5 ms·

What unintended consequences could large scale deployment have?

by ptah 7y ago

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
TheSpiceIsLife 7y ago
Fungi are known to produce biocides.
bayesian_horse 7y ago
The fungus is supposed to be deployed on a rather small scale. It is not infectious for other insects, so it's probably not able to spread very far. Most of all, it is already freely spreading in its natural form, and does not lead to mass extinction of these malaria mosquitos, proven by the fact that they still exist... On top of that the spider venom is probably bad for the fungus. Apart from taking away resources from synthesizing actually useful proteins, it kills the hosts much more quickly. The fungus probably prefers to kill the host slowly in order to cover more distance.
- fiblye 7y ago
  >It is not infectious for other insects Yet. It’s definitely possible for it to adapt to infect something that’ll help it proliferate farther.
  - bayesian_horse 7y ago
    Which would be a much bigger evolutionary leap compared to losing the spider venom. And dauntingly big for a fungus that kills off 99% of hosts in the region that quickly. I presume that the fungus is obligatorily parasitic, meaning it can't thrive outside its host, except as a spore. This is true for most pathogenic fungi. From the article it's not even clear that the fungus "spreads" well or at all in a mosquito population. I think they intend to grow the spores large-scale in a lab, and infect most of the mosquitos directly, and not through secondary transmission... Also: The fungus already exists in the wild. It just doesn't kill the host that quickly.
lwhi 7y ago
Remember the lessons learnt from Jurassic Park
- Juliate 7y ago
  Here being HN, I don't even understand if this is a sincere or ironic remark?
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - kevingadd 7y ago
    Probably half and half. Crichton's writing always has some scientific roots even if it's pseudoscience (and some of his books have a real obvious agenda). He usually is tapping into an overstated but real fear, and I think Jurassic Park is firmly rooted in correctly fearing man's tendency to leap into something without fully understanding the risks if they see major benefits.
  - ahje 7y ago
    "Life finds a way" is probably one of the more important lessons to be had from sci-fi books/movies. Edit: For the record, I am serious. I'm not saying that this isn't a good idea, but simply assuming the fungus won't evolve and attack new hosts is naive. It needs to be monitored and controlled very, very tightly. Imagine if it somehow started escaping and attacking the already strained bee population or something.

What unintended consequences could large scale deployment have?

by ptah 7y ago

What unintended consequences could large scale deployment have?

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

TheSpiceIsLife 7y ago

Fungi are known to produce biocides.

bayesian_horse 7y ago

The fungus is supposed to be deployed on a rather small scale. It is not infectious for other insects, so it's probably not able to spread very far. Most of all, it is already freely spreading in its natural form, and does not lead to mass extinction of these malaria mosquitos, proven by the fact that they still exist... On top of that the spider venom is probably bad for the fungus. Apart from taking away resources from synthesizing actually useful proteins, it kills the hosts much more quickly. The fungus probably prefers to kill the host slowly in order to cover more distance.

fiblye 7y ago
>It is not infectious for other insects Yet. It’s definitely possible for it to adapt to infect something that’ll help it proliferate farther.
- bayesian_horse 7y ago
  Which would be a much bigger evolutionary leap compared to losing the spider venom. And dauntingly big for a fungus that kills off 99% of hosts in the region that quickly. I presume that the fungus is obligatorily parasitic, meaning it can't thrive outside its host, except as a spore. This is true for most pathogenic fungi. From the article it's not even clear that the fungus "spreads" well or at all in a mosquito population. I think they intend to grow the spores large-scale in a lab, and infect most of the mosquitos directly, and not through secondary transmission... Also: The fungus already exists in the wild. It just doesn't kill the host that quickly.

lwhi 7y ago

Remember the lessons learnt from Jurassic Park

Juliate 7y ago
Here being HN, I don't even understand if this is a sincere or ironic remark?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- kevingadd 7y ago
  Probably half and half. Crichton's writing always has some scientific roots even if it's pseudoscience (and some of his books have a real obvious agenda). He usually is tapping into an overstated but real fear, and I think Jurassic Park is firmly rooted in correctly fearing man's tendency to leap into something without fully understanding the risks if they see major benefits.
- ahje 7y ago
  "Life finds a way" is probably one of the more important lessons to be had from sci-fi books/movies. Edit: For the record, I am serious. I'm not saying that this isn't a good idea, but simply assuming the fungus won't evolve and attack new hosts is naive. It needs to be monitored and controlled very, very tightly. Imagine if it somehow started escaping and attacking the already strained bee population or something.