The Future of Genomics and the future

My mother has gray eyes, and so does her two sisters. Her father had gray eyes but my uncles have brown eyes. 

One of my cousin (female) who recently had a baby boy has gray eyes and so did my other cousin (male) had a baby girl who has hazel eyes. 

My obsession with different colored eyes started when I realised my mother has different color eyes but I don't. Neither does my sister. 

And then I came to conclusion that its totally irrelevant but then with some examples it was pretty certain that eye colors may get transferred in cross gender generations. 

So even if today someone gave me choice to choose my offsprings eye color, I would take it. No questions asked. 

But what if someone asked me to make my kid brilliant as Einstein with gene editing, would I do that? 

I am asking all these irrelevant questions because I just finished a 4 part series about genomics and the future of gene technology and it makes me wonder as I lay back and look across the sky , what will be that world when my kids are born. 

The series starts with the mention of CRISPER  a gene editing technology which can alter your genes with simple procedures and create wondrous results. 

I had heard a podcast about this technique just few months back and to be honest it just felt a long gone thing for me. 

But as I watch the benefits and horrors this technology showcased in front of us, I am rather confused about my opinion right now. 

We see a kid struggling to see, we see him crying because his genetic impaired vision creates great difficulties between his dreams of being an astronaut. 

We see another young man who is trying to find a cure to his HIV. 

We see couples who are struggling to have kids and the other who just wish to have blue eyes babies together. 

We see the actual demonstration of procedures to entirely irradiate an entire species such as mosquitos, rats and mice. 

I see a lot of judgement and backlash against the technology which can potentially be threatening to our own species while I feel happy that the kid was genuinely happy that now his dreams were no longer genetically bound . 

If I hear and know in and outs of this technology sitting at one end of the world I no longer doubt myself that soon I will be meeting parents who are okay with this stuff used for the benefit of their kids. Couples who wish to make their babies more stronger, capable and healthy. 

 

I also get a strange feeling whether in a world of genetically modifying people, the babies who were born naturally will be treated differently. How will you then decide who wins and who loose in this world because it's everyone who has the same level of opportunity. 

I feel whether in attempts to eradicate some species we will walk this slippery slope and end up loosing more than we ought to gain. 

In the series there was a line as new Zealand went through a hottest summer in the centuries and that ended up breeding too many rats , which in turn ate the diversed birds such extent that they needed a genetically engineered solution for their problem. 

If we look at the world's weather right now, everything seems to be going haywire and I can see that when the rain in my place just doesn't stop even after the mansoon is over. 

The hurricanes and so many natural calamities wreck in every single part of the world. If this is to happen due to global warming and climate change then the solutions provided are going to be evolutionary and extreme. 

Whenever I would watch any world ending movies or news my father would say he has seen the same thing in his adulthood and it would give me an assurance that I am going to tell the same thing to my kids. But then I wonder does the ending of world ever ends like in movies? Or do we all just push through the worse of it every generation and call it survival...

Scared? Good...

Hola Amigos, 

What a good time to be back in the flow. 

Well I have been busy lately, a lot busy rather.

I will be starting as a new employee of another company now and it's all seems overwhelming. 

Few months ago I was struggling to get through the doors of companies for a better post and then I ended up surviving few interviews.

I knocked down a few while few said thank you for your time at the end of it. 

Me and my friend used to discuss the strategies we need to follow to get another good job and I would say I know that I am going to get better at this eventually and so I don't mind scratching my head until I figure out how to do this. 

I was just wondering whether I should consider sticking to this organisation while on an amazing day I waited 4-5 hours to give one round of interview and ended up clearing it. 

Then prepared myself for the another round and got through with it.

I came home on the top of clouds and I dropped my resignation with a hint of hope in my eyes for a better future. 

I never knew there could be joy in leaving something behind and moving on to something entirely unknown.

We celebrated in the wake of smooth discussions further and I was on it. 

And then I came across another opportunity which I thought was better for myself and then it became my destination finally. 

I would certainly miss the comfort and the familiarity of the place I have spent last 2 and half years committed to the cause but a feeling of something better and more challenging gives me hope to start anew. 

Starting a new journey from today onwards. 

I wish it shall be fruitful and satisfying one.

There's a quote which goes on as,

Scared ? Good.. we don't grow when we stay in comfort zone. 

To the breaking of comfort zones, to the struggles of getting somewhere without destinations... 

Caliphate-An audio series following Rukmini Callimachi as she reports on the Islamic State and the fall of Mosul.

Caliphate, the political-religious state comprising the Muslim community and the lands and peoples under its dominion in the centuries following the death (632 CE) of the Prophet Muhammad. 

The reason I starting digging up this word is because of the podcast I am currently into, with the same name. 

Some might find it to be such a ignorant issue but I have always found the stories of refugees , crisis of syria and of course the ISIS very intriguing. 

I can still remember the voice of the pregnant woman speaking about her health issues and how her pregnancy imposed threat to her life and the people calling her and other woman in the group prostitutes for being pregnant in such dire situation where their life has no direction what so ever. 

Rukminu Callimachi whose voice is extremely surreal starts off her journey into this with an ex Jihadist being interviewed by her and her colleague. 

They share his stories of being witness to atrocities of ISIS and the reason he fled them when the glamour was toned down to the killing and violence. 

Rukmini takes us on a ride for the conflicting statements from him and ultimately the decision to track down and cross examine his facts. 

His part shows us a side of the person who are attracted towards this propagandists strategy to recruit people towards their "Nobel" cause of making the whole world as one under Muslims agenda sounds stupid while I sit in my regular commute surrounding thousands of people living in a world where everyone is equal and the concept of slave doesn't exist. 

The second part is strictly about the horror that this Caliphate imposes on people of other religious beliefs where they take the under age girls as sex slaves and sell them over and over again to their fighters in the name of earnings. 

We see the aftermath of the girls who have been through this hell are left to deal with the dilemma of outside world and the lies they told them over and over again that they feel their destiny is to suffer the pain imposed upon them. 

I still remember the moment when Rukmini tries to console a girl who was a survivor that "please don't feel ashamed because you were raped, my mother was too. And it's none of your fault. " It brought chills to my spine as she was giving a strength to a girl who was through all that. 

It gives us new hope when we hear stories of the girls who faced these were accepted in their society as holier rather than pelting them with stones for being dishonored by other people. 

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I read news about pregnant teens who ran to be a part of this Caliphate and now wanting to come back to their lands to give their children a new hope of life, and I feel angered towards their selfishness. 

But we are left to wonder how could some people be so senseless to only push forward their own thoughts and beliefs onto others with violence and abuse to create the so called holy Caliphate. 

Their strategic moves and planning for the undefeated position only leaves us shocked with how much more struggle and pain this will cause us, only to make those radicalized individuals understand that free will and good will always prevail again the evil. 

A great piece of work by a reporter whos trying to fight them from extreme front line. 

Caliphate- An audio series following Rukmini Callimachi as she reports on the Islamic State and the fall of Mosul.