What is the scariest thing in the world?

The most dangerous thing in the world is not human cloning, genetically modified organisms, stem cells, artificial intelligence, or nuclear weapons.

This story happened at a seminar. Someone was on stage talking about the "terribility" of genetically modified crops, but I really had no interest in debating with him. As someone who deals with science news all day long, there is no better way to describe the sensational claims about genetically modified crops than to use clichés.

After the seminar, everyone had a meal together, and a dish was put on the table. Those are suckling pig legs. I always think that eating piglets is a very uneconomical thing to do. Look, a piglet only has four legs. In order to make such a dish, several piglets are used as raw materials. It would be great if a genetically modified pig could be produced so that it could have more legs. I know that there are genes that control the number of legs an animal has. Immersed in this fantasy, I blurted out at the dinner table: I think we should use GM piggy.

But this sentence was like a fork stabbing the person next to me. "Genetically modified ones? Can they still be eaten?" someone turned to me and asked. This sentence also brought me back from my thoughts: Although I have refuted anti-GMO clichés online or in newspapers, this was the first time I encountered them in my life. I picked up a piece of suckling pig leg with chopsticks, turned around and asked him: Why do you think genetic modification is scary?

Every era has its share of scary things: thousands of years ago it was solar and lunar eclipses; hundreds of years ago it was vampires and werewolves, and later it was steam engines and cameras. But now these "scary" things have changed - solar and lunar eclipses are festivals for astronomy enthusiasts; vampires and werewolves only appear in movies and TV for people's entertainment; people no longer regard steam engines as As an ominous thing, in fact people rarely see this kind of backward machinery. As for cameras, in an era when you can buy a point-and-shoot camera for a few dozen yuan, the saying "taking photos will capture your mind" can only be a very cold joke.

But the terrible legend itself will not die. If we were to create a ranking list to select the most terrifying legends of this era, then I can guarantee that cloning and genetic modification would be at the top of the list. If you like, robotics and artificial intelligence could also be included.

Obviously, some of the claims about genetic modification are as absurd from a scientific perspective as the werewolf legend. But these claims are still and are becoming popular. If you search for "GMO" on the Internet, you will easily find statements such as "reject GMOs", "such and such products do not contain GMOs", and "choose health, not GMOs". Obviously, the "genetically modified" here has become a real substance, just like dioxin or DDT. Want some DDT? Of course not! What about GMOs?

The answer may be very simple and clear: in fact, genetic modification does not belong to the category of DDT. Strictly speaking, it is not even a noun. "Genetically modified" (literally in English, meaning "gene-modified") organisms are organisms that have been biologically modified, usually by introducing genes into the genome of an organism that it did not originally have. For example, a well-known genetically modified crop—often called “golden rice”—incorporates genes that promote carotene production into the rice genome. Since carotene is the "raw material" for the body's synthesis of vitamin A, and in many developing countries, children often die due to lack of vitamin A, the effect of this genetically modified rice is like adding iodized salt to iodine-deficient areas. In other words, eating this "GMO" is actually eating extra carotene. Are you panicking about carotene? Probably not. But what if “GMO” is added in front of its name?

Of course, not all GMOs are beneficial, but the word "GMO" is certainly not another way of saying "toxic." If there is anything truly dangerous about GMOs, it is the lack of understanding of GMO technology. Ignorance is the most dangerous thing.

There is no credible evidence that clones have been born. Another famous example is cloning.

When Dolly, the world's first cloned sheep, was born in 1996, the word "clone" suddenly became a common word, associated with various terrifying legends: cloning Hitler, cloning terrorists, and even... The horror of cloning ordinary people. The popular image is of dozens of identical babies huddled together - obviously not clones, but masterpieces of the image-processing software Photoshop.

But if you look closely at cloning technology, these terrible legends are actually not terrible: cloning Hitler is almost impossible because no one has gone out of his way to properly preserve his DNA. Even if his DNA is intact, the memory cannot be inherited, so even if Hitler were cloned, he would not be able to cause trouble. As for whether cloning ordinary people will cause any panic, this is unlikely because cloned individuals still need time to grow and develop. Of course, objections from religion are another matter, but religion as a belief cannot interfere with science.