#biosecurity

[danlwarren]

Video by me and Ainsley Seago trying to explain the important work insect taxonomists do

[sunbladeprints]

Defending your border since 1066*

*from fruit, vegetables and the invasive pests they carry

[homeofhousechickens]

I think us locals should push for widespread use of sentinel chicken flocks considering how West Nile Virus is up by 40% and growing.

Chickens can get bitten by mosquitos and test positive for the virus. Normally the virus itself doesnt make a chicken with a healthy immune system sick so there isn't any danger to people flocks getting depopulated if they test positive. It would just let scientists know that the disease is in the area and people should take extra precautions to avoid mosquitos.

[syaraan]

Would werewolves count as an invasive species?

Yes

No

What is an invasive species

I am from a place where wolves are native/around

I don’t know / I’m bald / any other miscellaneous infinitely nuance answer

Voting ended onApr 22

[protoslacker]

Just in case Trump is indeed talking about testing a nuclear explosive device, now is probably a good time to look back at the Bulletin’s March 2024 issue, “A return to nuclear testing?”, which lays out the many negative impacts of nuclear testing. In that issue, veteran national security reporter Walter Pincus explains exactly what those who live in a place chosen for testing experience in “The horrors of nuclear weapons testing.” People today seem to have forgotten—if they ever knew—what a single nuclear weapon can do. The inhabitants of the Marshall Islands, whose home was turned into a nuclear proving ground, have certainly never forgotten.

Dan Drollette Jr in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. The experts respond to Trump’s proposal to “start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis”

There are many articles linked to in this post. The Bulletin articles cited above are free to the public for a limited time.

[techploration]

How Do You Hide DNA?

The TV trope answer is rubber gloves and bleach. You do your best to not leave any, and destroy what is left. This is also the Gattaca approach, where in a society stratified by DNA you avoid detection of your ‘inferior’ DNA by … exfoliating?

This approach has obvious flaws. Imagining that you’ll never shed a hair or eyelash or slough off some skin cells seems naive. Encasing your body in a DNA encapsulating shroud is hardly subtle or convenient (hazmat chic has yet to happen). So what do you do?

You add some Noise

You know what is a lot easier than making sure no one ever gets a hold of your DNA? Making sure no one can reliably get a hold of your DNA, and that your DNA never shows up on its own.

You might think I’m going to suggest hacking your own DNA so that it changes constantly— let’s call that phase 2.

Phase 1– DNA spore cloud

Imagine this but all DNA

You set up simple bioreactor farms to churn out DNA strands (this tech already exists), get your sequence source from Ancestry.com and you get to work laundering DNA.

A misting of this DNA soup would make all other DNA functionally invisible— how are you going to separate out one set of DNA from the others?

And with the randomness of the seed data (and data breaches), your DNA being present has no legal bearing on you having been there in person.

Oh, and Phase 3 is we hack lichens to generate human DNA spore clouds and add them to architecture as a passive form of DNA cloaking

[probablyasocialecologist]

Rise Of The Plant Destroyer | NOEMA

Pandemics aren’t just for humans — they can sweep through the plant world too. As the planet warms, devastating diseases are being carried t

As the climate shifts and global trade quickens, plant diseases are becoming increasingly frequent, severe and widespread. Each year, pests and diseases rip through global food crops, where they cause losses of up to 30% of staple crop yields, and dramatically alter the Earth’s natural forest ecosystems. It was plant disease that made the once-dominant “Gros Michel” banana nearly commercially extinct (Fusarium wilt), turned the towering American chestnut into a mere shrub (Cryphonectria parasitica) and is currently threatening the future of coffee (Hemileia vastatrix). “There is basically always a plant disease pandemic ongoing,” said Schornack. “But most people don’t know it.”

[faithfromanewperspective]

alright it's time to find smth out

would you consider eating less meat/animal products than you do?

no, it's not possible for me rn (send me your reasons why on anon for Research?)

yeah, for climate/biodiversity, a couple days a week

yeah, for public health (antibiotic resistance, bird flu etc) a couple days a wk

yeah, for animal rights/cruelty, a couple days a week

yeah, for human rights/feminism, a couple days a week

i'd commit to being vegan/vegetarian/pescatarian/flexitarian for climate

i'd commit (vegan/veg/pesc/flex) for public health

i'd commit (vegan/veg/pesc/flex) for animal rights/human rights/hunger/feminism

i don't think it's necessary; these things are the fault of corporations not me

haven't really thought about it

in the future, I hope to, but not planning it yet

it's impossible for me to eat less animal products than i do

Voting ended onApr 17, 2024

please note that with labels like flexitarian especially it's not about 'oh i never eat these things'; it's a sliding label with things like vegan and vegetarian and pescatarian where you can identify however you feel comfortable. some people just eat meat etc on special occasions or when they go out or when they don't have time/spoons to cook something nutritious, and that's perfectly valid!! whatever you're able to do has an impact that's felt and there's no pressure to do it to whatever standard we have of 'perfect' in our heads <3