by thatnerd on 9/5/24, 2:07 PM
We're already engineering ecosystems in a thoughtless way. I find it hard to believe that messing with mosquito genetics is going to make the world significantly more risky than it already is for humanity.
by hackeraccount on 9/5/24, 2:02 PM
Reading that "The astounding power of gene drives" makes the concept clear but I wonder - how could this not happen by random chance periodically? Maybe it's too infrequent to catch but doesn't it seem like occasional some species should just go extinct for seemingly no reason?
Further why wouldn't this be a positive attribute if one species could inflict it on another? I guess that's far fetched but I'm willing to admit that the logic of species interactions could very well be something that I haven't thought out.
by K0balt on 9/5/24, 11:34 AM
One thing I am not understanding here is why not target the malaria parasite itself, instead of the mosquito? (Other than the obvious fact that mosquitoes are annoying) it seems like that would be the route of abundant caution with minimal consequences?
by kwhitefoot on 9/5/24, 3:01 PM
That's the best explanation of CRISPR and gene drives I've seen.
by Workaccount2 on 9/5/24, 2:39 PM
It's my understanding that the gene-edited mosquito trials have largely failed, since after a few generations the female mosquitos evolved to avoid the gene-edited males.
by mensetmanusman on 9/6/24, 9:20 PM
We should have a govt agency tasked with destroying the couple types of mosquitoes that bother humans.
by twodave on 9/5/24, 12:54 PM
Am I understanding correctly that the main impediment to weaponizing this gene drive idea is the difficulty of spreading the treatment to a broad population? How are these things applied to a live subject, anyway? I had always assumed an injection, but maybe an aerosol could be produced? Hopefully not.
by e40 on 9/5/24, 11:12 AM
Too bad this article didn’t get more traction. Very interesting!!