Tuesday, February 28, 2017

CRISPR.


In light of current events, it's easy to think we're slipping into an age of ignorance. I purpose we are actually in an age of mad science! Well not really, but lets just say Gattaca is eerily close to our own reality right now. The gist is someone found the genes of a virus inside of a germ, which is crazy. The theory was floated that this is a primitive defense mechanism inside the germ and if RNA was written with a specific spacer sequence they could literally rewrite the germ's genes.

This scales up. Way up. Like China has already undergone trials on human embryos and it wasn't a complete disaster. We possess the ability to rewrite genetics. We've had this for months and I'm just hearing about it now. Guys! we could feasibly create a strain of malaria free mosquitoes and... I just realized this is how every post-apocalypse story starts. Still, nothing ventured.



4 comments:

  1. I was thinking the other day about the irony of living in the most technologically spectacular, magical time in human history - which also happens to be devastatingly depressing and horrifying.

    The world should be better.

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    1. I'd say worrying about what certain tec might do vs. worrying about an ongoing war or crime wave is a huge step up from the 80's.

      Though you could argue we're already in Cold War II

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    2. I don't think it's a cold war when both parties are snuggled up in bed together.

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