Olympics Beijing 2008 August 8, 2008
Posted by Matt Brown in Sports.add a comment
Well, it’s official. The 2008 Olympic games have begun. Seeing as how this blog is about athletics I figuered it would be a good idea to follow the Olympics and keep people updated on the events. Be sure to check back here for medal counts, record breakers, caught cheaters (hopefully not too many of them,) and anything else of note. Oh, and one more thing. USA, USA, USA!!! Sorry, couldn’t resist 
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Myostatin: How to make the Incredible Hulk August 6, 2008
Posted by Matt Brown in Human Enhancement, Strength.Tags: gene therapy, Human Enhancement, myostatin, Strength, Transhumanism
3 comments
This story is a little old but it’s still pretty interesting. A few year ago a child was born to a Michigan family. I was apparent pretty quickly that something was different about this kid. At 5 months old he could perform an iron cross, a gymnastics maneuver usually only performed by top gymnasts. It turns out that the kid, Liam Hoekstra, had a rare genetic mutation that inhibits myostatin in his body. Myostatin is a protein that inhibits muscle growth, seemingly by keeping muscle stem cells from being utilized. When myostatin is turned off or blocked the result is muscles that most bodybuilders would kill for. This kid has a natural mutation but scientists are currently working on an artificial myostatin blocker that has the potential to be a serious boon when it comes to treating muscle wasting diseases like muscular dystrophy. It also has the potential to replace steriods as an athletes preferred doping drug. Apart from the enormous muscle development inhibiting myostatin seems to have no side effects, the kid is a normal little boy in every other way, which would make it ideal for both purposes. The original article can be found below.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070530/strong_toddler_070530/20070530
Gene Doping August 5, 2008
Posted by Matt Brown in Genetics.add a comment
The doping of the future as it has been called. It has the potential to create a new breed of athletes, faster and stronger than they could ever be without it. Oh, and it’s impossible to trace. You can see why some are very worried about the possiblities of gene doping, especially with the Olympics around the corner. But when you get right down to it, is genetic engineering (lets drop the pejorative ”doping” for now) really all that bad. Not according to an article written in The Economist. You can find it in the link below but here’s the synopsis. The author’s main point is that our resistance to performance enhancement stems from two beliefs: it’s not safe and it’s not fair. The first goes without saying. If a product is harmful for the person taking it, regardless of it performance enhancement capabilities, it should be banned. The second one is a bit more tricky. Is it fair that some people are born with genes that allow them to produce more EPO than the average person or allow them to build muscle faster? Frankly, no it isn’t. In fact, genetic engineering could actually be a way to encourage fairness, leveling the playing field by providing everyone with the same genetic advantages so that the only things that determine the winner are training and hard work. There are other points made but you can read them for yourself. I encourage everyone to do so because this is a debate that is not going away anytime soon.
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11848309
Exercise in a Pill August 5, 2008
Posted by Matt Brown in Fitness, Human Enhancement.add a comment
Here’s a story I found that makes me really excited and really depressed. Apparently, scientists at the Salk Institute (in San Diego I might add) have developed two drugs that mimic the effects of exercise in the lab mice they’ve been given to. The drugs apparently increase endurance, increase the number of Type I (slow twitch) fibers in skeletal muscle and keep the mice lean even when being fed a high fat diet that caused obesity in the untreated mice. As I said at the beginning, this makes me very excited. This has the potential to help treat sick and disabled people who are unable to exercise and aid in recovery and rehab. In addition it has the potential to push human endurance to a new level, allowing runners to run faster and longer than they ever could before, something that will excite some and dismay others. However, this also makes me depressed. Besides potentially putting personal trainers out of work, this is a couch potato’s dream. If there is one thing I can’t stand it’s people searching for a magic bullet, a way to reap all the benefits of exercise without any of the work. If this drug passes testing, is found to have no side effects and is released onto the market, a good sized if, then we will have found the magic bullet. You see my dilemma. In the end, I’m too optimistic about the good technologies like this can do to want anything less than to see it succeed. However, I hope that we don’t lose sight of the fact that while this gives us a powerful new tool to improve ourselves ultimately it is just a tool. It will still take willpower and effort to reach our potential, to achieve true greatness.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080731135918.htm
Sports Enhancement and the Olympics August 5, 2008
Posted by Matt Brown in Human Enhancement.add a comment
It’s been a while since I’ve updated this blog. Suffice to say things have been happening. One of those things is that I ‘ve been thinking about the direction I want to go with this and I’ve decided to make a change. I’ll still be writing about exercise and such but I’ll also be exploring the science behind alot of what I’ll talk about and the issues we’re facing in the modern world. With many new technologies emerging that have the potential to radically alter the human body in a number of ways, we will be facing many big debates and decisions in the coming years over the effects of these technologies on sport and on our society at large. On that note, please take the time to read this article I found on the upcoming Olympics. It makes some very interesting points on how human enhancement technologies are rapidly changing how athletes are able to compete and how it might be time for us to change our views on “doping” and other enhancement technologies.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/01/AR2008080103060.html
