• Photonic@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    Perhaps you’ve watched too much crazy stuff because there is no way you’re going to make a deadly and infectious virus with “a $15 CRISPR starting kit”.

    • Scubus@sh.itjust.works
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      4 hours ago

      You right, I misspoke. I would be making a deadly DISEASE, not virus. CRISPR is a bacterial editing process, I haven’t heard of any way to use crispr on viruses. Also, I just googled it, the kits have gone up to $50 now.

      • Photonic@lemmy.world
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        59 minutes ago

        Even then, you won’t be able to do that. CRISPR is a precision technique and you need exactly the right sequence and enzyme to make the alterations you want. You can’t get that in a starter kit.

        You also can’t random bullshit go! your way with UV cause it will straight up kill bacteria and the ones that don’t die will just be more resistant to UV damage.

        Stop watching the crazy stuff :)

        • Scubus@sh.itjust.works
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          31 minutes ago

          I was being very general and oversimplifying, but I think you may have misunderstood my post. I did a poor job explaining, so that’s not on you, but I did make it fairly explicit that for most people I had assumed they WERENT using crispr, just the kit.

          As for the UV resistance, disclaimer: I haven’t ever done this. I am not speaking from experience, nor do I have the prerequisite information to confidently argue I am correct here, but I do believe you are slightly mistaken. I would love for you to correct me, especially if you actually do know what you’re talking about, unlike me.

          this seems to suggest that UVC can induce mutations so long as you include a repair agent. From what I can gather, the UV damages the cell in such a way that would kill it normally, but by repairing the cell wall you can increase the chances the cell will heal with mutated DNA.

          this seems to suggest that you can use UV to enhance or diminish existing traits in a bacteria, which is pretty much exactly what I was referring to.

          this even seems to suggest that UV radiation induces a faster mutation rate than bacteria that naturally mutate quickly. This effectively eliminates the possibility of something similar to a placebo, showing that UV is more effective than otherwise naturally waiting for mutations.

          Again, I could be mistaken, and there’s a bunch of specifics in those studies I didn’t quite understand. But I’m confident I got the general idea, and as such it seems a fairly difficult task to show that my original assessment was incorrect. This is going to sound facetious but I promise it’s not, I just value my word choice: I genuinely appreciate your attempt to correct me, and if you have any other information you feel would be beneficial to the discussion please don’t hesitate to share it with me.

          • Photonic@lemmy.world
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            21 minutes ago

            Yes, you’re mistaken. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.

            None of these studies are done with a DIY set, they’re done at million-dollar laboratories by professionals. Two of these studies found exactly what I told you in the previous comment, that the bacteria became better equipped to deal with UV damage.

            The second study is interesting, as they found a way to select the bacteria to produce the chemical of interest. But you won’t be able to do this with a DIY kit either.

            And lastly, how are you going to determine whether you’re even on the right track? Do you have a whole bunch of rhesus monkeys that you can inoculate to see whether they die and infect each other?