Thus it was written in the epistle of Wirt Atmar,
> Greg asks:
>
> > OK, but isn't there a difference between the indirect manipulation the genes
> >  by selective breeding (even at the level of the gametes) and directly
> >  manipulating them at the sub-cellular level?
>
> Nope.

Wirt,
  Would you also conclude that there is no difference between entering new
customer records in application and using a disk editor to change the contents
of those sectors which make up the IMAGE dataset?  The difference is that you'd
jolly well better know exactly what you're doing or the chances of your doing
something you really don't want to are high (and you may not find out that you
really didn't want to do it until the opportunity for recovery is past).  The
lower down you work, the fewer restrictions and protections there are.  You
have much more power and much more danger.

Ted
--
Ted Ashton ([log in to unmask]), Info Serv, Southern Adventist University
          ==========================================================
There's a touch of the priesthood in the academic world, a sense that a
scholar should not be distracted by the mundane tasks of day-to-day living.
I used to have great stretches of time to work. Now I have research thoughts
while making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Sure it's impossible to
write down ideas while reading "curious George" to a two-year-old. On the
other hand, as my husband was leaving graduate school for his first job, his
thesis advisor told him, "You may wonder how a professor gets any research
done when one has to teach, advise students, serve on committees, referee
papers, write letters of recommendation, interview prospective faculty.
Well, I take long showers."
                        -- Landau, Susan