第三篇

The Gene Industry

Major companies are already in pursuit of commercial applications of the new biology .They dream of placing nxymse（酶）in the automobile to monitor exhaust nad send data om pollution to a microprocessor that will then adjust the engine .they speak of what the New York Time calls"metal-hungry microbse（微生物）that might be used to mine valuable trace metals from ocean water".They have already demanded and won the right to patent new liteforms .

Nervous critics,including many scientists,worry that there if corporate,national,international,and inter-scientific rivalry in the entire biotechnological field.They create images not of oil spills(溢出）,but of "microbe spills" that could spread disease and destroy entire populations,The creation and accidental release of extremely poisonous microbes,however,if only one cause for alarm.Completely rational and respectable scientists are talking about possibilities that stagger the imagination.

Should we breed people with cow-like stomachs so they can digest grass and hay ,thereby relieving the food problem by modifying us to eat lower down on the fod chain? should we biologically alter workers to fit the job requierement,for example,creating pilots with faster reaction times or assemblyline workers designed to do our monotonous work for us ?Should we attempt to eliminate"inferior"people and breed a "super-race"?(Hitler tried this ,but without the genetic weaponry that may soom issue form our fighiting?Should we use genetic forecasting to preeliminate "unfit" babies?Should we grow reserve organs for ourselves ,each of us having,as it were ,a "savings bank " full of spare kidney ,livers ,or hands?

Wild as thses notions may sound,every one has itd advocates (and opposers) in the scientific community as well as its striking commercial application.As two critics of genetic engineering, Jeremy Rifkin and Ted Howard