Genetically Modified Animals: What Could Go Wrong?

Genetic engineering is one of the fastest growing fields in science, but should we actually be dabbling in it as much as we are? What if all those huge cows and glow in the dark mice eventually rise against us?

Technically we’ve been messing around with genes for thousands of years, making things like seedless grapes and cute little dogs that wouldn’t survive for a minute out in the wild. Although nothing too catastrophic has happened in the real world as a result of gene editing, some of the best movies out there are based off the concept of genetically modified beasts gone awry.

H.G. Wells wrote The Island of Dr. Moreau in 1896 as protest to animal cruelty. But today, cinema does this by creating fictional cautionary tales of what can happen if you mess with animals’ DNA too much. This idea has given us movies like “Deep Blue Sea” where scientists accidentally create super smart sharks and “Planet of the Apes” where super intelligent primates take over the world. It also brought us arguably one of the most iconic movies of all time – "Jurassic Park."

These big scary beasts may make great subjects for film, but you can’t help but wonder when you watch them if we may be on the way to creating some super smart, scary genetically-mutated monsters in the real world.  

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