ps Do you want this research happening in Taiwan/China, with a high risk tolerance, or in the USA. If you are worried about GM, then you should push for the USA to develop it under USA regulations. Otherwise it will be developed in China, where consideration of environmental risks are a lower priority.
One problem that currently exists is the destruction of coral reefs by people harvesting pet fish (via dumping cyanide? in the water). Creating a market for tank farmed fish would SAVE lots of wild species/areas.
The major problem that currently exists in nature is alien species, not GM species. GM could solve this problem by moving customers to alien species that can't survive in the wild. The problem with these fish is that they are not GM enough. Any Zebra fish (glowing or not) is a potential risk alien species invasion.
If we had a real market for GM pets, maybe they could spend more money making really really good versions, instead of fighting lawsuits etc. ie, with GM fish, how about some options like this.
They could be engineered to require a dietary supplement that they could not get enough of in the wild. (ie delete their genes that make vitamin C?)
They could be engineered to need a really weird PH level in the water, or for the eggs to mature
Maybe the eggs could be engineered to only produce males at 1 temp extreme, females at another temp extreme (ie arctic vs tropical).
Maybe the eggs would require warm incubation (ie turtle eggs) on land.
They could be engineered to be unable/unwilling to cross with related wild species.
Hell, for all I know, you could engineer them so that males could only survive in very salty water, and females in fresh. Human would be required to get sperm from males to females (ie straining the water from one tank, then 'polluting the water in the other tank'
Think of all the species that could be saved if there was a GM cat that ate vegetarian food pellets and didn't hunt. Cats wipe out many native species
I read about this a while ago. As I recall, researchers confirmed that the change in behavior was caused by chemicals. The added and removed the parasite at different stages of the life cycle. Once it was removed, the spider went back to its normal behavior. They may have even tried just injecting the chemicals, although I don't recall now.
This stuff is apparently all over the place, and in vast quantities. As I recall, more than enough to replace oil (maybe even oil and coal). Many oceans have it not just the arctic.
The problem is extraction, and people have been working on it for years.
Slashdot Mirror
Or did the blood test reveal the sex of the victims?
Note how it goes from 'blood of 2 people' too '2 men'.... As if he couldn't have killed 2 women etc
This sort of assumption seems common in these types of discussions.
ie violent humans wiped out peaceful Neanderthals.
ps
Do you want this research happening in Taiwan/China, with a high risk tolerance, or in the USA. If you are worried about GM, then you should push for the USA to develop it under USA regulations. Otherwise it will be developed in China, where consideration of environmental risks are a lower priority.
One problem that currently exists is the destruction of coral reefs by people harvesting pet fish (via dumping cyanide? in the water). Creating a market for tank farmed fish would SAVE lots of wild species/areas.
The major problem that currently exists in nature is alien species, not GM species. GM could solve this problem by moving customers to alien species that can't survive in the wild. The problem with these fish is that they are not GM enough. Any Zebra fish (glowing or not) is a potential risk alien species invasion.
If we had a real market for GM pets, maybe they could spend more money making really really good versions, instead of fighting lawsuits etc.
ie, with GM fish, how about some options like this.
They could be engineered to require a dietary supplement that they could not get enough of in the wild. (ie delete their genes that make vitamin C?)
They could be engineered to need a really weird PH level in the water, or for the eggs to mature
Maybe the eggs could be engineered to only produce males at 1 temp extreme, females at another temp extreme (ie arctic vs tropical).
Maybe the eggs would require warm incubation (ie turtle eggs) on land.
They could be engineered to be unable/unwilling to cross with related wild species.
Hell, for all I know, you could engineer them so that males could only survive in very salty water, and females in fresh. Human would be required to get sperm from males to females (ie straining the water from one tank, then 'polluting the water in the other tank'
Think of all the species that could be saved if there was a GM cat that ate vegetarian food pellets and didn't hunt. Cats wipe out many native species
I read about this a while ago. As I recall, researchers confirmed that the change in behavior was caused by chemicals. The added and removed the parasite at different stages of the life cycle. Once it was removed, the spider went back to its normal behavior. They may have even tried just injecting the chemicals, although I don't recall now.
This stuff is apparently all over the place, and in vast quantities. As I recall, more than enough to replace oil (maybe even oil and coal). Many oceans have it not just the arctic. The problem is extraction, and people have been working on it for years.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/cckev000.htm