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I was shocked by the casual mention of genetic engineering: "using crispr, the genome-editing technology, they began flying along the rails of the Asian elepha
by ovi256 9y ago
I was shocked by the casual mention of genetic engineering:
"using crispr, the genome-editing technology, they began flying along the rails of the Asian elephant’s double helix, switching in mammoth traits. They are trying to add cold-resistant hemoglobin and a full-body layer of insulating fat. They want to shrink the elephant’s flapping, expressive ears so they don’t freeze in the Arctic wind, and they want to coat the whole animal in luxurious fur. By October 2014, Church and his team had succeeded in editing 15 of the Asian elephant’s genes."
Sure, this project is toying with making an elephant more cold resistant. But if the technology spreads, how long until we get sharpened pathogens and pests ?
- patall 9y agoYou have probably no idea how wide-spread CRISPR is by now. There are in the order of at least hundred thousand independ research projects going on right now world wide, this one project does not make much a difference technologywise aside of applying gene editing to elephants as well. If you want to stop gene editing, you have to travel back to ~2011 (and then you are late to the party), at any later point it was pretty much unstoppable.
- taneq 9y agoNext step, make them tiny! (a la the phyletic dwarf elephants in Peter F. Hamilton's "Great North Road").
- freshyill 9y agoJohn Hammond used a tiny genetically-engineered elephant to impress investors in "Jurassic Park". http://jurassicpark.wikia.com/wiki/Pachyderm_Portfolio http://jurassicpark.wikia.com/wiki/Pachyderm_Portfolio
- bhaak 9y agoThere are extinct elephants that were already quite small: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_elephant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_elephant
- adrianN 9y agoPathogens and pests tend to replicate quickly enough that traditional methods of genetic engineering (breeding and selection) would work decently well I think. Since we avoided bioweapons so far I'm fairly confident that we will be able to do so in the near future as well.
- detritus 9y agoIf you're interested in this domain, I'd highly recommend watching the following Defcon Talk from Intel's Chief Medical Officer (who'd've thunkit?) which is illuminating and borderline terrifying.. 'DEF CON 25 - John Sotos - Genetic Diseases to Guide Digital Hacks of the Human Genome' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKQDSgBHPfY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKQDSgBHPfY