The Vorkosigan Companion - Lillian Stewart Carl [51]
An additional complication is that, even if the function of a gene is known, each gene affects many other genes and characteristics. Beyond that, any particular trait (such as skin color) is determined by many genes working together, but skin color may be only part of what any one of those genes does.
Genes also work differently depending on which other genes are being expressed along with them: in different stages of development, in different tissues, and in different organisms. Or a particular gene may execute exactly the same molecular function in another organism, but that same function in the second organism causes something else to happen at the next higher level of complexity. As a result, deducing what all the genes do and how they do it is an amazingly complex endeavor that may or may not ever be achieved by humans.
Scientists today can cut out particular pieces of DNA (a whole gene, parts of one, etc.), insert them into other places in the same organism (depending on which ones) or other organisms (depending again), delete genes in certain organisms, mutate genes in certain organisms, make artificial chromosomes and insert them into certain organisms, etc. Accordingly, some of the technical tools to make the kinds of genetic manipulations essential to create quaddies or herms may be currently feasible; nonetheless, the knowledge of how to manipulate genes to achieve those ends is lacking. The Vorkosiverse ability to genetically manipulate may then not be reached for many more years.
The fourth and final feature of the Vorkosiverse discussed here is the vital cryonics technology. Bujold postulates a technology with which people can be brought back to life from a death. But only if the death happens in a certain way, and particular equipment and expertise are nearby and can be brought to bear quickly enough. Cryonics technology is used quite often for the Dendarii Mercenaries (a mercenary group that Miles leads on and off throughout the books) and is mentioned in passing many times (The Warrior's Apprentice, Brothers in Arms).
However, at one point, the cryonics technique becomes much more important, as it impinges very closely on Miles Vorkosigan himself (Mirror Dance). The consequences of this particular use reverberate through to the following book as well (Memory).
For the cryonics technology to work, the person must be drained of blood, filled with cryo-fluid within four minutes of death, and then frozen in a cryo-chamber. The cryo-revival involves careful thawing and complete healing of the original injuries, which could include the cloning and growth of organs. The patients often end up with amnesia, which may or may not resolve. In the Vorkosiverse, doctors specialize in cryonics, and ethical questions arise when all the cryo-chambers are already in use and yet another person dies. Bujold has again explored a fascinating technology as well as some of the ethical debates that follow from its use.
Is cryonics simply a science-fictional invention or is there current-day scientific research that supports it as a future advance? Some frogs freeze in the winter, then revive in the summer, and appear to do so by having extraordinarily high urea levels, which serves as an "anti-freeze." They are not the only organisms to survive freezing: the nematodes (worms) used as a model organism by many researchers are regularly frozen to be stored in liquid nitrogen and thawed for reuse. Organs from mammals, including the brain, have been frozen and brought back to some levels of function.
In addition, pigs have been taken down to very low temperatures (10 degrees Celsius core temperature for 60 minutes) using a method that sounds very similar to Bujold's