Imagine any piece of technology in science fiction you have ever read or watched on film, and then realize that, barring self-destruction, it is only a matter of time before those capabilities become reality. If you have doubts, just taking a look around at what has already become commonplace over the last century or so that was once considered impossible.
Unfortunately, a lot of those people who dreamt of the possibilities in the past have not lived to see the reality. Therein lies what is a major part of the problem, our own mortality.
While a few may want death to come unexpectedly and without warning at any time in their lives, or trust in their own deity of choice, perhaps helping ourselves to not only extend life, but make death an option, would be preferable to inevitability.
Realizing that any problem today, including death, could be solved through nanotechnology, one would think it would be the utmost priority. Unfortunately, some Luddite type thinking, fear mongering, ignorance, and religious absolutism have delayed or even stopped technological progress in some areas of the globe.
Fortunately, this is not the case with the United States and other developed countries, at least when it comes to nanotechnology or technology on the scale of a billionth of a meter. At the atomic and molecular scale, however, many difficulties occur.
While Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid (DNA), or Nature's nanotechnology, has proven to be useful for evolution over millennia, adapting it for use in recently developed nanotechnology has proven difficult, time-consuming, and expensive.
Helping to solve this problem is John Chaput and his research team at the Biodesign Institute of Arizona State University, who have now created a more flexible alternative: Glycerol Nucleic Acid (GNA). The advantages include faster mirror image replication, less expense, greater connectivity, and a higher heat tolerance. While still fairly new, the Journal of the American Chemical Society claims the team has been the first to make self-assembled nanostructures with GNA.
With these and many other tools currently available and on the horizon, the only problems left in the future seem to be those we create. Perhaps with enough foresight and responsibility, we will succeed in becoming more than human.
Yes, glycerol is a biochemical. It is a three carbon alcohol and the backbone of many 3C biochemicals, including lipids and steroids.
I haven't looked at the reference cited but can't see the connection with what I know.
There was a really good article in "Scientific American" a couple years ago about this stuff. I'll try to find it and summarize it for people who want something more scientific and accurate.
I'm not sure how much biology C.E. actually has under his belt. I'm not trying to be unkind. To me, it just doesn't make sense.