|
About This Author
Come closer.
|
Complex Numbers #941992 added September 25, 2018 at 1:13am
Restrictions: None
I'm okay with this
When the British occupied India, many things caught them unprepared. To name but a few: the heat; Indians; lack of beer; and malaria.
But the Brits are nothing if not inventive, so they figured out ways to deal with most of these issues. For example, malaria, which is a disease spread by mosquitoes: they realized that quinine makes an effective anti-malarial treatment. Quinine is the active ingredient in tonic water (that is, the "tonic" part), but the problem was that tonic water tastes remarkably like ass.
So in order to make it more palatable, they invented the gin and tonic. Leave it to the Brits to add gin to something to make it taste better.
Remarkably, the invention of the gin and tonic represents the one and only positive thing to result from mosquitoes. Since that has already been developed, though, it's not going away.
Neither are mosquitoes.
Or... are they?
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45628905
Gene editing wipes out mosquitoes in the lab
Researchers have used gene editing to completely eliminate populations of mosquitoes in the lab.
The team tested their technique on the mosquito Anopheles gambiae, which transmits malaria.
They altered part of a gene called doublesex, which determines whether an individual mosquito develops as a male or as a female.
This allowed the Imperial College London scientists to block reproduction in the female mosquitoes.
Now, normally, I'm against genocide. It's rude. But for mosquitoes, I'll make an exception.
And yeah, I know, the risks, unintended consequences, etc. I've been reading science fiction most of my life, so I know that there might be some downsides. Take out a species, and we can't always predict what follows. Still, I'm pretty sure the ecosystem would adjust, eventually, to having no bloodsucking pests around. Well, other than politicians, anyway - still no way to eliminate them entirely.
Or maybe something more catastrophic could occur. According to the gospel of science fiction, maybe the gene editing will take on a life of its own, eventually spreading to humanity. But you know what? We're all going to die eventually, anyway, and I promise you that the last words of the last human on earth will be "At... least... there... are... no... more... mosquitoes... croak."
Worth it.
In fact, about the only downside I can see would be if the cure gets out of control chaotically, attracting more dark matter to Earth, increasing its gravity such that it spirals into the sun. Millions of years later, flaming fusion cockroaches swarm from the solar orb and take over the galaxy.
But hey, at least there won't be mosquitoes. |
© Copyright 2018 Robert Waltz (UN: cathartes02 at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
Robert Waltz has granted InkSpot.Com, its affiliates and its syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work. |
