Scientists in China undertook to search for gifted children by DNA tests. They want to artificially deduce supermen from them
Shocking news spread around the world the other day. In the Chinese metropolis of Chongqing, genetic samples will be taken from thousands of teenagers. DNA tests will find the 50 most talented. And then they will grow geniuses from them.
The project was initiated by the city "Children's Palace", where the outstanding Chinese pianist Li Yundi once studied. At the age of 18, in 2000, he was awarded the first prize at the XIV International Chopin Competition in Warsaw. And now the organizers of the genetic competition were eager to get another fifty of the same talented Li Yundi, and at the same time Einsteins.
The cells taken from children will be sent to Shanghai, where specialists from China's largest biochip development and production center will test them in 13 parameters. The Chinese believe that DNA tests will help assess the levels of intelligence, emotion and athletic ability. The winners of the competition will be trained in a special camp.
Most likely, as some Russian scientists suggest, there is no really great science here. And if there is, then at the level of dubious hypotheses. After all, scientists still do not know the genes responsible for certain human abilities. No one yet knows how the DNA of a turner differs from that of an astrophysicist.
But the first bells of the neo-eugenics are heard - new attempts to artificially breed gifted people. There have already been similar experiences in history. In Germany, they wanted to get a pure Aryan race. In the USA - brilliant copies of Nobel laureates. In the USSR - perfect Soviet people, builders of communism. And all is unsuccessful. Will the Chinese experiment succeed?
FROM THE HISTORY OF THE ISSUE
1880 YEAR
THE "SOURCE OF LIFE" HAS NOT JUSTIFIED HIMSELF
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Back in the 19th century, the famous English physician and anthropologist Francis Galton began to actively develop the idea that a man of genius is a "product of a genius kind." He carefully analyzed the genealogies of prominent people of his time and past. And I found a number of patterns. From his point of view, they clearly indicated that the manifestations of giftedness depend primarily on heredity. That is, as we would say now, from a special combination of genes.
Subsequently, Galton and became the founder of "scientific" eugenics - the doctrine of ways to improve the offspring of future generations.
1920 YEAR
THE BRAINS OF THE GREATS TURNED ORDINARY
Soviet scientists also planned to "produce" people with superpowers, revealing the secret of genius back in the late 1920s. And for almost half a century they have been collecting specimens of the brains of prominent people at the Institute of the Human Brain of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences (“KP” dated January 8, 2009 and on the website kp.ru). They searched for the "substance of genius" in the prominent convolutions. They wanted to isolate him and inject all the newborns of the Country of the Soviets, as a vaccine against measles.
“Alas, the study of the brains of great people did not reveal the secret of intelligence,” says Irina Bogolepova, a professor at the Brain Institute. - It turned out that the convolutions of the dead geniuses are biologically no different from the convolutions of "ordinary" mortals.
1935 YEAR
UNIVERSAL DREAM OF TSIOLKOVSKY
The pioneer of cosmonautics Konstantin Tsiolkovsky at one time seriously thought about creating a system of incubators - houses for breeding geniuses. For example, in his work "Cosmic Philosophy" (1935) it is written: "The idea of artificial fertilization of women from higher men without their participation is interesting. The resulting offspring is again fertilized by a higher man, and theoretically already the fifth generation gives almost perfection. " The most perfect people were to become the rulers of the universe. Gods.
Other "gods" with "pure Aryan blood" decided to create in 1936 and SS Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler. He headed the organization "Lebensborn" (German "Source of Life"). Its goal was: the conception and education in orphanages of children from employees in the SS, who passed racial selection. From those who did not contain "impurities" of Jewish and non-Aryan blood in general from their ancestors. It was not possible to get supermen.
1965 YEAR
Iron uterus for the dictatorship of the proletariat
In 1965, at the Leningrad Institute of Obstetrics and Gynecology, they tried to establish the production of an elite "race of Soviet people" with the help of a childbearing machine created by the scientist Oleg Belokurov ("KP" dated 2002-15-03 and on the website kp.ru).
For the future artificial uterus, the institute created miniature artificial kidneys. The uterus was equipped with a mechanical heart and many more "organs" that helped to imitate what is happening in the body of a woman during demolition. The experiments went like this. First, the placenta of a woman who was born was placed in a metal uterus with a special solution and studied what hormones are released during the creation of a person. Then, embryos were "laid" in an artificial womb - they were taken from women who had an abortion. But the daring project was curtailed in the era of Brezhnev's stagnation.
1980 YEAR
BANKRUPT BANK OF SPERM OF NOBEL LAUREATES
In 1980, California-based multimillionaire Robert Graham set up a bank to store frozen semen for Nobel Prize winners. With its subsequent use for fertilization. The result of the experiment was disastrous. Over the decades of its existence, the "genius" sperm bank has not become popular. Only 200 children were born. And they were all no different from their peers. The only one who turned out to be endowed with excellent data was Doron Blake. His IQ was 180, at two years old he knew how to use a computer, at five - he read Hamlet. But in life it did not help him. He became a stoned hippie, abandoned school and carried away by spiritualism.
FORECAST
All hope for genetic engineering
As noted by genetic scientists, despite the failures with experiments on breeding intelligent people, there is still a chance to unravel the nature of genius and grow a genius from a test tube. Genetic engineering will help in this great business. But not very soon. The fact is that scientists have not yet found the genetic code of genius and have not determined which genes are responsible for mental abilities. And when these genes are found, millions of their combinations will have to be analyzed. That will require more than a dozen years of continuous research.
According to the forecasts of science fiction writer Arthur Clarke, the first genius from a test tube will appear no earlier than 2060.
SPECIALIST OPINION
Olga Kuvykina, biologist:
“Even if we assume that there is a“genius gene”, this does not mean at all that we can use genetic engineering methods to“introduce”it into an egg and fill the world with geniuses. For example, several proteins can correspond to one gene (part of the DNA molecule). Therefore, if we “insert the genius gene” and wait for it to start synthesizing the “genius protein”, we might get some kind of “nonsense protein” instead.
