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All pesticides are bad in one way or another, what we need to do is invest more in development of gene drives for elimination of more pests. Doublesex gene used by target malaria is similar in most insects, so the same technique can be used to target most of the pests, and dramatically improve the situation.


Nothing says human safety like a technology that can make a species extinct. The motivations for elimination mosquitoes is noble, but I'm not comfortable about where this technology will go afterwards.


We have had lots of technologies that could make (and made) many species extinct: fire, spears, guns, nets, walls in the right place that helped to trap the whole herd. The difference this time is that we have a technology that can make extinct the species that we want to make extinct, without side effects. What complications do you foresee with this technology?




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