Let's Talk Geek For A Second...

I found something you HAVE to read!

I was reading through some blogs, trying to catch up with you amazingly interesting people (we all know the # of blog posts on the weekend drops, so it's the best time to catch up), when I came across a rather interesting blog entry.

At first it mentions something about something Captain America can teach us...  I thought "Oh-gees, here's another movie lesson."  But then it goes on to say "genetic engineering" and my ears perked up.

For those of you who aren't aware, I may or may not be a bit of a science geek.  Just an FYI.

I don't want to burst the bubble, so take the time now to go read THIS blog entry by Just a Runner @ Beyond Fatigue, Pain, and ACTN3 and come back when you're done.

*Waiting*

Isn't that AWESOME?!

Now, for anyone science minded, there are plenty of missing links like 'what happens long term with these mice (do they live just as long and healthy)?', testing an IL-15a blocker, creating non-functional IL-15a gene to test where the effect lies along the gene to product line, finding a relation between mouse and human IL-15a, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.  But either way, this provides some really cool questions to ask...

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1.  Do you think endurance is genetic or learned?  Do you think everyone is able to endurance distance or are some of us just made better for it?

2.  Do you think things like endurance, abilities, or characteristics can be attributed to a single gene change?  (FYI: the current gene estimate for humans is somewhere around 20k)

3.  Do you think athletes will attempt to use the IL-15a effect to their advantage and add it to the laundry list of illegal drugs doping?

4.  If they found out that IL-15 is indeed linked to endurance ability, would you have yourself tested to see if you had a variant versus the "normal" copy?

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Stay fit.  Stay healthy.  Stay safe.