this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
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Science Memes

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Least extreme biophysics phd (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 79 points 2 days ago (49 children)

Is nobody concerned that illegal experiments on babies only gets you 3 years?

Maybe they were Uyghurs so it was classified as "property damage" in Chinese law.

[–] Jhex 20 points 2 days ago (10 children)

The devil is in the details....

You are likely thinking (as I am) that he implanted robotic arms on babies but he may have just rubbed sage oil on them for all we know

[–] I_Has_A_Hat 15 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

He used CRISPR to make babies immune to HIV.

[–] andros_rex 28 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

No, he inserted a gene that is associated with resistance to HIV, but is also associated with increased risk of some cancers. He did this without informed consent, he did this without running it by an ethics board, he did this without knowing whether it would work or not.

Let’s stop pretending that he’s a good guy that just magically made HIV immune babies.

Edit: it also didn’t work. The babies have genes both with and without the mutation.

[–] T156 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

We also don't know if it was just that gene that was altered, or if there are other effects. Modern gene editing isn't so precise that we can edit just the gene we want. A lot of genes with similar sequences as the target can also be affected.

It's basically like firing a shotgun at the house they live in. You might hit the one you want, but you may also hit other unrelated genes in the process.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Diabolical

[–] Jhex -5 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Thanks for the info

definitely on the evil side considering he probably planed to infect them to test his theories

[–] I_Has_A_Hat 12 points 2 days ago

Nope, he had no plans to infect them. The babies had parents who were HIV-positive.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Wow you are jumping to a lot of stupid ass conclusions for someone who won't google a name.

[–] Jhex -4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Fine, give him your baby to experiment then

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago

You're not ok

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Did not have baby zombie apocalypse on my Bingo card, but there ya go

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