The next frontier in mass customization: children being produced in baby factories?

nospam@example.com (Anita Windisman) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:32:00 -0600

Who hasn’t watched a favourite TV show of the past and been intrigued by the producer’s vision of the future? If you enjoyed Star Trek or The Jetsons, you probably anticipated that by 2010 we’d be driving flying cars, eating nutritional pellets, or manoeuvring around with our personal jet packs. It was also predicted that we would have personal domestic robots doing our chores, needle-less injections and have food replicated on demand. Of course, don’t forget that in the new millennium, we’d all be clad in silver jumpsuits with matching boots.

And so I was intrigued when the April issue of Canadian Business Magazine landed in my mailbox with a cover that read “An Insider’s Guide to the Future”. In addition to prognosticating what is to come, they also took a look at the past and reviewed a few predicted scenarios that were made back in the day.

In the 1920’s Scottish geneticist John Haldane surmised that the traditional method of child production would be virtually non-existent today.

What did he in fact predict?

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Genetically Engineered Roses Produce Custom-Made Scents

nospam@example.com (Anita Windisman) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:42:00 -0600

Imagine a yellow rose that smells like lemon, or a white rose that smells like vanilla. Those are the options that could be available at your local florist shop, according to scientists at the University of Florida in Florida who are developing the flowers.

As reported by Discovery News, this research could lead to custom-designed flower scents and better smelling fruits and vegetables. What gives a flower’s aroma is found in its genes and now that that this gene has been identified, scientists can grow flowers with never-before scents, which include roses that smell like root beer, or petunias that smell like wintergreen. How interesting it would be to be able to purchase roses that smell like your favourite perfume.

But, don’t look for these flowers in your grocery store just yet…

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The next frontier in mass customization: children being produced in baby factories?

Genetically Engineered Roses Produce Custom-Made Scents