Get ready for the Gene-edited Zombies

Scientists from Georgia State University discovered
(https://bit.ly/3mAikk1) an absolute shocker recently -
“the biology behind social behavior may be more complex
than previously thought”. Gee, who would’ve thought it!?
Maybe we don’t know as much as some people like to think.
Maybe, as a species, we should rein back on the God complex,
show a bit more humility.
Maybe warp-speeding vaccines and injecting billions of people
before the trials completed was not the wisest move, when nature
shows that it is unpredictable, time and time again. However
clever the people with God complexes think they are, however
benevolent their intentions, nature will continue to out-manoeuvre
them. This doesn’t mean we stop trying to understand nature, stop
grappling with its secrets, it means being more humble and far
more cautious.
The study in question created gene-edited hamsters to study social
neuroscience. As part of the study, hamsters had their Avpr1
a receptors removed to see how their behaviour changed. These
receptors increase the expression of social communication and
aggression. Therefore, the authors anticipated that if they knocked
out these signalling pathways they “would reduce both aggression
and social communication”.
However, the complete opposite happened. The gene-editing process
made the hamsters super aggressive towards other same-sex hamsters
in their cage.
Unexpectedly, however, Avpr1a KO hamsters displayed more social
communication behavior and aggression toward same-sex conspecifics
than did their wild-type (WT) littermates.
The gene editing was undertaken using the controversial CRISPR
technique which can cut and replace sections of DNA. The reason it
is controversial is due to its use in the womb, therefore its potential
to create designer babies. In 2018 a Chinese scientist claimed to
have created a designer baby, resistant to HIV, smallpox and cholera.
This sparked a huge ethical debate which has since died down due
to the appearance of Covid.
It was thought that Avpr1a increased aggression in males but reduced
it in females. Previous studies, where an injection had stimulated
the receptors, had produced these results. However, when the gene
was completely removed the hamsters exhibited aggression when
exposed to nonaggressive, same-sex hamsters in a neutral arena.
The authors concluded that “the diversity and complexity of social
behaviors across species and among individuals is hypothesized to
emerge from the functional interactions among the multiple nodes
of SBNN circuitry, and not from the activity of its individual
components…As such, these data support the hypothesis that social
behavior can be an emergent property coming from the interactions
across nodes of the entire circuit”.
This gene editing technology can show up immediately or express
itself over time or in different generations. These concerns all tie
in with Gain of Function (GoF) work, Dual-Use Research of Concern
(DURC) and mRNA vaccines. Whilst the immediate effects of these
technologies may not present themselves straight away, who knows
what twists nature will provide in the future. These hamsters are
excellent proof of that. What were supposed to be calm, peaceful
balls of fluff, turned into uber-aggressive attack rodents.
Who knows what problems scientists are storing up for us in the
future.