Re: One weird trick to end Dengue Fever

1

That is good news, but did the mosquitoes consent to be vaccinated?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06-28-21 5:39 AM
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2

Also, deliberately breeding a new mosquito colony feels wrong even if it works.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06-28-21 5:50 AM
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3

It feels like the opening scene of an action movie which pivots on the hubris of the foolish scientists.

Why do action movies love shitting on the hubris of scientists so much?


Posted by: heebie | Link to this comment | 06-28-21 6:14 AM
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4

3:. I blame Mary Shelley.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 06-28-21 6:23 AM
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5

Hack sort of feels right for this, because if I'm understanding it it's not a generally applicable sort of technique -- just a one-off thing that happens to work.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06-28-21 6:28 AM
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6

And all it took was a bread bag tie and three safety pins!


Posted by: heebie | Link to this comment | 06-28-21 6:32 AM
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7

Biological control solutions always worry the hell out of me.


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 06-28-21 6:41 AM
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8

"History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of man".


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06-28-21 6:54 AM
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9

This is Unfogged. Nitpicking the headline word is literally the most important thing to talk about.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 06-28-21 7:11 AM
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10

I'm reminded of the screwworm management project that continues to work, year after year.


Posted by: Nathan Williams | Link to this comment | 06-28-21 7:28 AM
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11

10 is an amazing read. Holy moly. Kind of ironic that screwworms only mate once, or at least the females do.


Posted by: heebie | Link to this comment | 06-28-21 7:53 AM
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12

The Foreplayworms are the ones where females want to mate often.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06-28-21 7:57 AM
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13

Guinea Worm eradication looking really good this year. They seem to have sorted out the big problem with dogs in Chad, with animal infections down by a factor of almost four since last year at the same time. Carter actually has a chance at outliving it, if he can get to 100.


Posted by: Unfoggetarian: "Pause endlessly, then go in" (9) | Link to this comment | 06-28-21 8:08 AM
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14

The problem is that inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.


Posted by: Opinionated Guinea Worm | Link to this comment | 06-28-21 8:25 AM
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Hack sort of feels right for this, because if I'm understanding it it's not a generally applicable sort of technique -- just a one-off thing that happens to work.

The article at the end suggests that it could be used for other mosquito-borne diseases. It seems more like a technique that just hadn't really been tried before but that turns out to work really well in at least this one case.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 06-28-21 11:00 AM
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Didn't we have a thread on gene drives? That's the technique that's really powerful but has the risk of unintended consequences. This is a more natural form of bioengineering, like how they use a particular bacteria for caterpillar control on crops.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 06-28-21 4:38 PM
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17

John Deere is on crops, Caterpillar on construction sites.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06-28-21 4:56 PM
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18

I hadn't heard that particular on the streets/in the sheets construction before.


Posted by: heebie | Link to this comment | 06-28-21 5:21 PM
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19

When did driving a unique species into extinction suddenly be OK?

Save The Guinea Worm! -- one of God's creatures, as Voltaire pointed out.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 06-28-21 6:38 PM
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When he was alive, most people had worms coming out of something.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06-28-21 7:41 PM
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21

Guinea worms? Fuck 'em.


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 06-28-21 7:56 PM
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22

Don't. Even at Dionysia.


Posted by: Opinionated Asclepius | Link to this comment | 06-29-21 1:27 AM
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Volunteer hosts are solicited to save this unique species being threatened by imperialist enlightenment values.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 06-29-21 7:28 AM
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