Wikipedia -WSS

Wikipedia

author：comprehensive 2025-09-03 03:31:21 - browse：818

If you ask a chatbot how to cause a pandemic, it will suggest the 1918 influenza virus, according to researcher Kevin Esvelt. It will even tell you where to find the gene sequences online and where to purchase the genetic components.

Esvelt is a biologist and MIT professor whose work has included altering the genes of mice to prevent the spread of Lyme disease. In a recent First Opinion essay, he wrote about how easy and inexpensive it has become to order genetic components that could be used to create harmful pathogens or toxins and how the biotech industry and government agencies must strengthen safety precautions to prevent this.

Esvelt sat down with host Pat Skerrett to chat about the amazing things genetic technology can accomplish when used correctly, as well as the dangers of such technology in the hands of someone with bad intentions.

“We’re trying to do biotech to accomplish amazing things and heal people,” Esvelt said. “You don’t want to think about the same tools being misused and, to most scientists, this doesn’t come naturally.”

Be sure to sign up for the weekly “First Opinion Podcast” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts. And don’t forget to sign up for the First Opinion newsletter to read each week’s best First Opinion essays.

Newsletters

Sign up for First Opinion Podcast

Weekly alerts when a new episode drops from STAT’s First Opinion podcast

Please enter a valid email address. Privacy Policy

Previous article： Tori Bowie and the unacceptable rates of Black maternal death
Next article： Will.i.am, Britney Spears release new single, 'Mind Your Business'

knowledge

WSS

Review: 'Barbie' will hit you like a shot in the heart

FAMU bans football players from facility after release of rap video shot in team's locker room

In new study, freeze

Mike Pence ‘not interested in trading insults’ with Trump as he tries to win New Hampshire

Burning questions about Delta and the next phase of the Covid pandemic

Marvel Studios reveals new trailer for 'The Marvels': Watch here

focus

Wikipedia

Sign up for First Opinion Podcast

knowledge

Malaria cases in Florida and Texas: Here’s what you need to know

7 of the most gruesome medical devices in history

Over 800 arrested across France in 3rd night of riots after fatal police shooting of teen

Body of missing toddler recovered in Delaware River days after flood: Police

Supreme Court strikes down use of affirmative action

PrEP can help anyone prevent HIV. Why do so few people take it?

Medicare proposal to cover medical devices draws a mixed reaction

Weekend shootings leave at least 6 dead, 20 others wounded in Chicago

Dobbs anniversary: the lost opportunity of abortion as health care

Russian special forces kill a gunman who broke into a private house near Moscow

leisure time

Inside the culture of fear in the White House science office of Eric Lander

Where does female orgasm come from? Scientists think they know

Woman found dead after suspected bear encounter near Yellowstone, wildlife officials say

Sophia Smith scores twice for US in in 3

Drone hits Crimean ammunition depot as strikes kill, wound civilians and journalists in Ukraine

The response to Covid

knowledge

explore

hotspot

focus