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What is a genetic modification that would cause a massive chain reaction to possibly horrific effects? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by doomsdayrs@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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Let's keep things simple two rules.

No giving sentience, This is a no brainer issue.
Let's keep it to beings under the Animilia kingdom. "mutated virus/bacteria" is a common trope.

To start:

Let's modify ants to have lungs.

Most insects are constrained by the amount of oxygen they can acquire through their exoskeleton.

Imagine how big they can get if they didn't have that constraint?

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[–] verdare@beehaw.org 17 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

The reason you don’t really see animals that can photosynthesize (other than microbes) is because you don’t actually get that much energy per unit of area. Think about how much area a cow has to graze vs the surface area of the cow itself. And much of the cow’s surface isn’t even facing the sun.

[–] Admetus@sopuli.xyz 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Not only that but that the energy from the nutrients generated in a plant is solely used for cell growth and maintenance. Even remotely suggesting a self-warming and extremely kinetic mammal can get energy solely from the sun is nuts.

[–] notastatist 4 points 2 weeks ago

I also saw a documentary about the ineffectiveness of the photosynthesis Enzyme. Maybe we need to alter this for something like mammal photosynthesis.