Zombie Research Society
Reuters News Service reports that British scientists have genetically engineered mosquitoes programed to kill others in their own species.
A recent field study in the Cayman
Islands resulted in 80 percent of the mosquito population being wiped out by the mutant bug, giving rise to hopes that diseases like dengue fever and malaria could be eradicated.
Head Researcher, Luke Alphey, continues:
“When we release the males into the environment and they mate with wild females, all the offspring inherit a copy of a gene that kills them. So they die.”
Though the genetic modification deals specifically with mating practices and sterility, we’ve already discussed the possibility that the undead sickness could be spread by mosquitoes.
Are we the only ones that think this could as easily be the plot of an upcoming zombie movie, as the subject of serious scientific research?
I’ve lived in the swampy South almost all my life, and also happen to be allergic to mosquitoes, so I was very excited when I heard about this a while back. I’m probably wrong, but I don’t know of any species that feeds specifically off the little hell spawn or their water-borne larvae, so I say, bring on the mosquito AIDS! Of course, like anything that has the words “genetically engineered” anywhere near it, there’s probably some catastrophe lurking in the wings (no pun intended), but me and my mosquito scars are willing to find out what it is.
I’m not sure if anything feeds only on them, but tons of birds, other insects, reptiles and amphibions.. and plenty of mammals eat them. And though having them gone wont directly hurt you, the missing food chain link could cause a huge chain reaction in the eco system.
This isn’t an already endangered species were talking about taking out… this is a huge population and before anything should be released they need to do a lot of research on what creatures this will have an affect on.
Wait, isn’t this already the basic plot behind the Dead Rising games?
Though mosquitoes are a pest, they are still part of the food chain. this could affect a lot of creatures as mosquitos are plentiful and provide food for many other animals. I could see a chain reaction.
I could see this relating to zombies if the mutant mosquitoes attacked and kill each other, but all they do is pass on a terminal birth defect. They are just dead bugs, not undead. If it were somehow translated to humans, then it would just mean that the children of all the men that had it would just die shortly after birth.
And stay dead.
I dont quite get how this involves zombies… I mean zombies dont mate, at least i hope not…
I was thinking about this recently,If a Mosquito bites somebody that got the zombie infection before turning into a zombie and a Mosquito bites him than goes to another carrier would he/she turn into a zombie? That means it would spread faster and we would have to be very careful about letting the bugs in. I guess it helps if I already hate Mosquito’s
the more we mess with things like this the more we unlock doors we may not want to open…..
Fack. Then what would we wear? Rubber?
OFF! we would wear DEEP WOODS OFF! ALL THE TIME!
Wait…where’s the undead in this?
Isn’t this basically like a genetic disease?
mosquito AIDS. well done.
Love to see a movie using this!