Posted on 09/18/2019 7:34:47 AM PDT by Red Badger
FULL TITLE:
BUGGED OUT Deadly ‘super mosquitoes that are even tougher’ accidentally created by scientists after bungled experiment
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GENETICALLY modified mosquitoes that were designed by scientists to help populations decrease are actually thriving.
This is according to new research that claims the plan to create gene-hacked mosquitoes that have offspring which die immediately has spectacularly backfired and now scientists don't know what will happen next.
he modified mosquitoes were released in Jacobina in Brazil and were supposed to mix with the local population and decrease numbers with their weak offspring genetics.
Although the wild population did plummet for a short while, 18 months later it was right back up again.
This is mostly concerning because scientists think the new 'super mosquitoes' have properties that might make them harder to kill.
Research about the pests has been published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.
Mosquitoes like the Aedes aegypti variety that was edited can carry dangerous diseases like yellow fever, Zika virus and Malaria.
This is why efforts are being made to reduce their numbers.
However, now traces of the genetically modified genes have been found in the natural population.
This means they are successfully interbreeding.
The researchers concluded: "It is unclear how this may affect disease transmission or affect other efforts to control these dangerous vectors."
The offspring of the gene-hacked mosquitoes and the natural ones are thought to be more robust but whether they pose a threat is unknown.
Researcher Jeffrey Powell told News Atlas: "It is the unanticipated outcome that is concerning."
Oxitec, the British biotech company running the project, assured members of the public that this negative result would not happen.
It then released 450,000 genetically mutated mosquitoes into the wild where interbreeding caused the spread of the mutated genes because the offspring failed to die.
Oxitec disagrees with some of the information published in the research paper about its experiment and is said to be working with Nature Research publishers to make changes.
Sounds like a typical Dem plan to fix a problem but actually makes it worse.
For more commentary:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3778914/posts
Now, where is my skeeter zapper?
Stupid f’ers! If they had any sense to begin with, they’d have started with the simplest, cheapest and most effective anti-mosquito treatment ever invented: DDT.
Now they had better use DDT before these particular mosquitoes really become a big problem. This is just like fire ants - and didn’t they originally get released/escape into the wild in the Western Hemisphere starting in Brazil?
Hell, just nuke Brazil. God only knows what’s next - maybe they’re going to create smart sharks with lasers? Dumb bastards!
The fruits of science have killed millions. And now they are messing with animal/human projects. What could possibly go wrong?
This is how the Zombie Apocalypse starts.
Well, duh. Nobody teaches these scientists basic genetics before they turn them loose on the gene-editing equipment?
It could be more complicated. My first thought was “hybrid vigor”. Genes can be multifunctional. There are cases where a gene will activate function X in the body, but under a different condition, that same gene will turn off function X. Now, that is not a case of hybrid vigor. But the suggestion of a “stronger” population says the “weak” genes may have done something similar. My question is whether or not they really injected the same species of mosquito into that area in Brazil. Gotta read the paper.
The fruits of science have fed, clothed, and housed billions.
If you don't like science, or the fruits thereof, feel free to rid yourself of them.
You can start with your computer ...
Nobody and I mean NO BODY saw that one coming. /s
And what conspiracy site provided you with that story?
We have advanced in our technology far beyond our ability to use it safely and wisely.
SCIENCE!
Yes. Man is fallen, and his chief failing is always trying to improve upon what God has created.
The exalted Scientific Method is but a tool (like a gun, although procedural, and more versatile): It is neutral and limited. It does not guarantee objectivity, no matter how much its worshippers - I call them Scientismists - pretend it does.
Scientists are fallen human beings, and make foolish mistakes. As someone who garnered awards in the physical sciences, I am not awed by them.
The predilection I most hate is that scientists climb some potentially catastrophic mountain simply because it is there, and the summit provides a vista that the military can then weaponize.
The same scientists who made it possible then sanctimoniously pontificate against the evils of the war-mongering military, who could never have climbed that particular mountain themselves.
Although the wild population did plummet for a short while, 18 months later it was right back up again.
Gosh, it's almost as if they need to make a mosquito with non-viable offspring that can out-bang all the wild mosquitoes. Regardless though, their approach is inherently flawed, for reasons which should be obvious.
DDT is the only answer......................that works............
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