Paper Boys

Episode 10

Should we kill all the mosquitos?

Genetic engineering puts scientists in a moral dilemma.

Did you know mosquitoes are the deadliest animal on Earth? (Neither did we!) With gene editing, it may be possible to eradicate these bugs that transmit diseases to humans…but is it a good idea to kill an entire species? In this episode, James dives into the science of how researchers aim to do this (and whether they should).

Want to learn more about the CRISPR-Cas methods that we discussed for gene editing? Check out @SeekingScienceBlog on Instagram/Twitter or at their website for a great overview! Seeking Science Blog

Grad Student Highlight: Alex Barth from Caltech in Pasadena, CA shares her research!

Check out the CNN news article here, the Smithsonian paper here, and the Nature paper here.

Also, here’s an interesting article applying CRISPR to genetically modify ground cherries!

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