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Ask HN: What are the greatest discoveries in the last few years?

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Re: Ask HN: What are the greatest discoveries in the last few years?

#171

Post by [deleted] »

nickbauman wrote: post #140
Protostome wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're GMOing crops long before the DNA revolution. Plants were selectively bred for certain qualities since the dawn of agriculture. None of fruits or vegetables we eat in the present (even without GMO) could be found naturally few hundred years ago. We were genetically modifying them without really knowing the mechanism. There some ecological as well as regulatory challenges. That doesn't mean GMO isn't a solid appr…

Selective breeding is not the same as editing a genome. You cannot "selectively breed" a fish gene into a tomato.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What are the greatest discoveries in the last few years?

#172

Post by primroot »

Kalium wrote: post #62
beat wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with GMO is that it's basically a vendor lock-in scheme for agribusiness giants. It's not a good engineering solution to the real food problems we face. Of course, the DONT EAT THE SCIENCE OR IT WILL GIVE YOU THE CANCER political nonsense is wrong. That doesn't let GMO off the hook, though. The problem it attempts to solve, on the surface, is increasing the productivity of monocropping. But productivity i…

Racing to the bottom on price isn't good for you because you have access to lots of food at prices you can easily afford. For a great many people, more and cheaper food means they can actually afford to get enough to eat. Foods have been modified to stay fresher and be more nutritious. But you don't see them in stores.

I'd really be interested in knowing those that have been modified to be more nutritious, especially since a lot of nutritious food gets to stay out of the market due to its incapacity to stay fresh. I only know of Golden Rice, and I'm not even sure how fresh it stays.

Re: Ask HN: What are the greatest discoveries in the last few years?

#173

Post by primroot »

sampo wrote: post #122
ZenoArrow wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are hybrid seeds designed to be one use only like terminator seeds? How is the vendor lock-in structured?

"Are hybrid seeds designed to be one use only like terminator seeds? How is the vendor lock-in structured?" Plant breeding 101: Every individual has two copies of each gene: one comes form the father, on from the mother. It has been observed that individuals who mostly have different maternal and paternal versions, are more vigorous. This is called heterosis, or hybrid vigor [1]. Now, just to produce children with a…

Doesn't the UPOV contribute legally to the "vendor lock-in"?

Re: Ask HN: What are the greatest discoveries in the last few years?

#174

Post by Plough_Jogger »

sampo wrote: post #89
beat wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with GMO is that it's basically a vendor lock-in scheme for agribusiness giants. It's not a good engineering solution to the real food problems we face. Of course, the DONT EAT THE SCIENCE OR IT WILL GIVE YOU THE CANCER political nonsense is wrong. That doesn't let GMO off the hook, though. The problem it attempts to solve, on the surface, is increasing the productivity of monocropping. But productivity i…

"The problem with GMO is that it's basically a vendor lock-in scheme for agribusiness giants." Hybrid seeds already did that 50 years ago.

A big problem with GMOs is that they facilitate the use of massive amounts of pesticides.

Re: Ask HN: What are the greatest discoveries in the last few years?

#175

Post by agumonkey »

jotux wrote: post #143

Not very "fundamental" but I'm very excited about low-power advancements in ICs. There are companies like AmbiqMicro making microcontrollers that are reaching 30uA/MHz and 100nA sleep modes. This is starting to make ambient and RF energy harvesting viable. http://ambiqmicro.com/low-power-microcontroller

Awesome, never heard of their work.

Re: Ask HN: What are the greatest discoveries in the last few years?

#176

Post by pfh »

baldfat wrote: post #18
zt wrote: post #16

CRISPR for gene editing: "Since 2013, the CRISPR/Cas system has been used for gene editing (adding, disrupting or changing the sequence of specific genes) and gene regulation in species throughout the tree of life. By delivering the Cas9 protein and appropriate guide RNAs into a cell, the organism's genome can be cut at any desired location." (From Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRISPR ) Edit: Hear a recent…

This means curing: Color Blindness, Liver Disease, Hopefully Cancers, Genetic Defects, MAYBE one day Aging?

It also makes experiments to understand gene and regulatory element functions a whole lot easier.

Re: Ask HN: What are the greatest discoveries in the last few years?

#177

Post by jadeddrag »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #113
dragonwriter wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is (compared to other available techniques, at least) dead simple to cut out or add genes, yes. Practical human therapies that rely on gene editing involve more than just gene editing (and to be viable, profitable commercial applications, they require a whole lot of regulatory steps -- trials, approvals, etc. -- once all the pieces of the process are put together.)

So it won't be invented in America. But it will be made somewhere, then sold on the internet.

If it's sold on the internet, it will be available for bitcoin only, and maybe only via the darkweb.

Re: Ask HN: What are the greatest discoveries in the last few years?

#178

Post by DanBC »

Plough_Jogger wrote: post #174
sampo wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The problem with GMO is that it's basically a vendor lock-in scheme for agribusiness giants." Hybrid seeds already did that 50 years ago.

A big problem with GMOs is that they facilitate the use of massive amounts of pesticides.

In theory you use less. Roundup Ready is supposed to use lower quantities of weedkiller but do so earlier in the growing season when everything is more vulnerable to it (thus making a resistant crop useful).

It's not a great sales slogan: "Roundup Ready - increases costs by increasing the amount of spraying you can do".

Re: Ask HN: What are the greatest discoveries in the last few years?

#180

Post by dimino »

beat wrote: post #157
dimino wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The problem with GMO is that it's basically a vendor lock-in scheme for agribusiness giants. It's not a good engineering solution to the real food problems we face. GMO isn't that, Monsanto is that, and the fucked up patent system is like that. This is like creationists saying they dislike evolution, when they really mean they dislike abiogenesis, but accept everything else about evolutionary theory.

But why is Monsanto pursuing GMO? What problem are they really trying to solve? It's not a problem of food supply. It's a problem of getting greater control and higher profits out of a saturated market. What's good for a single business is often not good for the general public.

Should we ban encryption because Sony uses it in their DRM software?
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