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New DNA construct can set off a “mutagenic chain reaction”
- qubitcoder 12y agoAt least for local usage, the 'trash' command-line utility is worth considering [1]. I use it on my Mac/Linux box. As described by NPM, trash is a: "Cross-platform command-line app for moving files and directories to the trash - A safer alternative to rm" [1] https://www.npmjs.com/package/trash https://www.npmjs.com/package/trash
- locopati 12y agoare we wise enough as a species to understand how to wield a self-propagating genetic regex?
- rbanffy 12y agoAccording to the Moore's Law of Mad Science, every 18 months the required IQ to destroy the world drops by one point. This research represents more than a decade of advancement in this direction.
- orasis 12y agoIf George Church is saying its a bad idea, then people should listen.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- eggie 12y agoOn the other hand, that which frightens elders which may hold the most promise for the youth. Your comment is a bit closer to home. I've spent the last decade aiming my life at exactly those things which frighten George.
- skosuri 12y agoThe idea and implementation of gene drives have been around for a while since the development of zinc finger nucleases ~20 years ago. The issue has been they were hard to do. Now with CRISPR's it has been remarkably easier. Interestingly in drosophila, there is precedence for engineering other forms of selfish genetic elements such as P elements (transposons). We will see where the technology goes, but we sure do live in interesting times when it comes to the engineering of biology.
- toomuchtodo 12y ago> We will see where the technology goes, but we sure do live in interesting times when it comes to the engineering of biology. Perhaps I'm just too optimistic for the times, but I believe immortality is within our grasp.
- ygmelnikova 12y ago"Immortality within our grasp"? The world is fundamentally evil. 160 million dead via war in the 20th century alone. Optimism in this matter is incredibly naive.
- toomuchtodo 12y agoImmortality from death due to biological breakdown.
- ygmelnikova 12y agoDeath due to honeybees mutated with Box Jellyfish venom. "the venom causes cells to become porous enough to allow potassium leakage, causing hyperkalemia which can lead to cardiovascular collapse and death as quickly as within two to five minutes" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chironex_fleckeri http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chironex_fleckeri
- toomuchtodo 12y agoFor each malady you bring up, the genome can be hardened against. Humanity has enough time to iterate ;)
- woah 12y agoCould be done with head transplant: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22530103.700-first-human-head-transplant-could-happen-in-two-years.html http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22530103.700-first-hum... Imagine in a distant future, Mark Zuckerberg's 3000 year old head sits atop a healthy young body. Every 20 years he demands a new body donor from the populace as a tribute.
- sanxiyn 12y agoThis is a practical implementation of gene drive, which to me is as amazing as a practical implementation of warp drive. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_drive http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_drive We should be careful, but this is an extremely exciting development. We really are living in the 21st century. What this enables is a way to let evolutionarily unfavorable gene to win by cheating evolution. Sometimes being evolutionarily good clashes with benefits to humanity, but we had no recourse. Now we do.
- alanfalcon 12y agoGeez. I feel like I need to start writing some science fiction novels now before someone in People Magazine is writing them as fact.
- Sapient 12y agoYep, seems like fiction is having a harder and harder time keeping ahead of fact.
- Terr_ 12y agoWell, I guess we'll start seeing the importance of backups. Get a set made at birth, along with whatever fetal/cord-blood stem cell reserves the individual could use later...
- toomuchtodo 12y agoI'd expect every child having their genome sequenced at birth (if not earlier), within a decade.
- crispweed 12y agoTo clarify with respect to the linked article and technique, this is about a genetically modified individual passing on the modification to their children. There's no 'chain reaction' through existing fully grown cells and they can't propagate a modification through your cells (yet, at least!).
- roywiggins 12y agoPaging Peter Watts to the red courtesy phone, Peter Watts to the red courtesy phone, please.
- ivank 12y agohttp://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=5711 http://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=5711
- guard-of-terra 12y agoFrankly I don't understand why everybody is so hot about Peter Watts. He's kind of like Stanislaw Lem on antidepressants IMO.
- jessaustin 12y agoHmmm, antidepressants? Lem always seemed cheerier, sometimes even more optimistic, than the stuff I've read from Watts recently. One reason lots of HN folks like Watts may be that he has posted so much of his work online, for free.
- Fando 12y agoWow, incredible. How can we mere humans wield such awesome power without destroying ourselves? It is even possible to manage? A person will do anything for money. Perhaps this terrible trait could be deselected using this technology and we could finally focus on living together.
- erkkie 12y agoWithout the traits you describe terrible humanity wouldn't be here
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]