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Reading that "The astounding power of gene drives" makes the concept clear but I wonder - how could this not happen by random chance periodically? Maybe it's too infrequent to catch but doesn't it seem like occasional some species should just go extinct for seemingly no reason?

Further why wouldn't this be a positive attribute if one species could inflict it on another? I guess that's far fetched but I'm willing to admit that the logic of species interactions could very well be something that I haven't thought out.




Biology is very complex and contrary to public believe generally wasteful and not efficient and also not beautifully designed and in harmony but messy, and so is genetics. The chance that a single random base pair mutation (not a gene) actually gets activated/expressed and forms a functioning protein that is even advantageous for survival and gets passed down to descendants is tiny. Cancer or a rare genetic condition is much more likely.




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