New DNA construct can set off a “mutagenic chain reaction”

http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/03/new-dna-construct-can-set-off-a-mutagenic-chain-reaction/

by ulysses • 11 years ago

100 37 11 years ago

arstechnica.com

rbanffy• 11 years ago

According 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• 11 years ago

If George Church is saying its a bad idea, then people should listen.

eggie• 11 years ago

On 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• 11 years ago

The 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.

toomuchtodo5• 11 years 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.

woah• 11 years ago

Could be done with head transplant: 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.

ChuckMcM• 11 years ago

Well not immortality but really really good cyclists for the Tour de France.

sanxiyn2• 11 years ago

I am not sure about immortality, but I think the final victory against hostis humani generis, the enemy of mankind, Plasmodium falciparum aka malaria, is within our grasp. This would be a trenemdnous boon to the humanity worthy of the Nobel Prize and more.

ygmelnikova2• 11 years 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.

duaneb• 11 years ago

Don't you mean pessimistic?

sanxiyn2• 11 years ago

This 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

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• 11 years ago

Geez. I feel like I need to start writing some science fiction novels now before someone in People Magazine is writing them as fact.

Sapient• 11 years ago

Yep, seems like fiction is having a harder and harder time keeping ahead of fact.

Terr_3• 11 years ago

Well, 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...

toomuchtodo5• 11 years ago

I'd expect every child having their genome sequenced at birth (if not earlier), within a decade.

crispweed• 11 years ago

To 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!).

thyrsus• 11 years ago

That was not at all clear from the article. So the (fruit fly) intervention happens one cell at a time? And only if by luck it's a gamete that is affected?

Terr_3• 11 years ago

True, but if you have archives going further back than the change, you can at least figure out what it displaced.

roywiggins• 11 years ago

Paging Peter Watts to the red courtesy phone, Peter Watts to the red courtesy phone, please.

ivank• 11 years ago

http://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=5711

guard-of-terra• 11 years ago

Frankly I don't understand why everybody is so hot about Peter Watts. He's kind of like Stanislaw Lem on antidepressants IMO.

jessaustin• 11 years ago

Hmmm, 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• 11 years ago

Wow, 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.

erkkie2• 11 years ago

Without the traits you describe terrible humanity wouldn't be here

qubitcoder• 11 years ago

At 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

locopati• 11 years ago

are we wise enough as a species to understand how to wield a self-propagating genetic regex?

New DNA construct can set off a “mutagenic chain reaction”

Related Stories