131–140 of 243 posts
I may soon be able to drink again after having my genes edited, but I'm not sure I would do it
>Doctors infused billions of microscopic structures known as nanoparticles carrying genetic instructions for the CRISPR gene-editor into four patients in London and two in New Zealand. The nanoparticles were absorbed by their livers, where they unleashed armies of CRISPR gene-editors. The CRISPR editor honed in on the target gene in the liver and sliced it, disabling production of the destructive protein. this is one…
The record breaking temperatures that I'm suffering in the PNW right now serves as a grim reminder that we won't have much of a future, even with all this cool tech.
As always, the consequences of the environmental sins of the global wealthy, like you and me and most HNers, will be borne by the global poor in other places. We are all responsible for what they will endure in the coming decades.
Eco-despair is, as always, a facile psychological defense mechanism and a luxury of the most privileged. We are responsible for the problem, and we also have the most power to solve it. We need to act accordingly. Starting with a calm, rational, comprehensive reckoning of our options, including nuclear (which has made France the low-carbon leader of the developed world).
Instead of letting guilt paralyze us with delusional fantasies of a well-deserved universal doom, we should use our privilege to advance no-carbon energy and carbon capture to hopefully protect the less fortunate people whose futures truly are threatened.
We have tried every imaginable remedy. In some instances there has been brief recovery, followed always by a still worse relapse. Physicians who are familiar with alcoholism agree there is no such thing as making a normal drinker out of an alcoholic. Science may one day accomplish this, but it hasn't done so yet. -- Alcoholics Anonymous Chapter 3, More About Alcoholism I may soon be able to drink again after having m…
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Viruses are an extinction-level weapon. CRISPR? Not so much. (And neither are likely to result in an extinction-level accident; you'd have to deliberately deploy potent bioweapons in multiple places to extinct us.)
Yes but the CRISPR engine is passed on to offspring which raises massive ethical questions. As I understand it (and hopefully I'm not way off base here) there is a technique that creates a "gene drive" which is kinda like an SDK that is inserted into the patients genome which improves the efficacy of CRISPR. This code finds its way into the gametes which is then passed on to children. The children did not ask for thi…
We have tried every imaginable remedy. In some instances there has been brief recovery, followed always by a still worse relapse. Physicians who are familiar with alcoholism agree there is no such thing as making a normal drinker out of an alcoholic. Science may one day accomplish this, but it hasn't done so yet. -- Alcoholics Anonymous Chapter 3, More About Alcoholism I may soon be able to drink again after having m…
The word “always” in this passage doesn’t sound very scientific. Makes me wonder if the rest of the content has the same tone.
Edit: Something not often discussed is that Bill Wilson was hoping to make money from this book, being dead broke in the middle of the Great Depression. The first people he helped sober up convinced him that he had to give it away freely.
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Agreed. NPR never used to use clickbait titles like this ("He ..." is pure clickbait). It's sad to see them doing it regularly now. I imagine the latest generation of journalists grew up thinking this is normal. I know HN prefers original headlines, but I wish these would be edited down when posted here.
"well then stop clicking on them!"
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You want something that replicates in the environment and removes carbon? We have those. They're called "plants."
> They’re called “plants.” Incidentally, CRISPR + plants is one of the most promising solutions to climate change: https://www.ted.com/talks/joanne_chory_how_supercharged_plan...
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The record breaking temperatures that I'm suffering in the PNW right now serves as a grim reminder that we won't have much of a future, even with all this cool tech.
Everyone will move to Canada and similar places. Only the poor will be left behind to die in the heat and most of the world won't care and will feel like "good riddance." Edit: In case anyone thinks this is just snark, no. I'm in the PNW and I grew up in Georgia and lived in California for a lot of years, including the High Desert where I was south of Death Valley and 115 in July was not unusual. I'm dirt poor and ha…
We have the examples of the U.S. border, Australia's camps on Naru, the various permeant refugee camps spread across the Eastern Mediterranean and many more as examples.
As the situation becomes more intense, migrants will become more desperate and bold. The reaction from the wealthy enclaves will become more and more repressive. (Who themselves will be seeing a diminished standard of living).
In my opinion, the only thing that could spare us this future is a global commitment to universal rights and more equal resource distribution. But this would require countries like the United States to write rights of non-citizens deeply into their constitutions. And that is likely unattainable at this time.
Off topic: are there any central repositories tracking gene therapy progress for various genetic conditions, with a similar UX to Moderna’s mRNA pipeline tracker? https://www.modernatx.com/pipeline
All FDA trials are listed here: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ , I believe you can search by gene. It's not as nice as the moderna pipeline though.
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Everyone will move to Canada and similar places. Only the poor will be left behind to die in the heat and most of the world won't care and will feel like "good riddance." Edit: In case anyone thinks this is just snark, no. I'm in the PNW and I grew up in Georgia and lived in California for a lot of years, including the High Desert where I was south of Death Valley and 115 in July was not unusual. I'm dirt poor and ha…
I think you are correct. Unchecked climate change will send the wealthy and middle classes North. If History is any indicator, they will close the borders of their regions as tightly as possible and commit a pitance to "humanitarian aid" leaving the poor piling up in refugee camps on their borders. We have the examples of the U.S. border, Australia's camps on Naru, the various permeant refugee camps spread across the…
Before we had international borders, plenty of humans lived migratory lives as well.