Am I the only one who instantly thought of Mao's Four Pests Campaign? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_Campaign
You're not alone:
"Recall Mao's policy to eliminate sparrows caused 50 mil to die of famine."
750M genetically modified mosquitoes to be released in Florida
121–130 of 159 posts
Re: 750M genetically modified mosquitoes to be released in Florida
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think @reedf1 is talking about the long term damage to a population. With the gene drive technology, the modified gene is always inherited. the 750 million number is there to speed up the process. (This my understanding from reading the first few paragraphs from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_drive )
How exactly would they inherit the genes if it causes sterility?
Sterility for only 1 sex type maybe?
Re: 750M genetically modified mosquitoes to be released in Florida
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can see a couple of problems... Male ticks still bite, so they'd still cause problems. Although presumably lab ticks would be disease free. A bigger issue is spread. Mosquitoes fly so you can do a release and they'll spread over a large area. Ticks walk. They can't travel as far. I suppose you could drop them from drones or a plane.
They'd cause problems for a few generations, until their population collapsed from a lack of females.
I never thought 'Jurassic Park' would become a prescient warning.
Re: 750M genetically modified mosquitoes to be released in Florida
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
I briefly worked in a leading Biology lab as an undergrad - and this sort of work came up. Genetic modification considered alone is not scary. Gene drives designed for sterilization on the other hand - are. I was given a long explanation about how gene drives worked and was filled with mild existential terror at how easy it would be to replace "mosquito" with "human". I knew many biologists capable of performing thes…
One post-doc could release 750 million genetically altered humans and we'd be doomed.
Ready for your corona shot?
Re: 750M genetically modified mosquitoes to be released in Florida
#125Whenever this comes up I always find it interesting that nobody comments on the now 60-year ongoing program that eradicated the screwworm fly from the US by doing pretty much the same thing: releasing millions of genetically altered (sterilized by radiation!) screwworms that mate with the native population. I have no comment on the positive or negative outcomes of the environmental modifications that both programs ca…
I briefly worked in a leading Biology lab as an undergrad - and this sort of work came up. Genetic modification considered alone is not scary. Gene drives designed for sterilization on the other hand - are. I was given a long explanation about how gene drives worked and was filled with mild existential terror at how easy it would be to replace "mosquito" with "human". I knew many biologists capable of performing thes…
It would only really work in a population that doesn't have genetic testing, which we do. And it would be very slow because humans take approximately 20 years to start producing the next generation.
Re: 750M genetically modified mosquitoes to be released in Florida
#126"Florida man releases 750M genetically modified mosquitoes"
Re: 750M genetically modified mosquitoes to be released in Florida
#127An interesting aspect to this debate is: what kind of actions do we sort of instinctively judge to have very large tail risk, and should we trust those judgements? Of course, the argument here is about the precautionary principle. But the precautionary principle sort of assumes that we can correctly judge which actions have potentially disastrous (non-ergodic, to use Taleb's vocab) consequences. That in itself is an…
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-49660-6#Sec10 This study is interesting. It relates to the company and what happened to the mosquitoes when they tested it in Brazil and Malaysia. TLDR: Mosquito population became suppressed at first but rebounded to pre-release levels and some carried the genetics of the GM mosquitoes (3% survival rate and can reproduce), unknown implications of hybrid vigor. "However, it i…
http://www.genewatch.org/uploads/f03c6d66a9b354535738483c1c3...
A bit biased but they have collected the most amount of data on this study.
Re: 750M genetically modified mosquitoes to be released in Florida
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
"I was given a long explanation about how gene drives worked and was filled with mild existential terror at how easy it would be to replace "mosquito" with "human"." You're right of course, and unfortunately sooner or later what you say will come to pass (tragically, I see it as inevitable). My take is slightly different: as the technology is here now, and given that we cannot stop it (certainly not in the long term…
When this happens for humans, I predict that we would also see parallel development of tests which ensure that a potential mate does not have gene drives in their genome.
You have now re-invented the TV series "Island City" from 1994.
Re: 750M genetically modified mosquitoes to be released in Florida
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
I briefly worked in a leading Biology lab as an undergrad - and this sort of work came up. Genetic modification considered alone is not scary. Gene drives designed for sterilization on the other hand - are. I was given a long explanation about how gene drives worked and was filled with mild existential terror at how easy it would be to replace "mosquito" with "human". I knew many biologists capable of performing thes…
Perhaps I am being naive (I’m certainly ignorant enough to be), but I don’t see why we should be worried about gene drives in humans — surely we can, in principle, genetically modify ourselves to fix the problem gene drives would cause? For example, there was a story in the UK press (it may be fictional, but I think it will still serve the argument) that there is a gene which causes extremely strong male-directed sex…
> surely we can, in principle, genetically modify ourselves to fix the problem gene drives would cause?
It might not be practically possible. Genetic modification has side effects, where typos are introduced in other areas than the target.
This means that the first generation of a hypothetical new gene drive is less likely to survive long. But once the gene drive got established subsequent generations would become more and more normal (as typos were lost by interbreeding and natural selection).
Now imagine that we discover a rogue gene drive introduced in humans after, say, it has affected 1000 individuals. There isn't any way of ethically fixing it in their children. You can't go to a person and tell them that they are not allowed to have children. Nor can you tell them that they need to undergo an experiment that makes their children 100x more likely to die young, for example.
Re: 750M genetically modified mosquitoes to be released in Florida
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
Being always inherited, in humans , is no danger at all. Someone can develop a deactivation shot before the first generation to inherit the gene hits puberty.
And then sell it, so only the wealthy can reproduce!
Why do I get the sinking feeling that this will be commercialized "first as tragedy, then as farce"