Whenever I ask my boyfriend to help me decide which
item to buy because of its color, it is like asking a monkey unable to tell red
from pink. Maybe I am overreacting, but colorblindness is an issue in the
animal world too, please do not take it wrong. Actually, great numbers of
monkeys are born with colorblindness or with other vision problems. All male
Squirrel Monkeys are colorblind just to name one. Fortunately, for them something
is changing, since these are disorders affecting humans as well, scientists are
focusing on studying and testing gene therapy techniques to reprogram their
color receptors, practices that could be used on humans in the future.
These long term techniques are about retraining an
adult brain with results a few months later, but once the condition has been
modified, the animal does not make the same mistake over and over, it changes
for ever. Which is even more revealing is that once
the reprogrammed receptor cells began working monkeys’ reactions were much
quicker.
Even though initial experiments were
just focused on animal colorblindness, subsequently identifying pair of colors,
scientists are convinced these tests will certainly lead to treatments of a
wide range of human vision problems.
What is really chocking is that
scientists finally understood something about animal testing as well, because
these experiments and treatments involved just a few monkeys picking different
fruits and touching screens. No drugs nor vivisections, and amazing results. When
it comes to my boyfriend and 8% of the total male population, nowadays it’s
better if I ask my girl friends which item should I buy.
Now, do you think this treatment will
actually contribute to people with visual problems? or it would be better
if scientists focused on improving future generations' genes in order to avoid
these disorders? Would you approve it or not?
Here it is a link where you can find
more information about this interesting topic and make a clearer view of it
I liked the topic of your entry! First of all, I would like to say--with all due respect--that it was very funny to read the comparison you made between your boyfriend and a monkey! I hope he won’t read your entry; otherwise, you may be in trouble.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I agree with this kind of treatment—especially if it doesn’t point out to the use of drugs and vivisections on animals. Moreover, I’m pretty sure that there must be no difference between humans and monkeys in the way they interpret colour signals from their eyes, which will allow the treatment to be used on humans in the future—I really hope so.
I would like to add that dogs—my favorite animals—are colour blind too, because they can’t recognize the read, orange and green colour, but they are able to see yellow, blue and violet. I know there are more animals that can have the same problem, since it’s interesting to know that the kinds of colours they are able to see can vary.