We all know that the anopheles mosquito causes malaria and that malaria kills half a million people a year. What if we could eradicate the anopheles mosquito and save so many lives, for down the road that would be many people indeed? Well we can. In fact the Bill Gates Foundation which has been so active in fighting malaria has made the technique behind all this a centerpiece of their anti-malaria effort. It’s a form of genetically modified organism called gene drive. Whereas genetic engineering usually affects one generation and may or may not be passed on, gene drive is passed Continue reading “Gene Drive, GMOs and Species Extinction”
Tag: genetic engineering
Too Long Forgotten
CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a gene splicing tool that can edit certain diseases out of our genes. It’s basically a form of genetic engineering. As such it is a breakthrough in scientific technology and much discussed in scientific and medical circles. Of course it could also be used wrongly, support the ideas on race of someone like Hitler for example. But that’s for another piece. CRISPR has much commercial potential and a lot of money is a stake. While it has not yet been tried in humans, its potential for therapeutic purposes has already led to controversy. The first is ethical, Continue reading “Too Long Forgotten”