Freak Show

 

    Di at Doctor and Covenants pointed me to this story, where a brain surgeon was operating to remove a mass from a patient and and ended up finding a foot.  The story states that this is either a rare type of tumor called a teratoma or is it a rare case of a twin that remained attached to the patients and was totally enveloped into the skull, a condition called fetus in fetu.

         The image is striking, and gives a certain visceral reaction, which is largely why pictures like this make their rounds on the internet. 

Phenomenal Cosmic Powers

We live in an age where our understanding of life is far beyond what our forefathers could have dreamed. We have cracked the genetic code. We have to capability to splice and dice. We have an entirely new field, bioengineering dedicated to the proposition that we can literally, “engineer life” to suit our needs. The breakthroughs we have made are astonishing. We have sequenced the entire genome of mankind. We have the power to modify species at will.

In a sense we have been at this for a very long time. We have domesticated the dog and the cat. The grains that we rely on to feed mankind are all a product of manipulation of one seed with another, keeping the ones that grow the “best” crop. Rice, wheat, corn are all essentially artificial and manmade in a sense. I find it a little ironic those that will look at genetically altered agricultural produce with fear and disdain when by definition, agricultural products are manmade. Whether we select genetic traits in a lab or in the field, the fact is we alter them.