It might not be grounds for a great theory but after recently watching the 2003 movie 'Hulk' I began wondering about a particular scene.In it the character David Banner played by Nick Nolte performs an experiement upon himself by exposing himself to a massive gamma ray.
After the experiment he finds that he can absorb the properties of anything he touches:metal,stone,water even electricity.
Would there actually be a way of manipulating your genetic code (or genome) so that you could actually take on the form of something else?
Perhaps this is a good question for any molecular(?) scientists out there.
Oh by the way,even if it were possible, I wouldn't actually do it,I just thought the whole idea was interesting that's all.
After the experiment he finds that he can absorb the properties of anything he touches:metal,stone,water even electricity.
Would there actually be a way of manipulating your genetic code (or genome) so that you could actually take on the form of something else?
Perhaps this is a good question for any molecular(?) scientists out there.
Oh by the way,even if it were possible, I wouldn't actually do it,I just thought the whole idea was interesting that's all.
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it is possible to DAMAGE you genetic code by exposing it to radiation. so far all such changes have been 99.999% lethal cancerous changes. Some small changes like eye color proved to be non-lethal and inheritable, a "stable mutation" or change to the genetic code, but nothing useful has been found so far.
The analogy I learned was that to successfully alter the DNA of a subject with exposure to radiation is like cutting up an entire copy of the works of Shakespeare into individual letters, tossing them up in the air and having a fan blow them into the exact same plays and sonnets with one particular line changed from the present tense to the past tense and one other corresponding line changing from singular to plural subjects.
However, having said that, scientists have been able to splice DNA, make changes, and even create from scratch entire strands of living self replicating DNA, so "changing your genetic code" IS on the horizon... it just doesn't involve blasts of radiation and random mutations. Genetic Engineering is very much the science of the future.
Would there actually be a way of manipulating your genetic code (or genome) so that you could actually take on the form of something else? -- no, never
The analogy I learned was that to successfully alter the DNA of a subject with exposure to radiation is like cutting up an entire copy of the works of Shakespeare into individual letters, tossing them up in the air and having a fan blow them into the exact same plays and sonnets with one particular line changed from the present tense to the past tense and one other corresponding line changing from singular to plural subjects.
However, having said that, scientists have been able to splice DNA, make changes, and even create from scratch entire strands of living self replicating DNA, so "changing your genetic code" IS on the horizon... it just doesn't involve blasts of radiation and random mutations. Genetic Engineering is very much the science of the future.
Would there actually be a way of manipulating your genetic code (or genome) so that you could actually take on the form of something else? -- no, never