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Headlines like this remind me of how little is known about the human body. It makes me question the medicine field as a whole. I hope one of the next tech boom

Headlines like this remind me of how little is known about the human body. It makes me question the medicine field as a whole. I hope one of the next tech booms will be bio hacking. Once bio hacking components are accessible and commercially available, who knows what will be possible. I find it incredible the human biology can make super accurate, specific, and precise components.

calamari4065 3y ago
I think about this all the time. There's a very good reason we call cellular processes molecular machines. Your cells are filled with molecular machines that assemble proteins one molecule at a time. Your cells can synthesize any protein and lots of other molecules besides. It's not unreasonable to think that we could somehow insert RNA into cells to have them produce medication locally. Or introduce and engineered cell that produces highly specific molecular machines that break down insulin or toxins or repair nerves or all sorts of things. SciFi authors have been writing for ages about nanobot cultures in your body maintaining your health and physique, modifying the endocrine system, all sorts of things. It's becoming more and more clear to me that these nanobots will most likely not be artificial mechanical machines, but purely biological molecular machines produced and controlled by engineered cells. When you get down to it, RNA in itself is an absolutely incredible machine. RNA can be formed into structures like proteins that do work on other molecules. RNA can build a machine out of RNA that builds copies of itself! Biology is just insane on the atomic to molecular scale. Plants manipulate individual protons during photosynthesis! There's a whole active mechanism with rotating parts that pump protons across a membrane. It's incredible that biology can do things like this, and we're only just scratching the surface of what's possible. Very soon we'll be able to start engineering these molecular machines. The possibilities are nearly endless. How about a self-replicating enzyme that breaks down plastics? Release it into the oceans and eliminate microplastic pollution. Enzymes that convert oils and lipids into hydrocarbon fuel. Maybe we could even produce bacteria that fix CO2 into something inert. When we gain the ability to manipulate matter on this scale, a whole lot of absolutely incredible things suddenly become easy
- InSteady 3y ago
  One terrifying prospect of this idea of using molecular machinery to produce any protein is we could inadvertently fuck up and end up producing prions. Not that it's not a super cool idea worth exploring, but still, this stuff is mind-blowingly complex and we surely have a LOT to learn.

calamari4065 3y ago

I think about this all the time. There's a very good reason we call cellular processes molecular machines. Your cells are filled with molecular machines that assemble proteins one molecule at a time. Your cells can synthesize any protein and lots of other molecules besides. It's not unreasonable to think that we could somehow insert RNA into cells to have them produce medication locally. Or introduce and engineered cell that produces highly specific molecular machines that break down insulin or toxins or repair nerves or all sorts of things. SciFi authors have been writing for ages about nanobot cultures in your body maintaining your health and physique, modifying the endocrine system, all sorts of things. It's becoming more and more clear to me that these nanobots will most likely not be artificial mechanical machines, but purely biological molecular machines produced and controlled by engineered cells. When you get down to it, RNA in itself is an absolutely incredible machine. RNA can be formed into structures like proteins that do work on other molecules. RNA can build a machine out of RNA that builds copies of itself! Biology is just insane on the atomic to molecular scale. Plants manipulate individual protons during photosynthesis! There's a whole active mechanism with rotating parts that pump protons across a membrane. It's incredible that biology can do things like this, and we're only just scratching the surface of what's possible. Very soon we'll be able to start engineering these molecular machines. The possibilities are nearly endless. How about a self-replicating enzyme that breaks down plastics? Release it into the oceans and eliminate microplastic pollution. Enzymes that convert oils and lipids into hydrocarbon fuel. Maybe we could even produce bacteria that fix CO2 into something inert. When we gain the ability to manipulate matter on this scale, a whole lot of absolutely incredible things suddenly become easy

InSteady 3y ago
One terrifying prospect of this idea of using molecular machinery to produce any protein is we could inadvertently fuck up and end up producing prions. Not that it's not a super cool idea worth exploring, but still, this stuff is mind-blowingly complex and we surely have a LOT to learn.