _________________________________________________
>                               Lif Strand * Quemado NM USA
>           STRAND ENTERPRISES * www.fasterhorses.com
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