Famed sci-fi writer, Vitor Gulanski, has tackled many
scientific disciplines in his long career. Now in Life Spiraling he addresses
issues of species integrity and gene tampering. Enjoy this excerpt.
Dr. Theo Plano had thought about this his whole life. Even
as a young adult he would let individuals collide in his mind and come out as
new creatures. Though he has won numerous awards and professional respect for
his papers on the random activity within genes, this idea has never left his
consciousness. He knew enough now. He had access to the labs he needed, and his
wife Janet had agreed to it.
When DNA splits, it rather reliably recombines because of
the base pairs that form its internal sructure. What if DNA could be tricked to
recombine with a chain that matched it by simply skipping multiple steps? For
years he had been freezing his own sperm in anticipation of this experiment. And
for years he had been scanning DNA databases across species and across the
world.
Now he had found it, made his selection, done the in vitro
fertilization and implanted the embryo into Janet. The pregnancy was mild, a
good sign. Janet grew large, noticeably larger than when she had Milo and
Gloria. It would only be days now, and the birth would be at home.
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