CRISPR twins who had their genes edited also had their brains altered to make them smarter, scientists believe

Their big hit: The Song Romaines The Same

(Always makes me think of GMO salad)

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So science funding works almost like art funding? Sweet… :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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Um … if I recall correctly … no? Not at all!

(Not getting on your case – I just don’t remember anything of the sort.)

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Or they end up with horrible, unforseen problems. Roll the dice.

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Hopefully their improved IQ’s will prevent them from having unprotected relations and NOT GET hiv. Or the ultra-expensive Samsung fold phone

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This is what I was picturing.

Bonus if they speak in unison.

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I don’t know how art funding works, but if you want a scientific research grant you have to craft a specialized document that a) proposes a useful and novel idea with a real impact, b) explain why no one else has been able to do it, but tactfully because c) others in the field will be the ones reviewing your proposal and criticizing it anonymously while also d) showing enough preliminary data that you look like you can feasibly pull it off AND e) describing it in enough detail that any crotchety fart’s nit-picked questions about experimental design, statistics, and understanding of the previous literature can be adequately met but f) generally enough that someone just skimming it can grok the picture and what you’re doing to it. All this gets crammed into 6 - 12 pages, in which your figures and charts must also fit. I’ve taken to including a cartoon overview of the problem, solution, and impact on the first page to help hoist reviewers’ attention into the rest of the proposal. It gets even more fun when you need to herd collaborators for their pieces across time zones.

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I’m not advocating anything here, folks, but I wonder if Chinese authorities are now considering major preventative interventions… such as making sure the twins can’t procreate.

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@Tamsin_Bailey

Here’s the band. The Crisper Twins are on the right. Notice that they’re fraternal, not identical.

image

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I bet the hot sibling left to pursue a solo career.

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I was half kidding, but your detailed response tells me yes, it is remarkably similar.
I used to hate detailing every single item that would be required, from stationery to PPE to materials to public liability insurance to financial accounting to…
Crying in the corner saying “but it’s only a painting!” is quite common.

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That was done by extraterrestrial dominators. Its a bit different

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This strongly brings to mind Nancy Kress’ excellent novel from 1993, Beggars in Spain.

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Theres no way you can setup a control for this. Interesting an idea as it is they could be genetically smarter

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I mean, technologically you could set up a control by doing a different gene edits in twin embryos but it’s super-unethical on a lot of levels and still exposes both twins to really poorly-understood health risks for their entire lives with no guarantee of benefit, particularly if the gene edit isn’t 100% effective and there are still unedited cells hanging around.

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But (since we’re discussing insanely unethical experiments on babies) you’d need to be 100% sure that the observable effects of the gene wouldn’t be modified by the fact of living with a twin who hadn’t been edited. That’s fine if you want to check whether you can alter people to make them produce vitamin C to prevent scurvy. It would never work for a complex trait like “intelligence”.

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Yeah its possible to do with another set of twins. But this set doesnt have a control. So theres no way to get meaningful data from this rogue experiment.

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Oh that’s easy, just raise them separately by identical robots.

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