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If I have a virus, how do I tell if its natural or man made? Unless someone has gone out of their way to add an indicator won't all viruses just be the same? I
by LatteLazy 5y ago
If I have a virus, how do I tell if its natural or man made? Unless someone has gone out of their way to add an indicator won't all viruses just be the same?
It's not like you can leave finger prints or a "made in China" sticker on a virus right?
- rogers18445 5y agoIf you look at a cow knowing nothing about it or its history how do you know it was subject to artificial selection? The excessive production of milk or negative consequences that happen to it should it not be milked are some pretty big clues. The information the process of evolution imparts on the genes/features of an organism differs based on whether it was natural or artificial.
- LatteLazy 5y agoThat makes sense. But that seems to indicate covid 19 was entirely natural does it: * highly transmissible * not very deadly * similar to know viruses in the proposed natural sources A lot of people seem to really want covid to be an engineered thing. But I'm not seeing any evidence to support that. And I would highly support action against China so I am bias in favour of this theory...
- Izkata 5y agoIt depends on if by "man made" you mean "engineered" or "artificial selective pressure". If it was full-on engineered, as in splicing RNA from different viruses together (or other such direct modifications), there would actually be fingerprints based around the method of splicing used. Artificial selective pressure (introducing a virus to different hosts and selecting for desired random mutations) would look natural.
- LatteLazy 5y agoWhat fingerprints does RNA splicing leave? I thought CRISPR was pretty seamless, does it insert itself as well or something?