Insect learns to love genetically engineered corn designed to kill it

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Well, how do the beetles taste?

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Just like every other insecticide…

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Christ, that’s exactly how I feel about my wife.
http://instantrimshot.com

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pfff… scientists… cram it Poindexter!

[later]

AAAAAAA!!! BUGS!! GET 'EM OFF ME. GET 'EM OFF ME!!!

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There’s another word for this. Evolution. When generations are frequent (short lifespan for bugs) and evolutionary pressures harsh (biological and chemical warfare) evolution happens fast.

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And the Titanic was unsinkable. The only thing guaranteed is the hubris of humans who believe they have mastered mother nature.

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Also, monoculture. Biodiversity good, monoculture bad.

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We’re talking about places like Kansas, which are quite certain evolution doesn’t exist.

The cause is therefore obvious: God hates corn and by extension all people that grow it.

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“Life…finds a way”

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In fairness to humans, the ‘knowing stuff about stuff’ specialists were hardly surprised by the problem, and had a counter for it, based on their understanding of evolutionary equilibrium states.

The ‘eh, fuck it, gotta beat expectations for Q4!’ brigade promptly ignored them and exactly what they said would happen happened.

We may be greedier, more short-sighted, and sometimes just plain nastier than we get credit for; but we aren’t quite so dumb.

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Don’t get them started on ‘microevolution’ vs. ‘macroevolution’. Also, genetic engineering somehow proves intelligent design because, um, some small-scale tinkering by intelligent agents is excellent proof that Designer Jesus created the universe, and stuff.

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Time travelling post from the future

[quote=“fuzzyfungus, post:11, topic:26048”]
In fairness to humans, the ‘knowing stuff about stuff’ specialists were hardly surprised by the problem, and had a counter for it, based on their understanding of climate equilibrium states.

The ‘eh, fuck it, gotta beat expectations for Q4!’ brigade promptly ignored them and exactly what the climatologists said would happen, happened.

We may be greedier, more short-sighted, and sometimes just plain nastier than we get credit for; but we aren’t quite so dumb.[/quote]

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Just like every other insecticide…

Isn’t that a bit of an over-simplification? Sure, pesticides have issues with resistance, but the degree and ramifications aren’t equal in all cases, are they?

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Can’t fix stupid. Or greedy.

On the bright side, if all the corn crops fail, maybe that’ll be an end to the “alcohol-fueled vehicles will save the world” movement.

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As always - and this case - it depends on how they’re used.

Life is tenacious and ambitious. I mean, there’s life around fumaroles at the bottom of the freakin ocean. You can always, with relative ease, get rid of the current form of life that’s annoying you, but unless you’re careful something will come back to annoy you some more.

As always - and this case - it depends on how they’re used.

In this case, what are the relative ramifications compared to other insecticides?

Or, the general case:

In fairness to humans, the ‘knowing stuff about stuff’ specialists were hardly surprised by the problem, and had a counter for it, based on their understanding of [the science].

The ‘eh, fuck it, gotta beat expectations for Q4!’ brigade promptly ignored them and exactly what the specialists said would happen, happened.

We may be greedier, more short-sighted, and sometimes just plain nastier than we get credit for; but we aren’t quite so dumb.

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Bad? The Midwest is going to have a bad Q4, and once this kind of bug starts evolving in developing nations - to be followed by failure of monoculture, non-self-germinating crops - we’ll see wide(er) spread hunger?

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Let’s see them adapt to Diatomaceous earth .

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