Even Editing Away Parasites Comes With Profound Ethical Quandaries.
NOT LONG AGO, Bill Gates noted on his blog that the deadliest creatures on the planet are not sharks or snakes or even humans but the lowly mosquitoes carrying a devil’s menagerie of diseases— malaria, dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever, Zika, West Nile—that kill hundreds of thousands of people each year.
But we may soon be able to end the mosquito’s reign of terror, thanks to a new technology known as gene drive, whose implications are at once thrilling and terrifying.
Suppose you were to engineer a genetic variation into an animal’s DNA. That anomaly would be passed along to half the creature’s offspring. Only a quarter of the subsequent generation would have the variation— and then an eighth and a sixteenth and so on. Gene drive—another spinoffof crispr—upends that calculus. Theoretically it would guarantee that a lab-modified trait can be inherited by all a creature’s offspring and all their offspring, until the whole population carries it.
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
WHEN IN DROUGHT
This obscure yet adaptable grain could be a healthy staple for a warming planet.
GLOBAL WARNING
Why Project 2025 is an environmental catastrophe in the making
BAD HABITS
A spate of recent horror movies recycle tired tropes about nuns-and reveal society's ongoing discomfort with independent women.
Taking the Fifth For a glimpse of the Supreme Court after a second Trump term, look at the radical circuit court that's already driving America to the right.
Imagine obamacare is dead and millions of Americans have lost health coverage.
THE ARCHITECT
TRUMP WANTS TO BE KING. RUSS VOUGHT HAS A PLAN TO MAKE IT HAPPEN.
Losing Faith
As an evangelical leader, I enticed lawmakers and federal judges to adopt a conservative Christian agenda. Donald Trump’s rise proved how wrong I was.
GOD'S COUNTRY
These Christian nationalists have a plan to take over Americafrom small towns to the highest court in the land.
IN THE NAME OF THE MOTHER
How Shyamala Gopalan Harris raised a presidential contender
KILL THE MESSENGER
The anti-disinformation field is retreating under attack.
TRUMPNESIA
To get a second chance, Trump needs voters to forget his disastrous presidency.