Gene-editing technology could make all the world's mosquitoes extinct.

Summer is coming, are you starting to worry about mosquitoes? Well, now give you an incredible-sounding choice - to make all the mosquitoes in the world extinct.
, it sounds incredible, but if humans are proficient in gene editing, the day may not be far off.
, do we have that power? Just over a week before May Day, two lectures on gene editing were held in Beijing, one at the Beijing Science and Technology Museum, the 26th "Understanding the Future" lecture, "Genetic Editing - Rewriting the Blueprint of Life", led by Dr. Wang Yi, youth director of the Future Forum and dr. Wang Yi of the Chinese Academy of Sciences;
two events were full of seats, Li Yanhong and Rao Yi were the live audience, which showed that from the business and academic elites to the general public, are eagerly concerned about gene editing technology.
Gene editing can actually be used as a book editor analogy: knocking out genes is the function of the gene, equivalent to deleting a passage in a book; precisely changing a particular gene sequence is equivalent to changing a word or word in a passage; and fixing a gene fragment, i.e. artificially adding a gene, is equivalent to inserting a passage in a particular place.
Wang said gene editing has grown rapidly in recent years: in 2014, the world's first targeted gene-editing monkey was born in China; in April 2015, Chinese scientists modified human embryo genes for the first time; and in 2016, Huaxi Hospital announced that the first CRISPR gene-editing human trial would be officially launched.
Wang Liming believes that gene editing technology has rapidly lowered the threshold for human beings to transform their genetic information, marking the full entry of human exploration of life sciences into the "programming era", for human treatment and prevention of diseases and even improve their own characteristics, opened a new door.
of cancer, AIDS and so on, may make a breakthrough in the era of gene editing.
years of evolution, humans are indeed standing at the historical junt point of large-scale transformation of other organisms and even their own creation.
it's worth noting that the long-squaring topic of GM could be easily ended by gene editing.
with more advanced, direct operational tools like gene editing, why should modified species turn to genetically modified, a relatively indirect and socially opposing old technology? In fact, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has repeatedly declared that agricultural products and foods that use gene-editing technology, without strict regulation of genetically modified products, can be kept open in vegetable markets and tables.
, of course, any new technology is controversial, and gene editing is no exception.
gene-editing technology trigger a widespread targeted transformation of humans by ulterior motives, or even the conscious extinction of a species such as mosquitoes? Mosquito-borne diseases, bloodthirsty birth, seem to do the world no good, but even so, does humans have the power to let a species disappear from the face of the earth? In addition to mosquitoes, there are other types of agricultural pests, fungi, bacteria, viruses, such as cotton bellworms, rust, as well as tuberculosis bacteria and leprosy, etc. , have not yet become extinct.
many large animals were wiped out before humans used gene-editing techniques, tiny organisms were more adaptable and could survive even asexual reproduction.
if gene-editing technology was used to create a supervirus specifically targeted at mosquitoes? The result is probably worse than thought.
, even if humans do vote through the UN General Assembly to eliminate mosquitoes, it is difficult to do so from a purely technical point of view.
you love or not, she's there.
exploration and research of gene editing technology has just begun, is human being faced with light, unknown, hope, or disaster? When this "magic cut" that creates the world is handed over to humanity, can we use it well? There's a line in the movie Spider-Man that says well: The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility! Peking University Wei Wensheng suggested that the frontier areas of science and technology let professional scientists to do exploration and research, non-professional ordinary people to maintain moderate attention.
although the anti-current dangerous beaches are inevitable, but the history of human development will eventually flow before.
as non-professionals, we are hopeful and we will see."
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