Deformities Alarm Scientists Racing to Rewrite Animal DNA

Post by pawelmurias » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 10:22 AM UTC

datafatmunger wrote: post #201

misrab wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. It seems like we may want to develop more accurate models of how changing DNA and its environment affects its expression through (t)RNA, proteins, and reflexively itself, before making massive "production" changes in one go. In other words, perhaps we should be more methodical and patient in our approach? Curious what the experts have to say about this.

All true, but it's progress compared to some current GMOs (I'm not anti-GMO). Quite literally developed by exposing fields of fruit to massive amounts of radiation until you ended up with a generation that was better than the last.

Post by ethbro » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 2:45 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #199

ethbro wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't believe I can. I'm honestly flabbergasted that I read "Burn the mechanized mills!" on Hacker News. I'm not advocating groupthink, and there are certainly ways we could have built a better present, but the blind ungratefulness to say "Mass manufacture and electricity were mistakes" deserves some outrage.

anigbrowl is right. Please don't post in the outrage style to HN. Your comments would be more persuasive for being less flamey. This is a case of medium-is-the-message. Also, please don't use quotes to make it look like you're quoting someone when you're not. That's also a flamewar trope and a vector in the unwanted direction.

Post by gus_massa » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 4:26 PM UTC

hyperpallium wrote: post #175

gus_massa wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No single point just does a single thing. They all interact with each other. Some parts have a very straightforward meaning. For example the DNA code for insulin is well known and understood, you can copy it to bacteria to make them produce a 100% accurate version of human insulin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin > The human insulin protein is composed of 51 amino acids, and has a molecular mass of 5808 Da. I…

Does the code for insulin do anything else?

Post by carboy » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 4:49 PM UTC

gus_massa wrote: post #206

hyperpallium wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the code for insulin do anything else?

As far as I know, no. (There are some examples of molecules families. You have many variants of it encoded in the DNA, and each is optimized for a different task. IIRC the idea is that some molecule is used for two similar thing, then after a lot of generations by a random chance you get two copies of the code in the DNA, then after a lot of generations each copy is used for one task, then after a lot of generations…

Post by carboy » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 5:03 PM UTC

smaddox wrote: post #69

jayalpha wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"No single point just does a single thing." Exactly this! And this is why GM foods are more dangerous than you might expect. Even if gene x does only x in organism A, there is no guarantee that gene x does only one thing or the same thing in organism B.

GM foods are arguably no more dangerous than any massively engineered foods we've been eating for decades/centuries. Direct gene modification is more like using a scalpel rather than a 2x4. Still potentially dangerous, but far more precise.