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> "The other reason we don't need to be freaking out, says Romesberg, is that these molecules have not been designed to work at all in complex organisms, and se
by madebysquares 10y ago
> "The other reason we don't need to be freaking out, says Romesberg, is that these molecules have not been designed to work at all in complex organisms, and seeing as they're like nothing found in nature, there's little chance that this could get wildly out of hand."
This is how the plot of every horror/disaster movie starts.
- mitchty 10y ago> This is how the plot of every horror/disaster movie starts. Because its a trope. Can you explain how it gets wildly out of hand beyond speculation?
- madebysquares 10y agoJust making a joke
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- klibertp 10y agoJust noting: not getting/ignoring the joke should not be the reason for downvotes.
- zhengyi13 10y agoAt the risk of oversimplifying, because "even the very wise cannot see all ends." Unknown unknowns. You can know your specific problem domain inside and out, and still have other things show up that rapidly invalidate your assumptions about the set of possible outcomes.
- fauigerzigerk 10y agoThat's true. I also noticed that whenever I see a helicopter on a screen, the chances of it not crashing or getting shot down are slim. So in order to protect us from getting whiped out by rogue bacteria from a research lab we MUST ban disaster movies NOW!
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- tyingq 10y agoI'm no expert, but aren't there non-complex organisms and structures that are pretty dangerous? "Brain Eating Amoeba", Prions, and so forth...
- hellbanner 10y agoRecently on HN: a "Cursed City of the Monkey God" features flesh-eating bacteri! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13396968 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13396968
- SpicyPython 10y agoWelcome, to Jurassic Park!
- amelius 10y agoIt seems we're one step closer to explaining the Fermi Paradox, [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox
- lamontcg 10y agoThat is what leapt to my mind as well. Its entirely possible that there were other self-replicating molecules on Earth that evolved first, but DNA simply out-competed them to extinction. If we ever produce a competitor to DNA that was more 'virulent' than DNA, it would similarly out-compete DNA. It would be the most pandemic of plagues that would affect every form of life. Even if we could protect our own DNA against attack somehow, it would attack all the bacteria that is symbiotic with us and which we need to survive.