DNA Manipulation

This method is very dear to the writers of much transformation fiction. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is a phenomenally complex molecule found in the chromosomes of all life forms. Put very crudely, it's a chemical code that defines a life form. It is unique for every individual. Given its key role in defining a life-form's appearance, could someone be turned into a horse by replacing human DNA with equine DNA? Again the difficulty is the sheer complexity of the material involved. If DNA is a code, we are far from cracking it yet. However, assuming we did know what makes DNA 'tick', we might be able to use it. Replacing all the human DNA with equus would not work. The human would not then begin to grow into a horse. He would be a human with equine genetic material. While new cells might be equine rather than human, this is more likely to lead to lethal cancers than changing shape. More success might be achieved if a study of metamorphic life-forms was conducted. A tadpole's transformation into a frog involves a far more radical alteration of shape than a man into a horse. Suitably engineered DNA could achieve this change, if it could be introduced in a harmless fashion - we can hardly open up every cell in the body and physically replace the DNA. One solution might be an artificial virus. A virus works by mutating a cell's DNA to produce more virus cells instead of new host cells. If it could be made to change resident DNA into "New Improved Metamorphic" DNA, and the virus could be somehow guaranteed to infect almost every cell in the body, this may be a neatly effective form of transformation. Mass deficiency would have to be made up maybe vastly increased appetite during the transformation. The final form would have to be "edited" if the subject wished to retain their identity and intelligence, or such a process might very well transform their brain into a horse's too!

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