“Researchers engineer poplar trees to synthesize valuable chemical squalene, normally harvested from shark livers”
great, now “scientists” have created gain-of-function trees that grow land sharks ...
OTOH, squalene adjutants used in vaccines will be much cheaper ... all the better to artificially hyperactivate ones immune system ...
What could possibly go wrong?
Wasn’t that at one time supposed to be a depop jab adjuvant?
We need some screen writers from the 50’s science fiction movies.
Who had that headline on their FR posting bingo card?
What kind of poplar? How many years to grow the tree? What’s the greater value...squalene or timber?
In a related story, marine biologists are studying a spate of reports of orcas mysteriously seen to attack trees—poplar trees in particular.
They aren’t that poplar. You never see them at parties.
Did you know that years ago- the FDA took a very effective natural sourced component (medically/clinically active) of topically applied Preparation H— removed it from approved ingredients? WHY? Who knows.
Squalene is a chemical- it can be synthesized organic chemistry 101.
The ingrediant: Shark Liver oil. Replaced by something much less effective and synthetic. Tried to find literature on the “ruling”.
Sharks are in great supply worldwide— and their livers are important source, just as cod liver (for different reasons).