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New Virus Breaks the Rules of Infection

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Re: New Virus Breaks the Rules of Infection

#71

Post by kafkaesq »

onewaystreet wrote: post #54
otto_ortega wrote: post #37

Why if instead of spending money researching the diseases that mosquitos could transmit to humans on the future we spend all that money into figuring out a way to exterminate all mosquitos from the surface of earth once and for all? As someone who lives on a tropical country and had have both Dengue and Chikungunya I can attest mosquitos are pure evil, and there are several researchs suggesting they serve no purpose…

The how already exists (genetic engineering) but it will probably never be done due to political reasons.

Umm, it's hypothesized that it can be done.

It's not like we "know" it can be done, but the politicians won't let us.

Re: New Virus Breaks the Rules of Infection

#72

Post by [deleted] »

etendue wrote: post #22
ChuckMcM wrote: post #9

Ok, off tangent a bit, but if you randomly sample mosquitoes, those mosquitos have limited flight range, and you find things about the blood meals they have eaten. Are you at risk of invading the privacy of people who live near the mosquitoes?

Very interesting question. What if, by chance, you tested that blood and found it positive for HIV? What are your ethical obligations viz. notification as one example? (Mosquitos can't transmit HIV, but they can capture the virus while feeding)

[deleted]

Re: New Virus Breaks the Rules of Infection

#73

Post by kafkaesq »

Myztiq wrote: post #45
DicksenZuider wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exterminating all mosquitoes could doom the animals that eat them. Birds, insects, spiders, salamanders, lizards and frogs could lose their primary food source. Wiping out a large part of the ecology could be a disaster.

There is a method for doing this. I can't seem to find the original article where I heard about this, but it was tested in some remote area in Africa and had a 90% reduction in mosquito population with just one application. Here is a more updated Zika flavored article about the same technique: http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/07/health/zika-florida-gmo-mosqui...

I'm only aware of the test conducted in Brazil, which had a claimed 80% reduction rate:

Oxitec, which is owned by Maryland-based Intrexon Corporation, tested its mosquitoes in the small Brazilian city of Piracicaba and said the reduced the number of mosquito larvae by 80 percent in one area.

Re: New Virus Breaks the Rules of Infection

#75

Post by roywiggins »

kafkaesq wrote: post #71
onewaystreet wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The how already exists (genetic engineering) but it will probably never be done due to political reasons.

Umm, it's hypothesized that it can be done. It's not like we "know" it can be done, but the politicians won't let us.

It has been tried, and works.

http://www.popsci.com/genetically-modified-mosquito-knocks-o...

Re: New Virus Breaks the Rules of Infection

#76

Post by thaumasiotes »

kafkaesq wrote: post #71
onewaystreet wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The how already exists (genetic engineering) but it will probably never be done due to political reasons.

Umm, it's hypothesized that it can be done. It's not like we "know" it can be done, but the politicians won't let us.

Heh. Politics is never going to stand in the way of mosquito elimination. Mosquitoes are more unpopular than child pornography.

Re: New Virus Breaks the Rules of Infection

#77

Post by nicolas_t »

otto_ortega wrote: post #37

Why if instead of spending money researching the diseases that mosquitos could transmit to humans on the future we spend all that money into figuring out a way to exterminate all mosquitos from the surface of earth once and for all? As someone who lives on a tropical country and had have both Dengue and Chikungunya I can attest mosquitos are pure evil, and there are several researchs suggesting they serve no purpose…

Yes, after the War on Drugs and the War on Terror, we need a War on Mosquitoes. It'd be a much better allocation than the other wars and much more beneficial for humanity.

I can already picture the SWAT teams running with their electrical mosquito swatters :-)

Re: New Virus Breaks the Rules of Infection

#79

Post by malz »

mcherm wrote: post #2

I think an alien looking at life on earth might find it very peculiar that so many of our life forms split into 2 independent parts that are unable to reproduce unless they match up with a partner of the opposite "sex". This is no stranger than that -- but it's fascinating to us who haven't encountered it before. The "sex" thing turns out to have big advantages: mostly that it allows for faster evolution by allowing…

"The maintenance of sexual reproduction in a highly competitive world has long been one of the major mysteries of biology given that asexual reproduction can reproduce much more quickly."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_sexual_reproducti... [NSFW: animal porn]

Re: New Virus Breaks the Rules of Infection

#80

Post by Fomite »

toufka wrote: post #12
Severian wrote: post #6

Just a thought: I wonder if the virus uses some form of redundancy encoding like certain RAID or file XOR systems use. I wonder if RNA/DNA has a checksum or data correction code somewhere? It would be really neat if this virus does something like that. It might be why the 5th viral component is not required.

It actually is likely the opposite. Many viruses deliberately avoid checksumming and error correcting, as that's how it generates better modular parts - through errors and variation. Some viruses like HPV actively shut down their host's error-correction equipment, so that they may be more effective (why HPV infections greatly increase chance of cancer). If you have a multi-part system where your factory is producing…

Along with that, one of the reasons HIV is so hard to design a vaccine for is it's absurdly high error rate, which drives a huge amount of genetic diversity even within-host.
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