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"Kids will use CRISPR, and the even better tools coming through now, to fuck shit up, because that’s what kids do...My guess is, a lot of kids and terrorists ar

"Kids will use CRISPR, and the even better tools coming through now, to fuck shit up, because that’s what kids do...My guess is, a lot of kids and terrorists are going to accidentally injure or kill themselves with their home-made superbug, long before they get a chance to spread it." No expert but this sounds like pure fantasy.

severine 8y ago
What part? The "long before they get a chance to spread it"? https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/diy-crispr-kits-learn-modern-science-by-doing#/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/diy-crispr-kits-learn-mod...
- petermcneeley 8y ago
  Some discussion about how difficult this might be even with a kit (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17615704 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17615704)
  - severine 8y ago
    Thanks for the link. I phrased it poorly, but it was a somewhat genuine question, as the comment seemed ambiguous to me. For that matter the IA speculations in the interview are perhaps even more exaggerated.
pdkl95 8y ago
I used to work at the JGI[1]. As we were technically part of the DOE, we were occasionally accused of being a "bioweapon lab" and other evidence-free conspiracy theories. We were a high-throughput sequencing lab; experimental research and development of anything was well outside our capabilities. (almost all of or lab space was related to keeping our (Sanger) sequencers running nonstop) Most of the staff thought idea that we were making bioweapons was hilariously misinformed. Well, some of us stopped laughing when we accidentally created a "superbug". We used a lot of agar plates to clone DNA plasmids with E. coli. The plates were filled by hand at an agar dispenser, which resulted in a very small amount of splashing of agar onto the counter next to the dispenser. This was carefully cleaned every day, but.... nobody remember to clean underneath the dispenser* where an imperceptibly small amount of indirectly splashed agar started to accumulate. This agar had ampicillin in it to stop other bacteria from growing. Eventually, this repeated depositing of bacterial growth medium and an antibiotic created a particularly nasty resistant strain of Staphylococcus aureus. The person that eventually discovered the problem and cleaned up the agar underneath the dispenser ended up hospitalized on an IV of one of the "antibiotics of last resort". Are kids or terrorists going to use CRISPR or other genetic engineering tools to intentionally create their own weaponized superbug? That seems unlikely in the foreseeable future. Are they going to accidentally create a superbug that was just as damaging? Yes, they absolutely will, because I've already seen it happen with people that did have the necessary training sand expertise[2]. [1] https://jgi.doe.gov/ https://jgi.doe.gov/ [2] No offense intended to the good people at the JGI! This was a very human mistake that the lab learned from; changes were implemented immediately to prevent this type of problem from ever happening again. [*] Speaking of problems at that lab, we were fined (correctly) by OSHA for storing the H2O2 alphabetically,,, next to hydrazine.
- konceptz 8y ago
  Thank you for the story, I find this fascinating! I’m really surprised how easy it was to accidentally grow this. Is this a 1/(very high number) chance occurrence or is it a somewhat normal happening if proper steps aren’t taken to clean?
  - pdkl95 8y ago
    Growing a resistant strain was more or less guaranteed, because we were effectively creating the ideal evolutionary pressure: an ideal growing medium that strongly favors any additional resistance to ampicillin. It's the same as why doctors remind you to finish any prescription of antibiotics even if you feel better early. It's basic survival of the fittest, where we're strongly defining what "fittest" means. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimicrobial_resistance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimicrobial_resistance

severine 8y ago

What part? The "long before they get a chance to spread it"? https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/diy-crispr-kits-learn-modern-science-by-doing#/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/diy-crispr-kits-learn-mod...

petermcneeley 8y ago
Some discussion about how difficult this might be even with a kit (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17615704 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17615704)
- severine 8y ago
  Thanks for the link. I phrased it poorly, but it was a somewhat genuine question, as the comment seemed ambiguous to me. For that matter the IA speculations in the interview are perhaps even more exaggerated.

pdkl95 8y ago

I used to work at the JGI[1]. As we were technically part of the DOE, we were occasionally accused of being a "bioweapon lab" and other evidence-free conspiracy theories. We were a high-throughput sequencing lab; experimental research and development of anything was well outside our capabilities. (almost all of or lab space was related to keeping our (Sanger) sequencers running nonstop) Most of the staff thought idea that we were making bioweapons was hilariously misinformed. Well, some of us stopped laughing when we accidentally created a "superbug". We used a lot of agar plates to clone DNA plasmids with E. coli. The plates were filled by hand at an agar dispenser, which resulted in a very small amount of splashing of agar onto the counter next to the dispenser. This was carefully cleaned every day, but.... nobody remember to clean underneath the dispenser* where an imperceptibly small amount of indirectly splashed agar started to accumulate. This agar had ampicillin in it to stop other bacteria from growing. Eventually, this repeated depositing of bacterial growth medium and an antibiotic created a particularly nasty resistant strain of Staphylococcus aureus. The person that eventually discovered the problem and cleaned up the agar underneath the dispenser ended up hospitalized on an IV of one of the "antibiotics of last resort". Are kids or terrorists going to use CRISPR or other genetic engineering tools to intentionally create their own weaponized superbug? That seems unlikely in the foreseeable future. Are they going to accidentally create a superbug that was just as damaging? Yes, they absolutely will, because I've already seen it happen with people that did have the necessary training sand expertise[2]. [1] https://jgi.doe.gov/ https://jgi.doe.gov/ [2] No offense intended to the good people at the JGI! This was a very human mistake that the lab learned from; changes were implemented immediately to prevent this type of problem from ever happening again. [*] Speaking of problems at that lab, we were fined (correctly) by OSHA for storing the H2O2 alphabetically,,, next to hydrazine.

konceptz 8y ago
Thank you for the story, I find this fascinating! I’m really surprised how easy it was to accidentally grow this. Is this a 1/(very high number) chance occurrence or is it a somewhat normal happening if proper steps aren’t taken to clean?
- pdkl95 8y ago
  Growing a resistant strain was more or less guaranteed, because we were effectively creating the ideal evolutionary pressure: an ideal growing medium that strongly favors any additional resistance to ampicillin. It's the same as why doctors remind you to finish any prescription of antibiotics even if you feel better early. It's basic survival of the fittest, where we're strongly defining what "fittest" means. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimicrobial_resistance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimicrobial_resistance