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GM fungus can rapidly kill mosquitoes that spread malaria, study suggests

bbc.co.uk

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Re: GM fungus can rapidly kill mosquitoes that spread malaria, study suggests

#101

Post by jfoster »

_Microft wrote: post #45

People do not take issue with doing something against malaria but with the proposed method. How could it be stopped if something went wrong? It's not like a chemical agent that you just stop applying when you notice adverse effects. This is a living thing. Living things can procreate, mutate, enter new niches and the only deciding factor is the rate of reproduction. Life doesn't optimize for killing malaria-carrying…

Couldn't this argument be applied to any living thing, not just the ones that humans have engineered? As soon as anything can mutate to enter a new niche, it will work the same way as this would.

Re: GM fungus can rapidly kill mosquitoes that spread malaria, study suggests

#102

Post by falsedan »

ltbarcly3 wrote: post #97
falsedan wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you realise this is a carefully-controlled scientific experiment and not the latest Telsa model rollout, right?

What is a 'carefully-controlled scientific experiment'? Please link me to the documentation of the safety controls they used and also to the body that verifies that they actually followed those controls properly and effectively. Hint: Neither thing exists.

lol get wrecked son, I'm not doing your homework for you. do your own research

Re: GM fungus can rapidly kill mosquitoes that spread malaria, study suggests

#103

Post by jfoster »

outside1234 wrote: post #94
throwaway13337 wrote: post #17

Predictable negativity from the comments here ignores that over one million people die of malaria per year. Not using what we can against something this horrible is a choice, too. And one that has the greater of consequences. It's easy to poke holes in things from the sidelines. That action is actively causing us to drag our feet and kill a lot of people. It should also be noted that mosquitoes are not depended on as…

I think you are missing the point that we risk releasing a fungi that kills billions of us as a result.

What if existing fungi mutate and kill a billion of us? Is it actually likely, or are we just being afraid of taking any action?

Re: GM fungus can rapidly kill mosquitoes that spread malaria, study suggests

#104

Post by not_a_cop75 »

The comparison to historic disasters caused by the introduction of invasive species can not be understated. Maybe the net positive is good, but there are still negative effects as of yet undiscovered. It would be nice to find a solution with only net positive, but we seem to live in a world of tradeoffs.

Re: GM fungus can rapidly kill mosquitoes that spread malaria, study suggests

#105

Post by jvanderbot »

not_a_cop75 wrote: post #104

The comparison to historic disasters caused by the introduction of invasive species can not be understated. Maybe the net positive is good, but there are still negative effects as of yet undiscovered. It would be nice to find a solution with only net positive, but we seem to live in a world of tradeoffs.

Malaria is a leading killer of humans. 212 million cases in 2015 alone. 70% of deaths are young children. (who stats)

Not to mention other diseases spread by mosquitoes.

Im down for trying.

Re: GM fungus can rapidly kill mosquitoes that spread malaria, study suggests

#106

Post by roywiggins »

Kalium wrote: post #96
tw04 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For something like this? An extreme amount. There are other options (a vaccine is already being tested) that can't mutate into a pathogen that kills off more people than the thing it was supposed to cure. Let's finish vetting those out completely before we move to what can only be described as the unstable nuclear option.

To be clearer, the question of what level of caution is appropriate is one that cannot depend on the approach being considered. It needs to to be one that can be applied evenly across the whole of the solution-space. Approaches like insisting on fully and completely explore all the ideas that are readily palateable before we try to understand the potentials and risks of others seems like making policy primarily based…

> Also, vaccines can run horribly off the rails. One cannot mutate into a pathogen, as you say

The live polio vaccine absolutely can. Before polio was largely eliminated, it didn't really matter, but once the risk of getting the wild-type virus dropped below the risk of getting it from the vaccine, it stopped making sense to use the live-attenuated vaccine.

http://www.virology.ws/2015/09/10/why-do-we-still-use-sabin-...

Re: GM fungus can rapidly kill mosquitoes that spread malaria, study suggests

#107

Post by jvanderbot »

BinaryResult wrote: post #79
jddj wrote: post #31

These threads about whether it's moral to kill mosquitoes en masse always seem to end up being about unintended consequences and ecosystem collapse. Some points to consider: - Those who study the strains of mosquito (a generous 50 out of ~3500) which spread disease in humans regularly state that they are not a primary food source for any one predator.[1] - Malaria killed 429 000 people in 2015, 90% of those being in…

I'm curious, if we had the power to just snap our fingers and irradiate all mosquitoes, do we have consensus to do so? I worry about unforeseeable consequences.

I dont. Species go extinct all the time and we're already trying to kill them all with bad side effects like indiscriminate pesticides.

This is one case of me falling on the side of intervention. Malaria is a terrible scourge, primarily on children. So much so that humans evolved sickle cell anemia as a prevention.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/01/2/l_012_02.html

Re: GM fungus can rapidly kill mosquitoes that spread malaria, study suggests

#108

Post by oxymoran »

I have no issue with modifying genetics normally, but why in the world would you modify a fungus to produce spider toxin? Fungi are far more advanced and intertwined with the biosphere than most people realize. What if they escape and run amok?

Why not just modify the mosquito which has been shown to work?

Re: GM fungus can rapidly kill mosquitoes that spread malaria, study suggests

#109

Post by wmil »

BinaryResult wrote: post #79
jddj wrote: post #31

These threads about whether it's moral to kill mosquitoes en masse always seem to end up being about unintended consequences and ecosystem collapse. Some points to consider: - Those who study the strains of mosquito (a generous 50 out of ~3500) which spread disease in humans regularly state that they are not a primary food source for any one predator.[1] - Malaria killed 429 000 people in 2015, 90% of those being in…

I'm curious, if we had the power to just snap our fingers and irradiate all mosquitoes, do we have consensus to do so? I worry about unforeseeable consequences.

We only need to get rid of a few problematic subspecies that followed humans out of Africa. They're actually invasive so there's not a big risk to local ecosystems.

Namely

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anopheles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aedes_aegypti

Re: GM fungus can rapidly kill mosquitoes that spread malaria, study suggests

#110

Post by antisemiotic »

Nasrudith wrote: post #77
pvaldes wrote: post #48

Do you know why 99,99% of the extant spiders are harmless to humans? 1) Because many spiders (but not all) are evolved to target insect methabolism instead mammal methabolism 2) Because spiders aren't bees. The majority are solitary and small, have a limited body size and can just inject a single tiny dose of its extra-potent poisons. 3) and their tiny chelicers are too small and weak to pierce the human skin until r…

The thing is it isn't "unlimited" but based on growth impact and still targets insectoid metabolisms. It isn't Ice-9 here. Fungals tend to be mostly nuisances to humans except for Anthrax and even then it is finnicky as hell to weaponize when actively trying. Apparently a balance to be dense enough to be deadly while still able to spread enough to infect.

I'm not sure if I understand your post, what does anthrax have to do with fungi?
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