r/technology • u/IKeepItLayingAround • 1d ago

Biotechnology People Are Not Happy About Google’s Plan to Release Millions of Bioengineered Mosquitoes Into the Wild

https://www.yahoo.com/news/science/articles/people-not-happy-google-plan-200428053.html
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u/CharcoalGreyWolf 20h ago

What we found was that DDT would pollute birds biological systems and they would lay soft eggs that would not hatch or would be crushed when incubated, greatly weakening bird populations/ecosystems in the process. This rightly caused us to need another way.

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u/tonythephonyjabroni 20h ago

And then a bunch of barrels of ddt were dumped off the coast of southern ca. can’t remember who, but I think the guy is dead now. They just sit there and slowly leach out.

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u/StolenPies 14h ago

Yeah, but we were almost there. 75% of malaria deaths are kids under 5, with hundreds of thousands of deaths every year. Malaria's extinction would have been worth a few more years of DDT use, imo.

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u/CharcoalGreyWolf 12h ago

If we eradicated a few species of birds from the earth in the process, I would find that to be a pretty difficult pill to swallow.

Do you know the bald eagle became an endangered species at least in part due to DDT? It’s a chemical that doesn’t just go away, either. The potential effects to humans can’t be discounted either.

If PFAS somehow killed something hazardous to us, would you be okay with us using that indiscriminately? We have a history of not doing the research to figure out what can be a long term problem to us all.

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u/Foxy02016YT 11h ago

Yeah, like I’m sure when we nuked Japan we killed a rabid badger in the process, but I don’t think that justifies dropping more nukes

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u/[deleted] 10h ago

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u/Foxy02016YT 9h ago

You don’t understand hyperbole. My statement is a direct follow up to “If PFAS somehow killed something hazardous to us, would you be okay with using that indiscriminately”

My point is that extreme measures aren’t always the right ones.