Dear MEL Topic Readers,
Florida mosquitoes: 750 million genetically modified insects to be
released
Have you seen “Jurassic Park” movie or read the book? It is a 1993 science
fiction adventure movie based on the 1990 novel of the same title written by
Michael Crichton. There, a wealthy businessman and a team of genetic scientists
created a wildlife park of de-extinct dinosaurs. To control the population of
the genetically reproduced dinosaurs, they kept only females. As feared by some
scientists, they evolved to reproduce offspring by themselves.
Now, in order to reduce the population of female mosquitos, which carry
diseases like dengue or the Zaka virus and bite humans, a pilot project was
approved in Florida to release genetically modified male mosquitos. They are engineered
to carry a protein that will kill off female offspring. Sounds like a similar
attempt to the collapsed dinosaur zoo, doesn’t it?
When humans tried to challenge the laws of nature, unpredicted
consequences could occur.
Enjoy reading the article and think if human ingenuity matches the natural
evolution.
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