Drama: Genesis
Native Title: 복제인간
Also Known As: Clone Man , Four Men , Bogjeingan , Bokjeingan
Director: Jang Tae Yoo
Genres: Thriller, Mystery
Country: South Korea
Episodes: 6
Aired: Jun 18, 2021 – Jul 23, 2021
Aired On: Friday
Original Network: Olleh TV
Duration: 52 min.
MAIN CAST:
PPark Hae Jin,Nana,Lee Shi Ah,Kwak Shi Yang,Lee Ki Woo,Jeong Yoon Seo
SNOPSIS:
Will is doing research on injecting human nerves into robots. He loses his family in an accident and wanders. In the end, he uses his ongoing clone research to bring the dead family back to life. This is the plot of the sci-fi movie ‘Replica’, which is about to be released in Korea. How far did clone development actually go?
Before creating clones, Will was working on linking human nerves with robots. He calls the attempt to connect the human brain and computers a ‘brain-machine interface’. Many scientists have already succeeded in inserting electrodes into the brains of monkeys to induce them to make specific choices, and have developed a technology that reads even simple thoughts in monkeys. An experiment was also successful in which an electrode was inserted into the human brain and then the brain waves generated from the brain were transmitted to the robot to move the robot arm. Tesla founder Elon Musk recently announced that he had succeeded in implanting microscopic electronic chips in the brains of mice and monkeys and connecting them to computers. After opening the rat’s skull and inserting microscopic thread-shaped sensors about a quarter of a hair in thickness, it used a method of wirelessly exchanging signals with a computer. Musk’s startup, Neuralink, explained that the device could monitor the activity of 1,000 neurons at once. As US researchers in the past reported that they succeeded in making a computer mouse move just by thinking by implanting a chip with 96 electrodes in the brain of a quadriplegic patient, it is expected that more complex movements can be realized if 1000 neurons can be read. . However, as it is necessary to open the skull and implant electrodes in the brain, it is still difficult to see the stage as applicable to humans.
The same goes for clones. When Dr. Hwang Woo-seok’s stem cell thesis manipulation case occurred in 2005, we thought that it would be possible to cure an incurable disease at any moment and create clones. However, research using stem cells to treat incurable diseases, let alone clones, is still ongoing.
The basic unit of all life on Earth is DNA. The four bases that make up DNA, adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine, are constantly listed and passed on to offspring. A specific nucleotide sequence that composes DNA passes through RNA to produce proteins necessary for life. Characteristics (shape or attributes of any living thing) such as height, weight, and hair color are all created through this process. A clone is another person who has all of these same genes. If the DNA sequences match, they are basically similar in appearance. Identical twins are indistinguishably similar because their DNA sequences are almost identical.
Creating clones with identical genes is surprisingly simple. Theoretically, after removing the human skin cells to be cloned, they are fused with an egg from which the nucleus has been removed. If a fertilized egg is implanted in the uterus and born ten months later, a ‘cloned human’ with the same gene as the person who provided the skin cells will be born. But it’s easy to say, and implementing it is another matter. Even if it is an ethical issue, the technology to make a fertilized egg and differentiate it using the nuclear substitution method is quite difficult. The method described above is called ‘nuclear substitution technology’, and nuclear substitution is not as good as it goes from mammals to primates and humans. The chances of success are also extremely low. Newly born cells, such as fetuses, replicate easily using nuclear substitution, but the process that used to work well with adult cells is suddenly blocked. Scientists still don’t know exactly why. In 2014, researchers at CHA Hospital in Korea succeeded in obtaining stem cells by combining the skin cells of 35 and 75-year-old males with an egg with the nucleus removed to create a fertilized egg and then differentiate it into an ’embryo’. It has succeeded in cloning embryonic stem cells. According to the theory, this fertilized egg is implanted in the womb and a clone is born after ten months. However, scientists are not sure whether the fertilized egg made in this way can really be implanted or whether the implanted fertilized egg can differentiate properly and grow well in the uterus for 10 months.
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