I know this is only related by atomic bombs, but I still think it's stupid. The Geneva Convention outlaws killing innocent civilians, torturing them, etc, basically being evil. It outlaws tear and mustard gas because they horrible. But it doesn't outlaw *bombs that destroyed two Japanese cities and can create no-life zones for years* Not only that! But those were the prototypes! We have even stronger and even more devastating ones now. They also 1. Harm innocent people and 2. Can cause radiation mutations/DNA defects. Which is _horrible_ to people who have to suffer them. How are they not outlawed already?
@@hazeltree7738 , because it is unnecesary thanks to mutually Assured destruction and even if they were outlawed it is unlikely that they really would be disposed of
You know there is a way too make captain America real but he won’t have super powers there is a steal of some kinde that is really hard so there you go you can planet find this in some places
Being a super villain sounds better than being hero tbh. You can actually do more good , and you dont have to listen to stupid people who want to stop you in doing good to humanity and getting what you actually deserve from life and existence.
@@becausescience I can do three pullups. I mean not all at once, but give me a few weeks and I can do them. You never specified a timescale there, Kyle. That's bad science. :p
My favorite interview Stan Lee ever did was the one where he explained why he came up with Mutants. His reasoning behind it was that he couldn't "shoot everybody with gamma radiation or radioactive spider bites", so, he thought "what if it was just a mutation?" That way he could just come up with whatever he wanted, and when asked how the new people got those powers: mutation.
That's creative but tbh I've never liked that explanation for how some of the mutants get their powers. Like how does someone end up a gene mutation that allows them to control the weather? I feel like for powers like that magical or spiritual explanations are better
@@enzocirnigliaro8956 I dunno, it could be a story point behind it. Storm was considered a goddess from where she came from, and does often title herself as "Storm, Mistress of the Elements" which I find badass But aye, I agree with you. Always confused by it too
I wouldn’t call Dr. Halsey a supervillain. Sure she’s kinda crazy and the Spartan program was *super* illegal, but she wasn’t a villain. That and the program that made Captain America are like the two counter example I have.
@@aaronself2411 While there are worse things than a zombie apocalypse, that's about the limit of what genetic engineering can do. Genetic engineering isn't going to cause constant reruns of the Star Wars Holiday Special on all channels.
My favorite super serum is the one they used during the Blitzkrieg in WW2. They just gave all of the German troops methamphetamine tablets to take when they started feeling fatigued. This allowed them to overthrow France by attacking/advancing for 3 days and 3 nights straight. I also realize it isn't really a serum, since it was distributed in tablet form.... but you get my meaning I'm sure. Also great episode Kyle! If I could tweak my DNA I wish I could change my hair color with it.
That was not a serum, it was a drug that stopped them to feel fatigued, not making them immune to fatigue. That's why many of them died after the war, some of them got 'the bad diseases' and the rest lived with a bad health. You see even if hitler had won the war, there hadn't been anyone to live in his 'world of pure Aryan race'.
@@becausescience Blue is really hard to make in nature, would you have to carve the keratin in your hair to be like butterfly wings? What actually about the pink, like flamingo feathers so eat a lot of shrimp?
At Valley College, I once had a biology professor who told the class that: "Right now, all of you have a parasite living in your body that cares only about one thing: its own survival. Whether that's by getting the sugars it needs to continue its existence, or by ensuring its reproduction and replication, it controls and overrides your every decision in life. It's called your DNA. That's why we crave sugar and sweet things so much, because sugars make up the backbone of its molecule. That's why the urge to have sex and reproduce is so strong, because this selfish bastard wants to make sure it survives into eternity." This was the same professor who told us the joke that "Love may die, but herpes is eternal."
9:22 I'm pretty sure that was the same professor whom I asked "What would happen if you were to eat ATP, and what does it taste like?" He was completely flummoxed, but intensely intrigued, by those questions, responding "Huh. I don't know. Well, of course, you'd need to produce a whole heck of a lot of it in order to get a big enough sample to be able to taste it, but...huh. Those are some very good questions. I don't actually know the answers. I mean, when you ingest things, their chemical structures do change in your stomach via digestive processes...I'm gonna have to get back to you on that." Never did hear an answer to either question. C'est un enseignement supérieur.
Most people never train a day in their lives causing musclular atrophy, relying only on their genetic muscle density potential. (Body Type). The more you use a muscle the stronger it becomes within reason.
Wait, you're telling me it doesn't mean B**l S**t? Oh.... "Because Science"... wow I really should have figured that out sooner. I should have realized as much after Tay Sem literally spelled it out for me however I recently replaced the majority of my grey matter with malted hops and bong resin. Say "ON" to drugs kids with dyslexia
when I was younger I was weaker and asked my uncle how to get stronger.. he said get in a row boat... and row it backwards. keep doing this until it is as easy as going backwards as it is going forward
So with gene therapy I could potentially: Make my skin harder? Make my memory better? Make myself faster? Maybe even stronger? In other words I could be. Harder, better, faster, stronger?
Loved this episode! In AP Chemistry in 11th grade we got to research a project of our choice after the AP exam. I chose gene therapy using retroviruses as vectors. Still so glad I did that.
As someone who has to take thyroid pills everyday just to "feel normal", I look forward to the day I no longer have to. My hypothyroidism is caused by lack of Iodine in my body but the flip side is I'm allergic to Iodine. Yeah my life is a double edged sword!
I pray for your survival, a better life for you and for you to live in peace and harmony with your body.. That you and your body are "whole" and not need anything to "keep it in check". 🙏🏻
Hold up, how are you allergic to a particular type of atom (iodine)? Aren’t allergic reactions usually to molecules that share traits with proteins associated with parasitic infections?
Rather than altering Cap's DNA, or in addition to altering his DNA, could the super serum have worked by inducing a second puberty in him? For a male subject, the effects of the super serum would be nigh identical to a second puberty (bone growth, increase in muscle mass, permanent increase of testosterone production to maintain muscle mass) and would be using a well-documented and understood natural process to achieve the desired effect, rather than (or in addition to) risky, experimental DNA alteration. It would also have the side effect of giving Cap bigger.....uh.....you know what, that's neither here nor there.
They'd turn into a bodybuilder big foot, not a super soldier. Shit ton of body hair, excessively deep voice, copious body odor, and yes bulkier muscles. They'd be slow, strong, and require a whole lot of food. Using that method would be very unwise as you're basically just brute forcing the process with little to no control over the actual effects of the treatment. It'd get out of hand easily and would be ineffective by comparison.
@@ProtoPerson First, I'd disagree with "slow". Was 13 year old you faster than 19 year old you? I doubt it. Second, "requires a whole lot of food" might be a given no matter what you do, seeing as Cap has a very fast metabolism. Third, in order for the super serum treatment to work there's going to need to be a lot of hormones and other biochemicals in Cap's body (and in the right parts of his body at that); you can either inject them or stimulate various glands to generate them. If you take the latter route, which would make it easier to get them in the right parts of his body, it may as well be a second puberty.
@@markcochrane9523 In additional support to your points, I would add that body types and metabolic levels vary wildly. I've personally seen people who were relatively stocky end up quite wiry after puberty due to various changes. Bulk is most certainly *not* guaranteed by a "secondary puberty".
@@ProtoPerson also I can't help but think that the hormones required to cause such a change could absolutely have a negative impact on the psyche of the individual do you want to accidentally create neanderthals fueled solely by their Instinct and testosterone lol
You have no idea how excited this makes me. I have the biggest smile on my face right now! I still want the super powers, but I’m damn happy with gene therapy fixing diseases!
5:12 - "...organisms without this protein can get pretty beefy. For example, the Belgian Blue cow..." Yeah... I think you're the only one losing points here. Either that, or losing your hearing.
cscarecrow Hey there! Is it hard to get that job? I always wondered. Also, how much training and time does it take until you can start working? How hard is it? Sorry for the nonsense questions, I’m an computer engineer, I don’t really know much about human genome.
@@valentinpopescu98 Hi! Well as you may expect it takes years of learning, personally I have an MSC in molecular biotechnology, I'm a Ph.D. student and I have still a lot to learn after almost 5-6 years I'm into it. To start really undestanding what you are doing you'll need 1-2 years at least... It is not that hard to practice genome editing in vitro but to translate the same experiment in vivo you need A LOT of optimization (also years) and you also never know if your changes will be compatible with life itself... I don't want to be negative but it is very complex and challenging, but that's also the beauty of it :)
Can you make me a super serum? I dont care about the ethics, I'll sign wavers and everything! Also if you change my dna do i need a new drivers license? Would i be legally a different person?
@@jeffreymoffitt4070I could easily make a serum which super kills you :D... However, I don't think there is a way to change enough of your DNA to make you a different you, in best cases, it will change less than 1% of the DNA of some million of your cells, nothing that will stop you to be identified for a crime ;)
Would it be possible to make a real dragon by getting the gene “chiroptera” from bats (the gene for bat wings) and then doing CRISPR gene editing on a Komodo dragon to create the wings or get the structure?
You have no idea how great this is. I live with Friedrich ataxia and thought things like this were impossible. Thank you for spreading their word man. I honestly love your channel
@nuovoaccount998 well actually I haven't been diagnosed in all the years friedrichs is a blanket term. But its a hereditary disease that none of my family memver have found out what it is. I've been to ucla. And they don't know what it is either
T-cells aren't viruses. they are specific cells that are created as part of your immune response in your body. and the "harmless" virusses would be the empty shells of virusses filled with the DNA (or RNA) you want to get into the cell instead of the original virus-DNA
Hey Kyle, I just finished up my final today for my first semester of college genetics, and for the first time, I just about knew every single thing you were talking about in this video!
Hey Kyle!! If you see my comment i want to thank you for this show. Im having a lot of fun and learning so much. Thank you again for what youre doing:3
I wonder what would happen if we used super serums in astronauts instead of just soldiers. How would it affect the astronaut's living conditions inside and outside of space? Do you think we'd have more people diving into space exploration because of this?
It could certainly be beneficial, off-setting the loss of bone density caused by living in a micro-gravity environment. That would make all manner of work outside our atmosphere easier to accomplish.
But I think this has a disadvantage. Astronauts thats been in the ISS describe their job as the laziest job (Cant remember the astronaut who said it) and they need to work out just to make themselves healthy and keep their limbs from becoming jelly when theyre back here on Earth. So making them adapt to absence of gravity (like treating the loss of bone density), there would be complications when they get back to Earth.
There also was a muscle baby in Germany some years ago who was ripped as a toddler. Since it was a child, his identity was kept anonymous, and I don't think it has been revealed what became of him as he grew older.
sitting here just clicking on this for entertainment thinking you're never gonna deliver what the title says, when all of a sudden you actually do deliver!
Hey Kyle, love the show! Always learning something new. Seems we share a favorite super hero. On the topic of genetics and such. The Captain was given a serum and he became who he is, yes? I recall a moment while he is drinking, he says his metabolism is so high he can't get drunk. Shouldn't he always be snacking on something with a metabolism high enough to not get drunk?
More to the point: better hope he never needs medications like painkillers or blood thinners, or really any medications at all, since the body identifies those as toxins (substances which affect the body's function & are not naturally present [endogenous]), and metabolizes most, if not all of them, through the liver. If Cap's liver breaks down toxins faster (google Cytochrome P450, for instance), he'd have a hard time reaching the therapeutic dose on stuff like tylenol, theophylline, or antibiotics
As to snacking...that's more digestion than toxin processing, and is modulated by everything from how long food takes to pass thru, and how much your body needs at that moment. But yes, for faster healing, etc., I would expect him to eat more than a normal adult - maybe more like a hungry teenager
Things the we could have gotten: Cat-people Badass Robodogs Easily cloned meat Nuclear defences The ultimate foodstuff Cyborg enhancements Immortality *Bee Launcher*
Because you wouldn't wanna die from a failed genetic enhancement. Because there can be side effects. These things require trials and errors to be perfected. The errors, the human lives that can be forgotten or ignored or silenced by breaking the limits of the ethics behind this will not be justified. With empathy in mind, you don't want to be a thrown away experiment gone wrong. Even if you lived after that failure you'll live with it and its burdens. What if that super serum causes you to lose half your brain function? Will you wanna live your life in a vegetative state? These are the questions we need to ask ourselves when venturing to the unknown
Aside from failed genetic enhancement, you should fear the rise of actual villains. Remember the monsters grown out of normal people, the ones that killed millions of people ( i.e. Hitler ) . Take a psychological unstable person, give him super powers and then... well. f***. Morally compelled people are not so easy to find.
Kyle - There are two things you missed and/or glossed over. First of all, we wouldn't necessarily need to do gene replacement, as many of the genes we have will give you the desired results if you just override which genes are on or off. Unlike swapping out the genes, by just controlling which genes are active when, you can fine tune the results you seek. Granted, this means you'll need to work with people who's genetic code is closer to the ideal. But we have done this. There is a drug to help the fight against obesity right now that changes the expression of the PPAR-delta gene. This gene controls if a muscle is either slow twitch (like what weight lifters use) or fast twitch (like what runners use). The drug (which has been tested on very small samples of humans) gave the subjects the kind and types of muscles seen in long distance runners, which, in turn, allowed the subjects to lose a lot of weight. And it didn't swap out the genes. Because of this, it also avoided a lot of the issues with gene replacement therapies. (Let's just say CRISPR isn't 100% accurate when swapping genes.) The second thing is the ethics. You glossed over the ethics by simply saying "If it's to make super humans, we shouldn't do it. But we should do it if it's to save lives." But you didn't explain why, and that why is super important. The first obvious point of ethics in gene editing is the risk. Like I said in the previous paragraph, CRISPR and other gene editing techniques aren't 100% accurate. Most of the times they fail, they don't make any alterations. But, they do sometimes make an alteration to a location at a spot other than the intended sequence. Can you imagine what would happen if you were trying to swap out the genes that controlled red blood cell production in bone marrow, only to have your genes loaded in the middle of the genes that code for the production of proteins for cell walls? You would go from having a low healthy red blood cell count to having a high count of unhealthy red blood cells. These risks are too much for a healthy individual who's just looking to get ripped, but why they are acceptable for people with diseases like cancers (cus there's more than just one kind), Sickle Cell Anemia, Multiple Sclerosis, Cystic Fibrosis, etc. Can you imagine making a drug that gives the user "swole gains now", but using these new beefcakes ends up breaking bones or ripping up the body. (And, yes, those are two real medical issues documented. Luckily, most of those are usually genetic aberrations.) That's why the researcher in China who made the AIDS resistant twins is in so much hot water. His alterations could have potentially introduced life threatening or life disabling changes to the twins. (He got very lucky that it looks like the children are healthy.) Another ethical aspects centers around the repercussions for society these superhumans could have. The researchers working on the PPAR-delta drug found one of the side effects of the drugs is that it makes runners able to run faster for longer. This is ideal for a long distance runner who wants to be able to outrun his competition. The researchers working on the drug recognized this potential for abuse (one of them, I believe, is a long distance runner), and are delaying releasing the drug until they can address all of the issues. (Not just the safety issues.)
And then there was the whole, "rapidly caused cancer in several organs in mice and rats when given a dosage of 3mg/kg per day. Also, the fact that you can actually buy it, on the black market, and it is used as a performance enhancing drug.
@@kaiser-365 I didn't see anything about causing cancer for the research I mentioned. But, if there was a cancer risk, I don't think they would have done human trials until they sorted that out. Also, you have to be careful about the whole cancer argument: 1. Most of the chemicals we eat and drink can cause cancer in mice and rats if you give enough to them. But most of those requires a very large amount, on a scale way larger than you would normally consume. There was a time when the FDA said ANY CHEMICAL found to cause tumors in mice, REGARDLESS OF THE DOSE, was to be labeled a carcinogen and could not be used in any amount. This led to the Cranberry Scare of 1959, because a trace amount of pesticide was found on a very small batch of cranberries caused the FDA to tell people to stop buying cranberries from the Pacific Northwest. The FDA has better rules about that, but saying "X can cause cancer" will start the nutters running like it's the next anti-vaxxer campaign. 2. As SciShow is so fond of saying, "Things that happen in lab animals (including rats and mice) aren't necessarily the same things that happen in humans." And there were cases where both good and bad effects were seen in mice and rats that could not be replicated in humans. SciShow did a whole episode on this very phenomenon, if you're interested. Didn't hear this stuff was available on the black market, since it was still in the research phase, and there isn't likely to be very much of the drug in existence. If you have evidence to the contrary, please share.
@@jackielinde7568 en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GW501516 This article contains links to the research. Research into it ended in 2007 but it is still available online as a research chemical. Unless you are talking about another one? In which case I would be more than willing to research it if you can find it's name or a study to link to it.
it would have to be done really early in development if we wanted to have the least work and the most impact. Once the organism begins development (which is technically right after the first mitotic division), we could edit that genome and then all other subsequent divisions would have that change. Its also possible that we could edit the germline cells and not have to worry about editing the zygote at all.
I love it when superheroes and their abilities are rooted back into science. "Magic is just science that we don't understand yet." Nothing is beyond our reach.
Hey Kyle, love the show! My question: would changing all your genes like this pose a "Ship of Theseus" problem? When would it get to the point where you're not "you" any more but just a guinea pig who's been genetically altered to the point of developing "superpowers"? Also, you missed the opportunity to use the phrase "pecs-rays".
I suspect most philosophers would agree that it is your consciousness (whatever that is) that makes you you, rather than your body. Even from a materialistic point of view, the consciousness is an emergent property of the brain and thus defined not only by the genes inside the cells, but the connections between cells. Since every experience changes these connections, you are arguably not the same "you" as you were yesterday, but you are continuous with that you so we think of you as the same person. If you undertook this gene therapy you would still be continuous with the past you, so you are the same person. Sorry this was so long. If I had more time I would have made it shorter.
@@mabogibo525 Well, you could make the point that you're no longer the 'you' that was produced up till the point you were super'd. Sort of like if a soda changes its formula. It was always the same soda, up until it was changed. That said, the consciousness / memory issue is still there. You are 'You Classic,' then your consciousness is in a body of 'You Crystal'. Are you still 'You'? It depends on whether you consider the body the person, or if it's the consciousness / mind. And that's philosophy.
@@michaellight6981 seeing how it was sarcasm and I'm willing to bet you probably don't have the proper university backed credentials to make such a statement. Sooooooo
Thoughts are alterations of the electrical field of the body. Maybe some thoughts survive the death of the body due to conservation of momentum in electrical fields. These thoughts could accumulate in the environment until they have more electrical field then a human body. Then you have a zombie.
@@tonyanderson191 You don't need a fucking university backed diploma to know that such a thing is fact. Remove the things that tell the virus to reproduce, and it doesn't reproduce. The effects of genes on organisms was practically the entire topic of the video, did you not watch it or something?
Hey Kyle & company! Y'all are awesome! Here's a question that I've always wondered about an answer to. In Star Trek/Star Wars... If The Captain of the Enterprise and/or Luke Skywalker wanted to read or watch a science fiction novel/show, what could that novel or show be about given what they grow up with and consider normal?
Hey Kyle, love the show and the hair and the void. And also genetics and ethics. So you've piqued my interest. You mentioned that genetic therapy can be used to help people but then said that using genetic engineering to enhance our abilities is unethical... and I'd like to know a little more about your views on that. Before graduating with undergrad degree in biology/philosophy, I did an independent bioethics research project on the ethics of safely genetically engineering the next generation. I started off thinking that I was going to conclude, like you have, that therapy was good and enhancement was not. But I finished the paper arguing that safe enhancement is actually a good thing. We are a combination of our genes and our environment, and we do everything we can do to enhance our kids' environment to allow them to have the best life possible. We give them the best food, education, extracurriculars, etc. We are enhancing their environment because we want what is best for them and I think that the same reasoning can be applied to enhancing their genetic code. What moral objection is there to enhancement, as long as it is safe? I recognize that the safety concern is a BIG ONE, but certain enhancement will likely become safe in the near future. After all, just look at the so-called "biohackers" who are doing some genetic engineering in their own houses with CRISPR. With sufficient advancements in technology, enhancement might actually be the standard and anyone without enhancement will be relying on the genetic lottery, and that could potentially be considered irresponsible parenting. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.
Elijah T The reason why enhancement is seen as unethical is because the technology, being as expensive as it is (insurers neither can nor will fund you getting bigger muscles), if it has such as application that necessarily applies to everyone, will only go to the wealthy. Then you get a Gattaca-like situation (as seen in the movie with specific classes of people who are inherently superior to others). I myself am not so egalitarian as to want to prohibit this application, but I understand the nature of why people hate the idea of destroying the foundational tenet of democracy that all men are created equal. As far as I personally have found, the discoveries in science more or less have proven to me that all of human philosophy is false as opposed to making me desire to change the world to return to allowing philosophy to continue to exist.
@@evannibbe9375 But isn't it a false issue? Wealthier people could already get better education, food, medical treatment etc. Sure, genetic can cause you to be stronger, but so is being well fed and proper exercises, both are more accessible to people with more money. In my opinion, while the social/economical issue is a factor, the main issue is that genetic changes feel more intrusive. The same way that cosmetic surgery is more stigmatized because you "change who you are", but even deeper. Edit: fixed some typos and bad auto-complete.
Ziv Ronen I think (and May be wrong, well out of my expertise here) that even with those things you mentioned about wealth already creating an (unfair?) advantage, genetics can still go a long way. You can give a wealthy kid all the healthy food and upbringing you can afford, but no amount will let them run faster than someone else with better genetics. With gene editing you’re taking even that out of the equation and truly creating a divide. Just my 2p 👍🏽
I think the larger issue is the massive potential for the evil in humanity. Human beings are beings, we have emotions, we have tribe mentality, we still have not gotten much past the hunter gatherer phase genetically speaking. Can you honestly argue that humanity would not invoke survival of the fittest and either act as in the... questionable movie GATTACA where those without enhancements are prevented from breeding, and are considered second class humans? Another option is being ostracized for *needing* the enhancement in the first place. The issue is not simply biochemical ethical issues, the genetic modifications will induce simple hatred towards other groups... For Stan Lee's sake, we can't even handle race/cultural/religions/wealth/gender/things I have not remembered to list, differences. The idea that sub-sections of the population would get to be "FIRST" when it comes to getting the good genes would be utterly catastrophic, think governments would not abuse it immediately by making more biddable super soldiers? When people, as a group (not us nerds) can't accept that we are destroying the environment by dyeing a river blue/red when the factories are making that color of Jeans, adjusting our Genes seems laughable in comparison. The modifications would have the ability to produce disease resistant faster, stronger people that could potentially be devoid of emotions... hrm... That sounds useful...
@@IainsTheName That is kind of true, assuming that the one with better genetic does not get sick, choose to train, can train, etc. So? Unless those people are in direct competition, why would the poor care that the other one can run faster? The Olympics Games and other sports game/competitions will have to be adjusted, sure, but to be frank I don't care, and I believe that the current definition of 'fair' advantage is arbitrary. Now, let take it to an 'upgrade' that I believe is of an higher social relevance. If it make someone smarter, let them sleep less, etc then they will have an higher chance to get better jobs, possibly instead of someone poorer. But again, kind of a false issue. They already get better jobs due to connections or because their parents give a position to them. Will genetic increase the divide? Yes. Will it really change it? I don't think so. Maybe if it was semi expensive (like being a car) it will be an issue because it will be achievable by the higher middle class, and they are more likely to fight for the same jobs with the lower middle class (not so much with the actual poor because college is a major factor). Even then I am not sure that enhancement should be ban, but I don't have a fully formed opinion here.
The normal liver can metabolize alcohol at a predictable and regular rate . As long as it can rid itself of the alcohol, you don't get drunk. The backlog of alcohol is what gets you drunk. On average, it's about 1 drink per hour, so more than one per hour causes the alcohol to build up, making a person drunk. Apparently, Cap's liver can metabolize alcohol at a rate much faster than he can quaff them. No residual build up, no drunkenness.
John Smith ah ok that’s good and all but I wonder if there’s an explanation on how his liver is so efficient? Perhaps it’s do with dna alteration like Kyle mentioned in the video
@@darrenwood5050 I'm guessing it's hand-waved and explained as part of the Super Soldier serum. This would be a good one to go deeper into, but it'll have to wait (at least for me) until my son and I figure out shape-changers. So far, we have a lot of cancer research to sort through because those are the most common plastic cells, in the sense they can change shape and move. I bet a lot lot of drunks (and former ones like me) would be very interested in this fast alcohol metabolism
"Most people can't do 3 pull-ups!" Me: What?! (The most I've probably done IS 3 but I didn't expect that to be the same for most people. Well, my self-esteem has gone up.)
I could see how this could be useful, but the danger is terrifying. Even so, I like roleplaying and I will use this concept in a superhero RPG campaign at some point. I like the idea of benign viruses being used to save lives or turn worthy hosts into warriors with superpowers. I imagine space aliens and future scientists would have this science down to the point that the risk would be negligible compared to today.
6:42 Hey Kyle, 2 quick questions: 1) When these delivery viruses have had their DNA enucleated, what still allows them to function as normal, i.e. bind to and enter the cell, discharge the implanted genetic code, etc.; is it all already coded by its own genes, is it all down to chemistry and atomic bonds, what's going on? 2) What happens when an empty carrier virus is allowed to bond with and penetrate a cell, and has anyone ever tried this?
when it come to viruses, the genes to very little in terms of infection. They're just instructions for how to make the shell/protein coat. The protein coat infects you all on its own, because the process of attacking your cell is simply a chemical reaction with the surface of your cell.
@@sdfkjgh I wouldn't think anything would happen, viruses aren't autonomous and rely on a host to produce what they 'want', and so inserting nothing would cause nothing to happen. in terms of the first question, viruses aren't alive, they have binding proteins on their surface that bind to cells they randomly come into contact with and proteins inside them that allow function.
Shooting flames out of your hands is possible. A plasma flame discharge. Little hairs on your skin cause ionic wind, then high frequency radiowaves causes it to look and behave like fire. Said ionic wind would also push the flames away and superabsorbent polymer sweat with water would offer an awful lot of thermal protection. Limpet teeth are goethite nanofibers in a protein matrix. Bones made of that along with artificially created ionic electroactive polymer muscles could punch through a brick wall. The skin and tendons will be damaged, but can regenerate within a day.
the buff cows, rats and dogs that these muscle mutations happen in also have reduced lifespan because of the harder the heart and other organs have to work to support them.
Can't wait for this stuff to be common knowledge and see the inevitable Captain America reboot/re-imagining/100 years anniversary/whatever refer to his transformation as "the super virus" instead of "the super serum" :P
I'm planning on writing a full answer to cover this, but in issue 384 of Captain America it was retconned that the serum was in fact a self-replicating virus. I'm not sure if that's still considered canon, but at one point at least it was.
"super serum" could easily be a deliberate misnomer disguise its true nature and confuse potential spies. Like how armored fighting vehicles came to be known as tanks.
6:09 "And they can do pullups when they're 3. Most people can't do 3 pullups" Aren't pullups just much easier to do younger and smaller, with or without any given mutation?
Well you see, when you get older your body increases it’s size and therefore most things increase in capacity and power when your older which includes muscles meaning in reverse you get weaker the younger you are. This is why you don’t see a five year old beating mike Tyson to a pulp.
Just you wait till the muscle virus becomes infectious, then everyone will be super buff, and as a great man once said. "When everyone's super, no-one will be".
Just wait till the Brahma Bull muscle virus not only becomes infectious, but it causes so much muscle mass buildup that people break bones and/or rip their own bodies apart just standing up. And, yes, you can be swole to the point your body tears itself apart.
How many crowbar would be enough crowbar 1? def not. 2 but the other one is a cool one that splits into two smaller crowbars? imho 3 would be perfect but not everyone thinks like that cough valve cough
Scientists- Well, we could do that... We know how to do that... But it would be extremely unethical.
Military- Hold my atomic bomb.
Arturus Menks: oh just one? Hold my atomic arsenal.
Military: I'm afraid i have to *pulls out gun* insist.
Exactly
I know this is only related by atomic bombs, but I still think it's stupid. The Geneva Convention outlaws killing innocent civilians, torturing them, etc, basically being evil. It outlaws tear and mustard gas because they horrible. But it doesn't outlaw *bombs that destroyed two Japanese cities and can create no-life zones for years* Not only that! But those were the prototypes! We have even stronger and even more devastating ones now. They also 1. Harm innocent people and 2. Can cause radiation mutations/DNA defects. Which is _horrible_ to people who have to suffer them. How are they not outlawed already?
@@hazeltree7738 , because it is unnecesary thanks to mutually Assured destruction and even if they were outlawed it is unlikely that they really would be disposed of
Thor trying to help us in making ourselves Captain America
Hes looking for someone unworthy of weilding mjolnir.
Did i misspell it?(void)
Thank you to the one who corrected me
@@joeyb7408 just remove the 'h' from it
@@harshchaurasia5869 thank you, kind commenter
It's not for everyone 😪
You know there is a way too make captain America real but he won’t have super powers there is a steal of some kinde that is really hard so there you go you can planet find this in some places
Kyle is now trying to create an archenemy hero for himself
so... megamind plot?
@@Seandass133 Indeed.
Like homelander from 'The Boys' on amazon prime
Manbun kyle?
Or worse: Creating an army of super-clones of himself!
So it begins, our ascension xD
Where ever there is super powers there is JaxBlade 😂 love your videos man.
I SHALL BECOME A SUPER SAIYAN - the aura
I red that in Bane’s voice
Bloodborne
Ay yo Jax ma boy
Dude effects to gene therapy:
Possible superhuman abilities
Horrible death
Super villian
I'll roll those dice
@@NibNa5ty I'm with ya
I like those odds
All Sound good to me
Being a super villain sounds better than being hero tbh.
You can actually do more good , and you dont have to listen to stupid people who want to stop you in doing good to humanity and getting what you actually deserve from life and existence.
"Some kids can do pullups when they're three. Most people can't do three pullups"
OKAY HOLD UP NOW I DIDN'T COME HERE TO BE ATTACKED
Ikr
I can
Lol
Im depressed now cuz i got up and tried to do 3 pull ups and i failed at two
If you have pullup bar and you can do semi-one pullup, then there's just some practice to do 3-4 :) you can do it!
"Most people can't do three pull ups!"
Why call me out like that man...
It actually makes me feel better about my physical ability.
@@13KuriMaster But it's not an excuse to not try
Because you're part of "most"? Idk man -- kH
I feel attacked
@@becausescience I can do three pullups. I mean not all at once, but give me a few weeks and I can do them. You never specified a timescale there, Kyle. That's bad science. :p
_"We all wish we had superpowers. We all wish we could do more than we can do."_
*~ Stan Lee*
"If everyone is super, then nobody is super"
- Syndrome
@@michelebenedetti7507 although that isn't entirely true with Mutants from Marvel (which is the closest example of that quote).
@@michelebenedetti7507 Boku no Hero Academia
Excelsior, true believers; onwards and upwards!
@@michelebenedetti7507 Syndrome was full of shit.
Instructions not clear: Created steroids.
Lmaooo
PCP will create a supervillain
Good news!
My favorite interview Stan Lee ever did was the one where he explained why he came up with Mutants. His reasoning behind it was that he couldn't "shoot everybody with gamma radiation or radioactive spider bites", so, he thought "what if it was just a mutation?" That way he could just come up with whatever he wanted, and when asked how the new people got those powers: mutation.
Brilliant, lazy and cheap altogether :)
@En_theo And you created something better? Lol, yes...I thought so.
That's creative but tbh I've never liked that explanation for how some of the mutants get their powers. Like how does someone end up a gene mutation that allows them to control the weather? I feel like for powers like that magical or spiritual explanations are better
@@enzocirnigliaro8956 I dunno, it could be a story point behind it. Storm was considered a goddess from where she came from, and does often title herself as "Storm, Mistress of the Elements" which I find badass
But aye, I agree with you. Always confused by it too
@@LadnarvonBoshaftWhat
Kyle: _"Not a Supervillain!"_
Also Kyle: "Here is how one might go about making a super soldier."
Me: *Fry Squinting Meme*
I wouldn’t call Dr. Halsey a supervillain. Sure she’s kinda crazy and the Spartan program was *super* illegal, but she wasn’t a villain.
That and the program that made Captain America are like the two counter example I have.
“Into a superhero that understands that reference”
I understood that reference
sterling9314 this joke was meta af
@@ghostarmor87 LANGUAGE!
Hold on, did @@jesseybarra3408 just say, "Language"?
@@Vlad_Tepes_III I know, it just slipped out (yeets motorcycle)
@@Vlad_Tepes_III I did I understood that reference
So from my undetstanding is,
Best case scenario: My Hero Academia
Worst case scenario: Resident Evil
Ooh poop yeah true both the G and T viruses are both supposed to be super serums
Most likely scenario: We made a new kind of muscle cancer....oops?
Yup, this ends in zombie apocalypse.
How's that the worst case scenario again?
@@aaronself2411 While there are worse things than a zombie apocalypse, that's about the limit of what genetic engineering can do. Genetic engineering isn't going to cause constant reruns of the Star Wars Holiday Special on all channels.
Just imagine someone from the 60’s seeing this show and seeing those comics having real science
FUCK YES
@@lelandholmquist2467 chill
"No, there's a physical limit on what human body can do"
.
Kevin Wendell Crumb :
*Hold my Beast*
@Lucky Raj keep growth plates open
Thor is teaching us how to make a Superhero serum lol😆
he is actually showing us how hi is making super soldiers for his supervillain army
He is thors evil doppelgänger whos been send to the void so he can't harm humanity
Thor is a god...
I JUST REALISED HE’S THE ONLY MARVEL SUPERHERO THAT ACTUALLY HAS MAGIC POWERS (other than everyone with an infinity stone)
@@PashaGamingYT what about scarlet witch, loki and doctor strange?
th-cam.com/video/dorX1LFHb8U/w-d-xo.html
My favorite super serum is the one they used during the Blitzkrieg in WW2. They just gave all of the German troops methamphetamine tablets to take when they started feeling fatigued. This allowed them to overthrow France by attacking/advancing for 3 days and 3 nights straight. I also realize it isn't really a serum, since it was distributed in tablet form.... but you get my meaning I'm sure.
Also great episode Kyle! If I could tweak my DNA I wish I could change my hair color with it.
That was not a serum, it was a drug that stopped them to feel fatigued, not making them immune to fatigue. That's why many of them died after the war, some of them got 'the bad diseases' and the rest lived with a bad health. You see even if hitler had won the war, there hadn't been anyone to live in his 'world of pure Aryan race'.
If I could tweak my hair, it would be for it to be there again
@@En_theo_ööf_
The Germans gave their soldiers meth? Damn. No wonder they overthrew France, the soldiers were fucking tweakin'.
The hair color of my eyebrows has been changing lately
They’ve been turning blonde
*SLAMS FIST DOWN*
"PINK HAIRED KYLE"
"PINK HAIRED KYLE"
"PINK HAIRED KYLE"
I was think a green color would work, but I could see pink too.
Pink is so in for hair right now goldilocks
The pink hair on Kyle actually looks pretty good
I mean, it's not bad -- kH
@@becausescience Blue is really hard to make in nature, would you have to carve the keratin in your hair to be like butterfly wings? What actually about the pink, like flamingo feathers so eat a lot of shrimp?
"You wouldn't eat the DNA, that's not how that works"
The Nutty professor lied to me?
"these short-term effects will likely be temporary"
Too Safe lol.
At Valley College, I once had a biology professor who told the class that:
"Right now, all of you have a parasite living in your body that cares only about one thing: its own survival. Whether that's by getting the sugars it needs to continue its existence, or by ensuring its reproduction and replication, it controls and overrides your every decision in life.
It's called your DNA.
That's why we crave sugar and sweet things so much, because sugars make up the backbone of its molecule. That's why the urge to have sex and reproduce is so strong, because this selfish bastard wants to make sure it survives into eternity."
This was the same professor who told us the joke that "Love may die, but herpes is eternal."
9:22 I'm pretty sure that was the same professor whom I asked "What would happen if you were to eat ATP, and what does it taste like?" He was completely flummoxed, but intensely intrigued, by those questions, responding "Huh. I don't know. Well, of course, you'd need to produce a whole heck of a lot of it in order to get a big enough sample to be able to taste it, but...huh. Those are some very good questions. I don't actually know the answers. I mean, when you ingest things, their chemical structures do change in your stomach via digestive processes...I'm gonna have to get back to you on that."
Never did hear an answer to either question. C'est un enseignement supérieur.
That was awesome😀
Literally my two favorite things.
Oh you lucky bastard
It's lovely to learn When the teachers are good at their job
"Most people can't do 3 pullups!" 🤣🤣🤣 That's great...and sad...
I feel so much better about myself for being able to do four xD
I’ve only ever done 1...10 with help
I can do pull ups! I pull up my pants every day! :D
I can do more than 20 and I'm just 14
Most people never train a day in their lives causing musclular atrophy, relying only on their genetic muscle density potential. (Body Type). The more you use a muscle the stronger it becomes within reason.
No, Kyle.
You stay skinny Thor, no jacked muscles for you, we'll start struggling to make distinctions.
I love how the Captain America shield has "BS" written on it
Because science, it's a complicated acronymn, huh. I think this name was intentional though
Yeah I first thought it meant b**l s**t.
Wait, you're telling me it doesn't mean B**l S**t? Oh.... "Because Science"... wow I really should have figured that out sooner. I should have realized as much after Tay Sem literally spelled it out for me however I recently replaced the majority of my grey matter with malted hops and bong resin. Say "ON" to drugs kids with dyslexia
Bullshit
@@siegeofdarkness8212 bullshit. Stop censoring yourself.
when I was younger I was weaker and asked my uncle how to get stronger.. he said get in a row boat... and row it backwards. keep doing this until it is as easy as going backwards as it is going forward
So with gene therapy I could potentially:
Make my skin harder?
Make my memory better?
Make myself faster?
Maybe even stronger?
In other words I could be. Harder, better, faster, stronger?
Your work would never be over.
@@cryophile as the amount of sleep you need is also regulated in part by your DNA.
@@levindos I get that they are lyrics im just pointing out they are factually supported by the topic of the video.
Harder skin is not something you would want.
@@trainjackson63 you wouldn't be able to move, how about impenetrable skin. Like knives can't cut it open
Therapist: Pink haired Kyle doesn't exist. He can't hurt you
Pink haired Kyle:
"I kinda like it"
Teach me how to lengthen my telomeres please so I can live a hundred more years.
There is a gene to expand your life for an extra of 10 years.
If u go to space your Telomeres lengthen.
Loved this episode! In AP Chemistry in 11th grade we got to research a project of our choice after the AP exam. I chose gene therapy using retroviruses as vectors. Still so glad I did that.
As someone who has to take thyroid pills everyday just to "feel normal", I look forward to the day I no longer have to. My hypothyroidism is caused by lack of Iodine in my body but the flip side is I'm allergic to Iodine. Yeah my life is a double edged sword!
hypothyroidism gang ye used to take advantage of just feeling normal, now i know better
Have you tried nascent iodine from global healing center?
I pray for your survival, a better life for you and for you to live in peace and harmony with your body.. That you and your body are "whole" and not need anything to "keep it in check".
🙏🏻
Hold up, how are you allergic to a particular type of atom (iodine)? Aren’t allergic reactions usually to molecules that share traits with proteins associated with parasitic infections?
Hey a bit late but how did you find out you were allergic to iodine exactly?
Rather than altering Cap's DNA, or in addition to altering his DNA, could the super serum have worked by inducing a second puberty in him? For a male subject, the effects of the super serum would be nigh identical to a second puberty (bone growth, increase in muscle mass, permanent increase of testosterone production to maintain muscle mass) and would be using a well-documented and understood natural process to achieve the desired effect, rather than (or in addition to) risky, experimental DNA alteration. It would also have the side effect of giving Cap bigger.....uh.....you know what, that's neither here nor there.
They'd turn into a bodybuilder big foot, not a super soldier. Shit ton of body hair, excessively deep voice, copious body odor, and yes bulkier muscles. They'd be slow, strong, and require a whole lot of food. Using that method would be very unwise as you're basically just brute forcing the process with little to no control over the actual effects of the treatment. It'd get out of hand easily and would be ineffective by comparison.
@@ProtoPerson First, I'd disagree with "slow". Was 13 year old you faster than 19 year old you? I doubt it. Second, "requires a whole lot of food" might be a given no matter what you do, seeing as Cap has a very fast metabolism. Third, in order for the super serum treatment to work there's going to need to be a lot of hormones and other biochemicals in Cap's body (and in the right parts of his body at that); you can either inject them or stimulate various glands to generate them. If you take the latter route, which would make it easier to get them in the right parts of his body, it may as well be a second puberty.
Ok nerd
@@markcochrane9523 In additional support to your points, I would add that body types and metabolic levels vary wildly. I've personally seen people who were relatively stocky end up quite wiry after puberty due to various changes. Bulk is most certainly *not* guaranteed by a "secondary puberty".
@@ProtoPerson also I can't help but think that the hormones required to cause such a change could absolutely have a negative impact on the psyche of the individual do you want to accidentally create neanderthals fueled solely by their Instinct and testosterone lol
You have no idea how excited this makes me. I have the biggest smile on my face right now! I still want the super powers, but I’m damn happy with gene therapy fixing diseases!
Red skull: Wanted Cap's serum.
Kyle: Wants Cap's serum.
Do u get the point.
He is indeed a SUPERVILLIAN
Shh, you might bring him out of the void
Hitler:*has micro penis*
yOu: *aLsO hAs MiCrO pEnIs*
Get the point? Making these connections is pretty useless haha.
Nah he's stark's dad
If you know what i mean
Oh you are a villain all right! Just not a SUPER one!
When Thor doesn't know what to do after Thanos' snap
@Dean van Zelst He'd probably kill Zeus in 2 punches
If we're reprogramming cells, does that mean we'll finally get that human OS update we've been waiting for?
Oh God, I've been waiting for that for so long. Still waiting on multiplayer dream mode
@@JatPhenshllem Still waiting on the devs to fix that backpain bug you get from the bipedal perk🗿
"But should we do it ?"
Well the chinese olympic Team already decided about this.
Of course they should just look how many replacements they have if it goes sideways
Minus 30 points to Kyle for not saying the cows were "beefy".
Missed opportunity.
5:12 - "...organisms without this protein can get pretty beefy. For example, the Belgian Blue cow..."
Yeah... I think you're the only one losing points here. Either that, or losing your hearing.
As a Molecular Biotechnologist, I love to see how genome editing is starting to take over even pop culture
cscarecrow Hey there! Is it hard to get that job? I always wondered. Also, how much training and time does it take until you can start working? How hard is it?
Sorry for the nonsense questions, I’m an computer engineer, I don’t really know much about human genome.
@@valentinpopescu98 Hi! Well as you may expect it takes years of learning, personally I have an MSC in molecular biotechnology, I'm a Ph.D. student and I have still a lot to learn after almost 5-6 years I'm into it. To start really undestanding what you are doing you'll need 1-2 years at least... It is not that hard to practice genome editing in vitro but to translate the same experiment in vivo you need A LOT of optimization (also years) and you also never know if your changes will be compatible with life itself... I don't want to be negative but it is very complex and challenging, but that's also the beauty of it :)
Can you make me a super serum? I dont care about the ethics, I'll sign wavers and everything! Also if you change my dna do i need a new drivers license? Would i be legally a different person?
@@jeffreymoffitt4070I could easily make a serum which super kills you :D... However, I don't think there is a way to change enough of your DNA to make you a different you, in best cases, it will change less than 1% of the DNA of some million of your cells, nothing that will stop you to be identified for a crime ;)
cscarecrow I want the ability to turn invisible at will. Would be great for pranks.
How would you go about doing that?
Would it be possible to make a real dragon by getting the gene “chiroptera” from bats (the gene for bat wings) and then doing CRISPR gene editing on a Komodo dragon to create the wings or get the structure?
Jaxon Ellis Sounds like something from the movie Rampage
I mean..... Sure, I guess.....
i mean, best case scenario you get a lizard with wings but it wouldn't fly and would probably just develop horrible cancers and die.
If you were Anton Sevarious from Disney's Gargoyles, then most definitely! ^_^
An actual flying reptile would have to look more like a pterodactyl than a Komodo dragon. It’s just physics.
You have no idea how great this is. I live with Friedrich ataxia and thought things like this were impossible. Thank you for spreading their word man. I honestly love your channel
how are you doing man? And how did you get diagnosed
@nuovoaccount998 well actually I haven't been diagnosed in all the years friedrichs is a blanket term. But its a hereditary disease that none of my family memver have found out what it is. I've been to ucla. And they don't know what it is either
@@incursio2396 wait what do you mean by they don't know? There's a wikipedia page too. Are doctors really this bad?
I thought this video would be “Why you wouldn’t want heat vision” from the teaser gif
@Sebastian edwards ok.
I'm going to make a Superhero Serum Bank. I won't get many donations though.
Super Soldier serum not super hero serum
T-cells. "Harmless" viruses... T-Virus... Kyle's a supervillain... confirmed?
T-cells aren't viruses. they are specific cells that are created as part of your immune response in your body. and the "harmless" virusses would be the empty shells of virusses filled with the DNA (or RNA) you want to get into the cell instead of the original virus-DNA
"A hero that understands that reference."
"I understood that reference."
-Captain America
Also Cap jumped on a grenade
This was such a nice change from all the “why you don’t want ‘blank’ “ videos😂😂
Hey Kyle, I just finished up my final today for my first semester of college genetics, and for the first time, I just about knew every single thing you were talking about in this video!
**Sees title, pulls out notebook with plans to replicate what he hears**
I volunteer as a test dummy
Hey Kyle!! If you see my comment i want to thank you for this show. Im having a lot of fun and learning so much. Thank you again for what youre doing:3
Thank you so much! Very kind. Happy to help in any way I can -- kH
my first thought upon seeing the thumbnail "is that chris hemsworth doing his thor look in just a shirt, explaining science-y stuff as a youtuber?"
Learned very briefly about CRIPS at college ,still one of the most fascinating topics
You mean CRISPR?
"Hello, yes, this would be highly... unethical"... maniacle laughing intesifies
I wonder what would happen if we used super serums in astronauts instead of just soldiers. How would it affect the astronaut's living conditions inside and outside of space? Do you think we'd have more people diving into space exploration because of this?
It could certainly be beneficial, off-setting the loss of bone density caused by living in a micro-gravity environment. That would make all manner of work outside our atmosphere easier to accomplish.
But I think this has a disadvantage. Astronauts thats been in the ISS describe their job as the laziest job (Cant remember the astronaut who said it) and they need to work out just to make themselves healthy and keep their limbs from becoming jelly when theyre back here on Earth. So making them adapt to absence of gravity (like treating the loss of bone density), there would be complications when they get back to Earth.
5:47 “muscle mice” am dead 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
There also was a muscle baby in Germany some years ago who was ripped as a toddler. Since it was a child, his identity was kept anonymous, and I don't think it has been revealed what became of him as he grew older.
Mighty Muscle Mice from Mars
Gotta say I loved the because science shield at the beginning
sitting here just clicking on this for entertainment thinking you're never gonna deliver what the title says, when all of a sudden you actually do deliver!
Hey Kyle, love the show! Always learning something new. Seems we share a favorite super hero.
On the topic of genetics and such. The Captain was given a serum and he became who he is, yes? I recall a moment while he is drinking, he says his metabolism is so high he can't get drunk.
Shouldn't he always be snacking on something with a metabolism high enough to not get drunk?
More to the point: better hope he never needs medications like painkillers or blood thinners, or really any medications at all, since the body identifies those as toxins (substances which affect the body's function & are not naturally present [endogenous]), and metabolizes most, if not all of them, through the liver.
If Cap's liver breaks down toxins faster (google Cytochrome P450, for instance), he'd have a hard time reaching the therapeutic dose on stuff like tylenol, theophylline, or antibiotics
As to snacking...that's more digestion than toxin processing, and is modulated by everything from how long food takes to pass thru, and how much your body needs at that moment. But yes, for faster healing, etc., I would expect him to eat more than a normal adult - maybe more like a hungry teenager
Thank you Megan 😀. Been awhile since my A&P class. It was one of those things that always lingered in the back of my mind.
@@ericbasnight2068 Happy to help! It's nice to have a video I can contribute on - biology: yes. Physics: ehhh...not so much, lol!
What's with those pesky "ethics" always getting in the way of all the awesome things we could do?
Ikr?
Things the we could have gotten:
Cat-people
Badass Robodogs
Easily cloned meat
Nuclear defences
The ultimate foodstuff
Cyborg enhancements
Immortality
*Bee Launcher*
Because you wouldn't wanna die from a failed genetic enhancement. Because there can be side effects. These things require trials and errors to be perfected. The errors, the human lives that can be forgotten or ignored or silenced by breaking the limits of the ethics behind this will not be justified. With empathy in mind, you don't want to be a thrown away experiment gone wrong. Even if you lived after that failure you'll live with it and its burdens. What if that super serum causes you to lose half your brain function? Will you wanna live your life in a vegetative state?
These are the questions we need to ask ourselves when venturing to the unknown
Aside from failed genetic enhancement, you should fear the rise of actual villains.
Remember the monsters grown out of normal people, the ones that killed millions of people ( i.e. Hitler ) . Take a psychological unstable person, give him super powers and then... well. f***.
Morally compelled people are not so easy to find.
@@brandongreenland9632 you had my attention at cat-people and my funding at bee launcher.
The other stuff is great too.
Kyle - There are two things you missed and/or glossed over. First of all, we wouldn't necessarily need to do gene replacement, as many of the genes we have will give you the desired results if you just override which genes are on or off. Unlike swapping out the genes, by just controlling which genes are active when, you can fine tune the results you seek. Granted, this means you'll need to work with people who's genetic code is closer to the ideal. But we have done this. There is a drug to help the fight against obesity right now that changes the expression of the PPAR-delta gene. This gene controls if a muscle is either slow twitch (like what weight lifters use) or fast twitch (like what runners use). The drug (which has been tested on very small samples of humans) gave the subjects the kind and types of muscles seen in long distance runners, which, in turn, allowed the subjects to lose a lot of weight. And it didn't swap out the genes. Because of this, it also avoided a lot of the issues with gene replacement therapies. (Let's just say CRISPR isn't 100% accurate when swapping genes.)
The second thing is the ethics. You glossed over the ethics by simply saying "If it's to make super humans, we shouldn't do it. But we should do it if it's to save lives." But you didn't explain why, and that why is super important. The first obvious point of ethics in gene editing is the risk. Like I said in the previous paragraph, CRISPR and other gene editing techniques aren't 100% accurate. Most of the times they fail, they don't make any alterations. But, they do sometimes make an alteration to a location at a spot other than the intended sequence. Can you imagine what would happen if you were trying to swap out the genes that controlled red blood cell production in bone marrow, only to have your genes loaded in the middle of the genes that code for the production of proteins for cell walls? You would go from having a low healthy red blood cell count to having a high count of unhealthy red blood cells. These risks are too much for a healthy individual who's just looking to get ripped, but why they are acceptable for people with diseases like cancers (cus there's more than just one kind), Sickle Cell Anemia, Multiple Sclerosis, Cystic Fibrosis, etc. Can you imagine making a drug that gives the user "swole gains now", but using these new beefcakes ends up breaking bones or ripping up the body. (And, yes, those are two real medical issues documented. Luckily, most of those are usually genetic aberrations.) That's why the researcher in China who made the AIDS resistant twins is in so much hot water. His alterations could have potentially introduced life threatening or life disabling changes to the twins. (He got very lucky that it looks like the children are healthy.) Another ethical aspects centers around the repercussions for society these superhumans could have. The researchers working on the PPAR-delta drug found one of the side effects of the drugs is that it makes runners able to run faster for longer. This is ideal for a long distance runner who wants to be able to outrun his competition. The researchers working on the drug recognized this potential for abuse (one of them, I believe, is a long distance runner), and are delaying releasing the drug until they can address all of the issues. (Not just the safety issues.)
That chinese doctor is gonna be a second mengele, if what he did caused harm
N you will be "The SuperNerd" of this Episode.
And then there was the whole, "rapidly caused cancer in several organs in mice and rats when given a dosage of 3mg/kg per day.
Also, the fact that you can actually buy it, on the black market, and it is used as a performance enhancing drug.
@@kaiser-365 I didn't see anything about causing cancer for the research I mentioned. But, if there was a cancer risk, I don't think they would have done human trials until they sorted that out. Also, you have to be careful about the whole cancer argument:
1. Most of the chemicals we eat and drink can cause cancer in mice and rats if you give enough to them. But most of those requires a very large amount, on a scale way larger than you would normally consume. There was a time when the FDA said ANY CHEMICAL found to cause tumors in mice, REGARDLESS OF THE DOSE, was to be labeled a carcinogen and could not be used in any amount. This led to the Cranberry Scare of 1959, because a trace amount of pesticide was found on a very small batch of cranberries caused the FDA to tell people to stop buying cranberries from the Pacific Northwest. The FDA has better rules about that, but saying "X can cause cancer" will start the nutters running like it's the next anti-vaxxer campaign.
2. As SciShow is so fond of saying, "Things that happen in lab animals (including rats and mice) aren't necessarily the same things that happen in humans." And there were cases where both good and bad effects were seen in mice and rats that could not be replicated in humans. SciShow did a whole episode on this very phenomenon, if you're interested.
Didn't hear this stuff was available on the black market, since it was still in the research phase, and there isn't likely to be very much of the drug in existence. If you have evidence to the contrary, please share.
@@jackielinde7568
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GW501516
This article contains links to the research. Research into it ended in 2007 but it is still available online as a research chemical.
Unless you are talking about another one? In which case I would be more than willing to research it if you can find it's name or a study to link to it.
Thank you Kyle, I had never heard of Car-T before! You learn everyday :)
Thor explains his best buddy’s super power
Short-term effects are, by definition, temporary.
Technically we could make a real superhero by genetically editing an unborn foetus
Yes.
Sagnik Ghosh ........ woah!
and to alter adults we have to do it virally.
Are ye friend or foetus
it would have to be done really early in development if we wanted to have the least work and the most impact. Once the organism begins development (which is technically right after the first mitotic division), we could edit that genome and then all other subsequent divisions would have that change. Its also possible that we could edit the germline cells and not have to worry about editing the zygote at all.
I love it when superheroes and their abilities are rooted back into science.
"Magic is just science that we don't understand yet." Nothing is beyond our reach.
"the force is strong with this one"-A new hope
I just can't stop laughing at the thought of buff mice xD
7:00 so we're talking about Dr. Marta Shearing's explanation to Aaron Cross from Operation Outcome?
Hey Kyle, love the show! My question: would changing all your genes like this pose a "Ship of Theseus" problem? When would it get to the point where you're not "you" any more but just a guinea pig who's been genetically altered to the point of developing "superpowers"? Also, you missed the opportunity to use the phrase "pecs-rays".
I suspect most philosophers would agree that it is your consciousness (whatever that is) that makes you you, rather than your body. Even from a materialistic point of view, the consciousness is an emergent property of the brain and thus defined not only by the genes inside the cells, but the connections between cells. Since every experience changes these connections, you are arguably not the same "you" as you were yesterday, but you are continuous with that you so we think of you as the same person. If you undertook this gene therapy you would still be continuous with the past you, so you are the same person. Sorry this was so long. If I had more time I would have made it shorter.
You could say the same thing for bassically any transplant
Every 7 years or so, your body born anew. Unless you're a kid younger than 7 years old, do you question who you are?
@@mabogibo525 Well, you could make the point that you're no longer the 'you' that was produced up till the point you were super'd. Sort of like if a soda changes its formula. It was always the same soda, up until it was changed.
That said, the consciousness / memory issue is still there. You are 'You Classic,' then your consciousness is in a body of 'You Crystal'. Are you still 'You'?
It depends on whether you consider the body the person, or if it's the consciousness / mind. And that's philosophy.
that's just semantics, depends on how you define "you"
i volunteer as a test subject when you develop your non supervillain super soldier serum.
"We can use viruses to deliver this information "
Do you want a zombie apocalypse? Because, that's how you get a zombie apocalypse.
Exactly i see a future bioweapon in the making
viruses can't spread if they don't contain the dna for making themselves. That's why you empty them of the native genes first.
@@michaellight6981 seeing how it was sarcasm and I'm willing to bet you probably don't have the proper university backed credentials to make such a statement. Sooooooo
Thoughts are alterations of the electrical field of the body. Maybe some thoughts survive the death of the body due to conservation of momentum in electrical fields. These thoughts could accumulate in the environment until they have more electrical field then a human body. Then you have a zombie.
@@tonyanderson191 You don't need a fucking university backed diploma to know that such a thing is fact. Remove the things that tell the virus to reproduce, and it doesn't reproduce. The effects of genes on organisms was practically the entire topic of the video, did you not watch it or something?
Barry Bonds perfected Erkins' super soldier formula in '96.
Hey Kyle & company! Y'all are awesome!
Here's a question that I've always wondered about an answer to. In Star Trek/Star Wars... If The Captain of the Enterprise and/or Luke Skywalker wanted to read or watch a science fiction novel/show, what could that novel or show be about given what they grow up with and consider normal?
Ooh! That's a fascinating thought!
Hey Kyle, love the show and the hair and the void. And also genetics and ethics. So you've piqued my interest.
You mentioned that genetic therapy can be used to help people but then said that using genetic engineering to enhance our abilities is unethical... and I'd like to know a little more about your views on that. Before graduating with undergrad degree in biology/philosophy, I did an independent bioethics research project on the ethics of safely genetically engineering the next generation. I started off thinking that I was going to conclude, like you have, that therapy was good and enhancement was not. But I finished the paper arguing that safe enhancement is actually a good thing.
We are a combination of our genes and our environment, and we do everything we can do to enhance our kids' environment to allow them to have the best life possible. We give them the best food, education, extracurriculars, etc. We are enhancing their environment because we want what is best for them and I think that the same reasoning can be applied to enhancing their genetic code. What moral objection is there to enhancement, as long as it is safe? I recognize that the safety concern is a BIG ONE, but certain enhancement will likely become safe in the near future. After all, just look at the so-called "biohackers" who are doing some genetic engineering in their own houses with CRISPR.
With sufficient advancements in technology, enhancement might actually be the standard and anyone without enhancement will be relying on the genetic lottery, and that could potentially be considered irresponsible parenting.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.
Elijah T The reason why enhancement is seen as unethical is because the technology, being as expensive as it is (insurers neither can nor will fund you getting bigger muscles), if it has such as application that necessarily applies to everyone, will only go to the wealthy.
Then you get a Gattaca-like situation (as seen in the movie with specific classes of people who are inherently superior to others). I myself am not so egalitarian as to want to prohibit this application, but I understand the nature of why people hate the idea of destroying the foundational tenet of democracy that all men are created equal.
As far as I personally have found, the discoveries in science more or less have proven to me that all of human philosophy is false as opposed to making me desire to change the world to return to allowing philosophy to continue to exist.
@@evannibbe9375 But isn't it a false issue? Wealthier people could already get better education, food, medical treatment etc. Sure, genetic can cause you to be stronger, but so is being well fed and proper exercises, both are more accessible to people with more money.
In my opinion, while the social/economical issue is a factor, the main issue is that genetic changes feel more intrusive. The same way that cosmetic surgery is more stigmatized because you "change who you are", but even deeper.
Edit: fixed some typos and bad auto-complete.
Ziv Ronen I think (and May be wrong, well out of my expertise here) that even with those things you mentioned about wealth already creating an (unfair?) advantage, genetics can still go a long way. You can give a wealthy kid all the healthy food and upbringing you can afford, but no amount will let them run faster than someone else with better genetics. With gene editing you’re taking even that out of the equation and truly creating a divide. Just my 2p 👍🏽
I think the larger issue is the massive potential for the evil in humanity. Human beings are beings, we have emotions, we have tribe mentality, we still have not gotten much past the hunter gatherer phase genetically speaking. Can you honestly argue that humanity would not invoke survival of the fittest and either act as in the... questionable movie GATTACA where those without enhancements are prevented from breeding, and are considered second class humans? Another option is being ostracized for *needing* the enhancement in the first place.
The issue is not simply biochemical ethical issues, the genetic modifications will induce simple hatred towards other groups... For Stan Lee's sake, we can't even handle race/cultural/religions/wealth/gender/things I have not remembered to list, differences. The idea that sub-sections of the population would get to be "FIRST" when it comes to getting the good genes would be utterly catastrophic, think governments would not abuse it immediately by making more biddable super soldiers? When people, as a group (not us nerds) can't accept that we are destroying the environment by dyeing a river blue/red when the factories are making that color of Jeans, adjusting our Genes seems laughable in comparison.
The modifications would have the ability to produce disease resistant faster, stronger people that could potentially be devoid of emotions... hrm... That sounds useful...
@@IainsTheName That is kind of true, assuming that the one with better genetic does not get sick, choose to train, can train, etc.
So? Unless those people are in direct competition, why would the poor care that the other one can run faster? The Olympics Games and other sports game/competitions will have to be adjusted, sure, but to be frank I don't care, and I believe that the current definition of 'fair' advantage is arbitrary.
Now, let take it to an 'upgrade' that I believe is of an higher social relevance. If it make someone smarter, let them sleep less, etc then they will have an higher chance to get better jobs, possibly instead of someone poorer. But again, kind of a false issue. They already get better jobs due to connections or because their parents give a position to them.
Will genetic increase the divide? Yes. Will it really change it? I don't think so.
Maybe if it was semi expensive (like being a car) it will be an issue because it will be achievable by the higher middle class, and they are more likely to fight for the same jobs with the lower middle class (not so much with the actual poor because college is a major factor). Even then I am not sure that enhancement should be ban, but I don't have a fully formed opinion here.
1:43 I understood that reference.
who didn't?
i understood the reference to the reference
drunkredninja I understood that reference to that reference to that reference.
I understand that reference of that reference to that reference of that reference
What’s the reference?
Sadly, I'm like that villian in spider-man, yes, he COULD cure cancer, but he wanted to turn people in dinosaurs
5:00
MSTN
Mystical Space Typhoon negate, of course!
The whole “can’t get drunk because of a crazy high metabolism” thing always confused me. Surely Cap could get a bit buzzed?
The normal liver can metabolize alcohol at a predictable and regular rate . As long as it can rid itself of the alcohol, you don't get drunk. The backlog of alcohol is what gets you drunk. On average, it's about 1 drink per hour, so more than one per hour causes the alcohol to build up, making a person drunk. Apparently, Cap's liver can metabolize alcohol at a rate much faster than he can quaff them. No residual build up, no drunkenness.
John Smith ah ok that’s good and all but I wonder if there’s an explanation on how his liver is so efficient? Perhaps it’s do with dna alteration like Kyle mentioned in the video
@@darrenwood5050 Potentially. However, as far as I am aware, Marvel has never specified what was in the Super Soldier Serum.
it's the same thing with the flash
@@darrenwood5050 I'm guessing it's hand-waved and explained as part of the Super Soldier serum. This would be a good one to go deeper into, but it'll have to wait (at least for me) until my son and I figure out shape-changers. So far, we have a lot of cancer research to sort through because those are the most common plastic cells, in the sense they can change shape and move. I bet a lot lot of drunks (and former ones like me) would be very interested in this fast alcohol metabolism
“Doctor gave me a pill and I grew a new kidney!”
😂😅😂LOL
"Most people can't do 3 pull-ups!"
Me: What?! (The most I've probably done IS 3 but I didn't expect that to be the same for most people. Well, my self-esteem has gone up.)
Congratulations you can do more pull-ups than fat, old and sick people.
I could see how this could be useful, but the danger is terrifying.
Even so, I like roleplaying and I will use this concept in a superhero RPG campaign at some point. I like the idea of benign viruses being used to save lives or turn worthy hosts into warriors with superpowers. I imagine space aliens and future scientists would have this science down to the point that the risk would be negligible compared to today.
Me sees thumbnail
Also me: Oh wait thats illegal
Kyle doesn't need the serum, he's already buff as heck
He has the nerd limiter
From the hairline up, at least. :p
"nothing magical about my favorite superheros"
Every hero has some irl impossible feat.
Like Batman cutting a tree down with a kick.
Kyle wants to make a Super Serum to make a Super Hero so that he can be a Super Villain, yep thats how only a Super Villain can plan
Somebody really had fun with After Affects
6:42 Hey Kyle, 2 quick questions:
1) When these delivery viruses have had their DNA enucleated, what still allows them to function as normal, i.e. bind to and enter the cell, discharge the implanted genetic code, etc.; is it all already coded by its own genes, is it all down to chemistry and atomic bonds, what's going on?
2) What happens when an empty carrier virus is allowed to bond with and penetrate a cell, and has anyone ever tried this?
when it come to viruses, the genes to very little in terms of infection. They're just instructions for how to make the shell/protein coat. The protein coat infects you all on its own, because the process of attacking your cell is simply a chemical reaction with the surface of your cell.
Michael Light: Cool, thanks for the knowledge. I'd still like to know what happens when an empty virus attacks a cell.
@@sdfkjgh I wouldn't think anything would happen, viruses aren't autonomous and rely on a host to produce what they 'want', and so inserting nothing would cause nothing to happen. in terms of the first question, viruses aren't alive, they have binding proteins on their surface that bind to cells they randomly come into contact with and proteins inside them that allow function.
Jamie Goldfingers: Cool, thanks.
is it just me? or the camera quality is looking SO Clear today?
XD...
I can do about 10 pull ups.. I guess I’m in pretty good shape
Shooting flames out of your hands is possible. A plasma flame discharge. Little hairs on your skin cause ionic wind, then high frequency radiowaves causes it to look and behave like fire. Said ionic wind would also push the flames away and superabsorbent polymer sweat with water would offer an awful lot of thermal protection. Limpet teeth are goethite nanofibers in a protein matrix. Bones made of that along with artificially created ionic electroactive polymer muscles could punch through a brick wall. The skin and tendons will be damaged, but can regenerate within a day.
Imma be honest the virus idea sounds like one mistake away from creating zombies 😂😂😂
Somehow, using ethics as an excuse to not create SuperHeros sounds like something that both a SuperHero *and* a SuperVillian would do 🤔
Imagine everyone getting a captain America serum then people be like, “ but can we become the sentry though?”😂
“Some kind of monster...” was that a metallica reference? Becouse that would be amazing!
the buff cows, rats and dogs that these muscle mutations happen in also have reduced lifespan because of the harder the heart and other organs have to work to support them.
Now we need a More Plates More Dates crossover
Can't wait for this stuff to be common knowledge and see the inevitable Captain America reboot/re-imagining/100 years anniversary/whatever refer to his transformation as "the super virus" instead of "the super serum" :P
I'm planning on writing a full answer to cover this, but in issue 384 of Captain America it was retconned that the serum was in fact a self-replicating virus. I'm not sure if that's still considered canon, but at one point at least it was.
"super serum" could easily be a deliberate misnomer disguise its true nature and confuse potential spies. Like how armored fighting vehicles came to be known as tanks.
6:09 "And they can do pullups when they're 3. Most people can't do 3 pullups"
Aren't pullups just much easier to do younger and smaller, with or without any given mutation?
Well you see, when you get older your body increases it’s size and therefore most things increase in capacity and power when your older which includes muscles meaning in reverse you get weaker the younger you are. This is why you don’t see a five year old beating mike Tyson to a pulp.
Just you wait till the muscle virus becomes infectious, then everyone will be super buff, and as a great man once said. "When everyone's super, no-one will be".
A great man, who died too soon.
Syndrome
When everyone's buff, know one will be.
Just wait till the Brahma Bull muscle virus not only becomes infectious, but it causes so much muscle mass buildup that people break bones and/or rip their own bodies apart just standing up. And, yes, you can be swole to the point your body tears itself apart.
@@jackielinde7568 well, these people with this mutation seem fine, their grandparents lift 300 pound paving stones with one hand.
i think the real super serum is the friends we made along the way.
This video basically summed up Albert Wesker's power origins.
Needs more damn crowbar for the one free man.
How many crowbar would be enough crowbar 1? def not. 2 but the other one is a cool one that splits into two smaller crowbars? imho 3 would be perfect but not everyone thinks like that cough valve cough