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Chemicals that cure malaria can kill weeds too (2017)
- lupusreal 3y ago"Weeds" are a purely social construct, meaning only plants which humans don't like. These chemicals kill plants, not just weeds.
- samus 3y agoPlants are also known to be hostile to other plants. For example, leaves of walnut trees contain natural herbicides that stop other trees from growing and become competition. This is just another example of such behavior.
- kuroguro 3y agoClearly removing all plants gets rid of all weeds as well. I see no problems here.
- shoubidouwah 3y agosomewhat related xkcd comic https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/cells.png https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/cells.png
- h0l0cube 3y ago[flagged]
- samus 3y agoPlants compete with each other for sunlight, space, and nutrients. Poisoning the competition is just another strategy to get an edge.
- h0l0cube 3y agoAs I said, there's no biomarker for 'weed' such that one can poison just the competition, but a something like a 'Roundup Ready' GMO crop can to be used to do the inverse
- genman 3y agoBecause there actually exists invasive plants that are pushing out other plants.
- h0l0cube 3y agoI'm not sure how this statement is contrary to what I've written > A native plant in one context is an exotic pest in another. Emphasis added. Edit: Just in case it doesn't seem that way, I'm pro-conservation, and in the context of conservation of a particular ecosystem plants can be weeds. It's still a social construct. e.g., if a bird poops a plant from overseas 1000 years ago this is just the new ecosystem
- drjasonharrison 3y agoCorrect, we want something that selectively kills specific types of plants that aren't desired in agricultural contexts. We have lots of ways of killing plants.
- troyvit 3y agoThe original paper is pretty clear that they're talking about killing plants, not just weeds, but that it might be useful for targeting weeds with it.[1] Roundup, which they mention, is another example. It kills anything leafy (that isn't Roundup ready), but people call it a weed killer anyway. Can't believe the original comment was flagged. [1] https://www.nature.com/articles/srep45871 https://www.nature.com/articles/srep45871
- blufish 3y ago[flagged]
- samus 3y agoTA has nothing to do with Malaria vaccines
- DrNosferatu 3y agoCareful - overuse (such as with plants) might promote resistance in the malaria chain…
- NoZebra120vClip 3y agoSome of the foremost pesticide manufacturers include Bayer, Merck, Colgate-Palmolive, SC Johnson, and Procter & Gamble.
- Yhippa 3y ago[flagged]
- fsckboy 3y ago[flagged]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- cryptonector 3y ago[flagged]
- jhbadger 3y agoThe malaria parasite Plasmodium has an organelle called the apicoplast which is biologically very similar to the chloroplast of plants (and is believed to share an evolutionary history with it). So it makes sense biologically that an anti-malarial drug could also work against plants if the apicoplast is affected. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apicoplast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apicoplast