By yacob on Wednesday, January 13, 2010 - 05:23 pm:

In one of my favorite ADF short stories humans gain the ability to produce chlorophyll in their skin. I've always thought this was a really neat idea to help battle world hunger problems. This morning I read an article where sea slugs have been found that now have chlorophyll in their pigment. Which provides enough solar based energy for them to subsist on (given 12 hours of light exposure). This is the first time the trait has been found in a multicellar animal. More interesting is that the genetic code to produce the chlorophyll transfered naturally from the algae that the slugs eat to the slug itself. Recalling the genetic transfer of florescence in jelly fish to canine puppies recently in Korea, the dream of chlorophyll in humans seems now just a matter of going through the procedural motions. Two options actually: volunteer for a genetic grafting experiment, or eat lots of sea slugs and hope for another level of gene transfer from the slugs :-) To find articles on this topic, head over to Google's news site and search for "Sea slug chlorophyll".

By adf@alandeanfoster.com on Thursday, January 14, 2010 - 07:39 am:

Yesterday to me from Sidney K. Pierce, the principal scientist involved: "yeah, well truth is stranger than fiction-isn't that the old saw?? Even if we could get all the biochemistry successfully transferred to humans (there is obviously a lot more to it than just chlorophyll synthesis) there is probably going to be a large surface to volume problem in an organism our size-that's in part why plants have developed leaves. but you never know." Ah, science-fiction. The story was rejected by the first editor to whom it was submitted who said, "This is scientifically impossible!" It was eventually published by Omni.

By yacob on Thursday, January 14, 2010 - 12:59 pm:

Wow! That's so great that he replied so quickly. Even in 2010 I still get impressed by the marvel of the internet. Well, I didn't expect photosynthesis to be a complete solution for humans. But even as a supplement to our food intake it could still be beneficial. If 6 billion people could eventually eat 5% less a day, the savings would be significant. At a personal level, as someone who doesn't tan but sun burns easily, I'm very attracted to the notion of putting my surface area to work for me rather than carry it around as a liability. If chlorophyll in my pigment would save me from sun burn and keep me from snacking between meals -I would be more than content.

By adf on Friday, January 15, 2010 - 11:09 am:

Coming soon to a store near you...Kellogg's Crunchy Sugar-Coated Chloroplasts.

By PAX on Saturday, January 16, 2010 - 07:59 pm:

Yummm....

By PAX on Saturday, January 16, 2010 - 08:03 pm:

...I'll eat anything sugar-coated!

By ostbey on Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - 08:18 am:

I wonder if people would accept to walk around naked (or almost naked) all or most of the time in order to synthesize enough... Not only for social reasons, but also for reasons of climate. Most of humanity lives in climatic zones which do not really encourage one to go naked for most of the time...

By PAX on Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - 08:23 pm:

I don't know...I see a lot of people (mostly young women) who walk around half naked a lot of the time. --Of course I live in the "south" so the weather is pretty mild. I think they would do well "synthesizing".

By adf on Wednesday, January 20, 2010 - 07:08 am:

The northern Europeans can handle a lot of exposure in bad weather. Lots of story possibilities here. People would get fatter in the summer, there might be prejudice against those who are a darker green than others, etc. Most of the world's hungry live in tropical or semi-tropical climates, so that would help. We have met the little green men...and they may be us.

By PAX on Wednesday, January 20, 2010 - 07:22 pm:

Cool...green brings out the color in my eyes.

By yacob on Sunday, January 24, 2010 - 01:27 pm:

What impresses me the most about the sea slug discovery is the way that the photosynthesis trait was transferred. My mind is still boggled by it. I wonder if this has happened before and made us who we are today -we are what we ate! I don't know how true it is but I remember something about many Japanese being lactose intolerant because they do not have a history of cattle raising and so did not develop an enzyme to cope with bovine milk digestion. But this is merely an example of adaptation to one's environment. Taking on the genetic code and capabilities of one's food supply is an entirely different ballgame.

By PAX on Sunday, January 24, 2010 - 09:37 pm:

Yes...what a story that would make...