Chem Week 3: Neptune's Medicine Chest

I was pleased to read in this article that they'd found DNA sequences in marine life not yet found in any other living thing on Earth (I love it when humans are 'put in their place' as far as knowledge of life and it's many forms). And while I appreciate Fenical's drive to aid humankind, I think this approach is not much different from the one modern man has been taking; an approach that has landed us in the situation we are in now, with bacteria developing resistance to our current medications. I've read that Albert Einstein said or wrote, "The problems we face cannot be solved by the minds that created them." It's not just the individuals minds but the way of thinking. Mostly, the modern approach to illness is very warlike; destroy that which harms us. This culture tends to operate as if anything that harms our health or way of life is evil and should be eradicated...that we humans alone have the right to dominate, thrive and reproduce without limit. So we attempt to "wipe out" diseases, eradicate them because they cause destruction, suffering to us, and WE are what matters on this Earth. This cultures displays no evidence that ALL life forms should both thrive and yes, decline, including humans. 

Fenical's team is merely seeking yet another powerful weapon in the war against all that threatens our supreme right to dominate this Earth. 

Also, his work seems similar to that of our current pharmaceutical behaviors: isolating the most cathartic and powerful compounds, and applying in higher doses than would ever be possible in nature. Also, these compounds are isolated from other compounds that may be deemed "non-therapeutic" by laboratory standards but within the context of the whole naturally formed substance work sarcastically. 

There is also no evidence in this quest for newer and better drugs of prevention of dis-ease through right living. By 'right living' I mean shifting our focusing of living from production and success to preservation and cooperation, altering our eating exercise and sleep habits, living more in harmony with nature. Until we do that I think we can continue to "discover" medicines, even in the farthest reaches of space and never achieve true health because we are expecting to live in the world with it's natural laws but not be subject to them. HA! What a laugh. Modern humans don't tend to go around acting as though the laws of gravity or aerodynamics don't apply to us so why do we go around acting if the laws of being part of the greater nutrient cycle, including illness and death, and population decline apply to us?