Toy Expensive and Controversial, But Fun

It was bound to happen, given the recent cloning of a sheep in Scotland, but I'm sure no one expected it quite so soon.

Nieman-Marcus, the glitzy Dallas department store, has announced that the firm's famed Christmas Catalog for 1997 will feature the Lifeforms Construction Set, a software and hardware package for your PC that will allow you to create novel organisms. The standard software package includes databases with the complete genome coding for most popular mammals and birds--including humans, of course. Optional databases are available for insects, fish, reptiles, bacteria, and even viruses. A separate Botany Library offers genetic info on several thousand plants. Standard hardware includes a compact gene splicer and reassembler, an implantation station, and an incubation chamber that can nurture fetuses up to 10 lbs. (larger sizes can be custom ordered). If you want to analyze and clone the DNA of an individual or species not in the databases, an optional sequencer is available.

The technology is based on refinements of automated DNA sequencing and manipulation techniques developed over the last few years by HGS Labs, a small company specializing in the production of genetic-based drugs, and SmithKline Beecham, a major pharmaceutical company. The software and actual hardware designs are the products of Huxley and Associates, a company that has already received considerable attention--and a fair amount of criticism from religionists and politicians--for its superb Get Real! virtual reality software and viewer (which the company calls an ''Experiencer.'') Huxley settled several lawsuits last summer when it agreed to add an age-recognition feature to the Get Real! interface, following complaints from parents that some ''experiences'' (mostly marketed by independents) were a bit too intense for young children.

The Lifeforms Construction Set (the name was inspired by the Music Construction Set, the first professional quality music composition software) is a breeze to set up, although if you buy the sequencer you will need two free slots in your PC. Each hardware module is about the size of a laser printer, so you may need an additional desk (Nieman- Marcus offers a solid mahogany custom LCS workbench, which will accommodate all the hardware plus your PC, for $2995). Within a day after receiving my demo, one of several Nieman-Marcus has loaned to reviewers, I'd produced a mouse that sang like a whippoorwill (the incubator accelerates gestation time approximately 10-fold). My second effort, a non-shedding cat--it has scales derived from a rattlesnake gene instead of fur--snoozes on my lap as I write this.

Design begins with selection of a ''prototype''--typically some ordinary creature (or human). A mouse click then brings up a screen of readily modifiable features: sex, size, hair color, long or short tail, etcetera. For most users, from there it will be merely a matter of mix 'n match. More ambitious and imaginative bioartists, however, will find powerful tools for locating the genetic sequences underlying many subtle traits, which might be anywhere in the databases. You can even insert and express genes whose functions are so far unknown, making this ''toy'' a genuine and quite sophisticated research tool.

Nieman-Marcus bills the package as an ''educational toy'' suitable for preteens and up. Some parents aren't so sure. Shirley Fife of Dallas, mother of one of a group of teens given demos for user-satisfaction and beta-testing in December, says the Lifeforms Construction Set is ''disruptive.''

''I always had trouble getting Robert to straighten up his room,'' she said. ''He always acted as though I was asking him to jump off a bridge. So one day I go in his room and there is this clone of me, sitting in a chair. It has this giddy smile on its face, and no matter what you said to it, it would reply, 'Yes, Robert. Do anything you like, Robert.' The boy told me he got my DNA from a hair off my hairbrush. I tell the boy's father to get that monstrosity out of my house. Three days later she's gone--and my husband along with her. Well, good riddance to both of them, I say. So I took the stupid machine back to the store. Now Robert is gone too--staying with his father, I hear. It's been a nightmare!''

Other parents in the group, however, seem pleased. ''I don't know what she's doing with that thing, '' says the mother of one 15 year old, ''but at least it's taken her mind off boys for a while.''

When you consider that as recently as three years ago equipment with the capabilities of the Lifeform Construction Set would have cost millions of dollars, the sticker price Nieman-Marcus is suggesting is remarkable: $99,995 for the basic system, and $39,995 for the genetic sequencer. Database supplements are $995 each, except the Botany Library, which is $1995. You'll also need some consumables: amino acid starter broth is $95 per 10 milliliter ampoule--enough for about 100 creations. A tray of generic vertebrate proto-ova containing about 1000 eggs is $199.95, but the database includes coding for a neo-salamander that can produce more of these in quantity. General purpose nutrient fluid (''soup'') is $69.95 per gallon.

Technology marketing experts are confident prices will drop. ''Remember that 20 years ago a computer capable of 100 MIPS cost $10 million,'' says Fred Stein, an analyst with Piper, Jaffray. ''Today you can get that performance for $1500.''

Maintenance, at least, is cheap. After a creation the equipment can be disassembled and scrubbed in any household dishwasher.

It may be controversial and pricey, but no one can deny that the Lifeform Construction Set is a superb educational product. It encourages learning, stimulates the imagination, and is just plain fun. Anyone got a hair from Vanna White?