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So many recent ones from mosquitoes, dengue or chikungunya. More than almost any other near future technology, I hope for humanity's sake we quickly perfect a

So many recent ones from mosquitoes, dengue or chikungunya. More than almost any other near future technology, I hope for humanity's sake we quickly perfect a way to eradicate that demon insect.

reactspa 7y ago
Mosquitoes don't pollinate, but they're food for a bunch of other animals up the food chain, no? (e.g. frogs?). So if we did eliminate mosquitoes, it's probably not going to be a clear win.
- praptak 7y ago
  I think they do not constitute a substantial portion of diet of any other animal. Source: an article about possible mosquito eradication that I can't seem to dig up :-/
  - brownbat 7y ago
    As posted to a sister comment, I think Nature's review -- discussed in Radiolab -- is what people are thinking of. https://www.nature.com/articles/466432a https://www.nature.com/articles/466432a https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/kill-em-all https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/kill-...
- Consultant32452 7y ago
  There's over 3000 species of mosquitoes. Only 3 of those species are the primary carriers of these diseases. Only 1 species carries malaria. So we only gotta get rid of a small portion of mosquitoes. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/group/mosquitoes/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/gro...
  - kikoreis 7y ago
    I know there is some science backing the general approach, but doesn't evolution tend to pressure the virus developing different vectors, when faced with eradication? There is probably a good subset of the 2997 other species that could serve the purpose.
    - xorfish 7y ago
      Probably depends on how fast the species is eradicated.
    - lotsofpulp 7y ago
      > but doesn't evolution tend to pressure the virus developing different vectors, when faced with eradication? What does evolution “pressuring” mean? Either the organism (or virus) has sufficient chances to randomly mutate a a trait that enables it to survive, or it goes extinct.
      - kikoreis 7y ago
        Well, I meant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_pressure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_pressure Think of a population as holding at any given time a number of individuals carrying mutations. The fringe mutations, such as being able to be hosted by a different type of mosquito (say, better survivability in the host) don't provide much of a benefit to survival. But if the default host population goes away, those mutations become super valuable and will be selected. See https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/transgenic-mosquitoes/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/transgenic-mosqui... for a discussion on this topic.
- IIAOPSW 7y ago
  My vague recollection is that studies so far have found mosquitoes aren't the primary part of any particular species diet but the data is incomplete. We are still unsure if we can pull this block out of the jenga tower.
  - brownbat 7y ago
    I think people are looking for this review in Nature, where they asked a bunch of ecologists if we could eradicate mosquitoes and the consensus was basically fine with it. https://www.nature.com/articles/466432a https://www.nature.com/articles/466432a I think there's even an argument to be made that we should increase our risk tolerance relative to the scale of the harm, and if you study mosquitoes for even a little bit, the harm is off the charts. Fortunately ecologists pretty uniformly agree this is an easy case.
bboygravity 7y ago
I would prefer we eradicate the virus, not the insect?
- peteretep 7y ago
  By far my least favourite aspect of DEET is that it merely deters mosquitos rather than hurts them.
oldgradstudent 7y ago
Assuming no unforseen implications, of course. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_Campaign https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_Campaign
- indecisive_user 7y ago
  Mosquitoes kill more people per year than every other animal (including humans) combined[0]. There may be unforseen consequences to eradicating mosquitoes, but to do nothing is already pretty catastrophic. [0] https://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/Most-Lethal-Animal-Mosquito-Week https://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/Most-Lethal-Animal-Mosquit...
alexgmcm 7y ago
Perhaps the gene drive tech will work out: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02087-5 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02087-5
- onceUponADime 7y ago
  Already failed. Sorry.
  - andrewl 7y ago
    Or perhaps it has not succeeded yet.
    - onceUponADime 7y ago
      https://ipscell.com/2017/02/mosquitoes-swat-back-via-resistance-crispr-gene-drive/ https://ipscell.com/2017/02/mosquitoes-swat-back-via-resista...

So many recent ones from mosquitoes, dengue or chikungunya. More than almost any other near future technology, I hope for humanity's sake we quickly perfect a way to eradicate that demon insect.

reactspa 7y ago

Mosquitoes don't pollinate, but they're food for a bunch of other animals up the food chain, no? (e.g. frogs?). So if we did eliminate mosquitoes, it's probably not going to be a clear win.

praptak 7y ago
I think they do not constitute a substantial portion of diet of any other animal. Source: an article about possible mosquito eradication that I can't seem to dig up :-/
- brownbat 7y ago
  As posted to a sister comment, I think Nature's review -- discussed in Radiolab -- is what people are thinking of. https://www.nature.com/articles/466432a https://www.nature.com/articles/466432a https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/kill-em-all https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/kill-...
Consultant32452 7y ago
There's over 3000 species of mosquitoes. Only 3 of those species are the primary carriers of these diseases. Only 1 species carries malaria. So we only gotta get rid of a small portion of mosquitoes. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/group/mosquitoes/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/gro...
- kikoreis 7y ago
  I know there is some science backing the general approach, but doesn't evolution tend to pressure the virus developing different vectors, when faced with eradication? There is probably a good subset of the 2997 other species that could serve the purpose.
  - xorfish 7y ago
    Probably depends on how fast the species is eradicated.
  - lotsofpulp 7y ago
    > but doesn't evolution tend to pressure the virus developing different vectors, when faced with eradication? What does evolution “pressuring” mean? Either the organism (or virus) has sufficient chances to randomly mutate a a trait that enables it to survive, or it goes extinct.
    - kikoreis 7y ago
      Well, I meant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_pressure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_pressure Think of a population as holding at any given time a number of individuals carrying mutations. The fringe mutations, such as being able to be hosted by a different type of mosquito (say, better survivability in the host) don't provide much of a benefit to survival. But if the default host population goes away, those mutations become super valuable and will be selected. See https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/transgenic-mosquitoes/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/transgenic-mosqui... for a discussion on this topic.
IIAOPSW 7y ago
My vague recollection is that studies so far have found mosquitoes aren't the primary part of any particular species diet but the data is incomplete. We are still unsure if we can pull this block out of the jenga tower.
- brownbat 7y ago
  I think people are looking for this review in Nature, where they asked a bunch of ecologists if we could eradicate mosquitoes and the consensus was basically fine with it. https://www.nature.com/articles/466432a https://www.nature.com/articles/466432a I think there's even an argument to be made that we should increase our risk tolerance relative to the scale of the harm, and if you study mosquitoes for even a little bit, the harm is off the charts. Fortunately ecologists pretty uniformly agree this is an easy case.

bboygravity 7y ago

I would prefer we eradicate the virus, not the insect?

peteretep 7y ago
By far my least favourite aspect of DEET is that it merely deters mosquitos rather than hurts them.

oldgradstudent 7y ago

Assuming no unforseen implications, of course. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_Campaign https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_Campaign

indecisive_user 7y ago
Mosquitoes kill more people per year than every other animal (including humans) combined[0]. There may be unforseen consequences to eradicating mosquitoes, but to do nothing is already pretty catastrophic. [0] https://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/Most-Lethal-Animal-Mosquito-Week https://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/Most-Lethal-Animal-Mosquit...

alexgmcm 7y ago

Perhaps the gene drive tech will work out: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02087-5 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02087-5

onceUponADime 7y ago
Already failed. Sorry.
- andrewl 7y ago
  Or perhaps it has not succeeded yet.
  - onceUponADime 7y ago
    https://ipscell.com/2017/02/mosquitoes-swat-back-via-resistance-crispr-gene-drive/ https://ipscell.com/2017/02/mosquitoes-swat-back-via-resista...