When Pigs fly? Pigs created with human genes
 

Right on ...

"In a step toward creating herds of pigs that could provide organs for transplanting into humans, Italian researchers manipulated swine sperm to make an animal strain that carries human genes in the heart, liver and kidneys..."

http://www.msnbc.com/news/824033.asp

Haven't they been working on this for quite a while already? I'm quite certain I heard about this over a year ago...

this is something that's been worked on (very intensely) for years.

i think it's great. it will certainly change medicine in a fundamental way.

I'm just waiting for them to be able to maufacture retroviruses designed for specific purposes. I think that will have even more of an impact on medicine than this.

well, this is common place (in a sense) already. i specialized in bacterial Genetics in University.

we used (for example) T4, a virus that infects bacteria - in order to introduce new genes into said bacteria, for a variety of reasons. otherwise known as a vector...

I know. However, it hasn't fully developed yet, and thus it hasn't reached it's full potential yet. I think that potential might make the invention of antibiotics seem like a minor detail in medical history.

I don't really know how to react to this? Should I be scared or relieved or what?

Herds of pigs with human hearts.. heheh

I guess it's a good thing so people can live a bit longer :)

certainly. though i don't think it will necessarily ever reach a total plateau of development.

what i can't wait for, is to have a mini-me cloned - but aged more quickly than myself (so it catches up) - minus a brain. living off life support, with all the organs/blood/skin/etc just waiting to be used.

oh, the ethical questions :glugglug

Ofcourse, they'll also have to create something for regeneration of nerves and brain cells. Those will most likely become the biggest problem on the way to immortality.