fortunascorner | “CRISPRs
are elements of an ancient system that protects bacteria, and other,
single-celled organisms from viruses, acquiring immunity to them by
incorporating genetic elements from the virus invaders,” Mr.
Wadhwa wrote. “And, this bacterial, antiviral defense serves as an
astonishingly cheap, simple, elegant way to quickly edit the DNA of any
organism in the lab. To
set up a CRISPR editing capability, a lab only needs to order an RNA
fragment (costing about $10) and purchase off-the-shelf chemicals and
enzymes for $30 or less.”
“Because CRISPR is cheap, and easy to use, it has both revolutionized, and democratized genetic research,” Mr. Wadhwa observes. “Hundreds, if not thousands of labs are now experimenting
with CRISPR-based editing projects.” And, access to the WorldWide Web,
provides instantaneous know-how, for a would-be terrorist — bent on
killing hundreds of millions of people. As Mr. Wadhwa warns, “though
a nuclear weapon can cause tremendous, long-lasting damage, the
ultimate biological doomsday machine — is bacteria, because they can
spread so quickly, and quietly.”
“No one is prepared for an era, when editing DNA is as easy as editing a Microsoft Word document.”
This
observation, and warning, is why the current scientific efforts aimed
at developing a vaccine for the plague; and, hopefully courses of action
for any number of doomsday biological weapons. With the proliferation
of drones as a potential method of delivery, the threat seems
overwhelming. Even if we are successful in eradicating the world of the
cancer known as militant Islam, there would still be the demented soul,
bent on killing as many people as possible, in the shortest amount of
time, no matter if their doomsday bug kills them as well. That’s why
the research currently being done on the plague is so important.
As the science fiction/horror writer Stephen King once wrote “God punishes us for what we cannot imagine.”
