Species invasions, and biological warfare using genetic modification, are not science fiction movies, they are actually all around us.
Every time I think about science and technology, I can think of words such as neck pinching, blocking technology, restricting the export of scientific and technological products, and prohibiting cooperation, etc., I wonder how I didn't seem to hear about the confrontation between the United States and China in the "biological field", and as a result, a batch of goods from the United States withheld by Qingdao Customs completely attracted my attention.
Recently, qingdao post office customs, which belongs to Qingdao Customs, found 7,000 black-bellied fruit flies in a parcel during a routine inspection.
In fact, it is not unusual to bring it out alone, because if you want to mail fruit flies, you can approve it with customs approval.
But that's exactly what the problem is.
First of all, this package, when the original declaration, filled in the "clothes", so this is "illegal entry"; secondly, it is also a point that attracted my attention, this batch of packages "from the United States".
In fact, I don't want to preconceived that these fruit flies are biological warfare against China by the United States.
But in the light of recent U.S. moves in biotechnology, their technological reserves in biogenetics, the extent to which the United States has historically used biological, chemical, or mass destruction weapons, and their view of China as their biggest competitor.
I couldn't help but get worried.
The first is the decision of local authorities in Florida, USA, to release more than 750 million genetically modified mosquitoes in 2021 and 2022.
This is a kind of "gene editing" male mosquitoes, they combine with wild female mosquitoes, the resulting "female offspring" will all die, so this transgenic mosquito invades the mosquito's original swarm in large numbers, which will greatly reduce the number of female mosquitoes born.
And because only female mosquitoes can bite people, those diseases transmitted by mosquito bites will have a much lower rate of transmission and people's quality of life will be improved.
There is nothing wrong with the technology itself, in fact, the threshold is not high, and every summer when mosquito breeding is rampant, the provinces in southern China will also use this way to control the mosquito population.
Everyone uses gene technology, all of which use gene editing to change the genetic information of mosquitoes, and then transform mosquitoes into "genetic infectors" who "kill mosquito communities", it can be said that in this regard, the gene editing technology of China and the United States is mature.
But there is a problem here, technology knows no borders, technology is common to all mankind, technology is not good or evil, but there are people who use it, and in terms of how to carry out "technology control" without harming others, the United States can be described as a typical example of incompetence.
In 1942, the PanamaNian War, which was caused by the Panamanian military dictator Noriega, subsequently, the U.S. military intervened to recruit a group of subjects to conduct human experiments on the actual combat effects of mustard gas in tropical environments without their knowledge and consent.
Under the power of mustard gas, the subjects' skin began to burn and dissolve, they began to scream continuously, tearing their hearts and lungs in pain, rolling in place, and some people began to knock on walls, banging on protective doors, praying for people outside to let them out, but no one responded, and never opened the door until the time came;
In 1945, in order to end World War II as soon as possible, the US military dropped two atomic bombs on Japan in succession, and the consequences were far-reaching;
In the 1999 Kosovo War, the US military used more than 31,000 depleted uranium bombs in the war, despite opposition from the international media and humanitarian organizations.
Looking back at the United States in the last century, I am given the illusion that technology is manipulating the United States, that they can obviously respect life more, but they prefer to use more terrible technology, as if they are holding a game mentality and wantonly showing off their force.
The time has come to the 21st century.
Today's international laws are more sound, the rise of China has also curbed the arrogance of the United States, the United States can not wantonly "use technology", but the United States has not stopped, they are still quietly "developing technology", using "biotechnology" to make bacteria, viruses become stronger.
As early as 2009, the United States sent "Anthrax samples" to the US military base in South Korea for biological and chemical weapons development, but because it was only a sample and had no activity, everyone opened one eye and closed one eye until 2015.
The US military sent a batch of "live anthracis bacteria" to the US military base in South Korea by "mail", and there was a worldwide uproar for a time, because the anthracis bacillus is a deadly bacterium, which only needs 10 liters of amount, released into the air, and can kill 250,000 people.
It's like you airlift a nuclear bomb and a starter to the United States, but you let a monkey play with the starter.
The "botulinum toxin type A" that has been improved by American technology is about 100,000 times more toxic than the original anthrax virus, so once this bacterium leaks from the laboratory, it is really possible to be more powerful than a nuclear bomb.
And that might explain why the United States has built so many biological weapons laboratories in countries other than home.
On the one hand, it may be convenient for attack, after all, the transportation and preservation of biological weapons are more demanding;
On the other hand, and I think it is most likely, that is, the United States itself is afraid of the leakage of biological and chemical weapons from these laboratories.
And we stand at this juncture today, there are many countries with "biotechnology", but no country is like the United States, standing at the highest point, always oppressing other countries, suppressing countries that try to surpass them, and sanctioning countries that dare to provoke it.
Biotechnology can be used to benefit human beings, such as hybrid rice, and China feeds 20% of the world's population with 8% of arable land.
Biotechnology can also harm, or even destroy, human beings, such as the Black Death in the Middle Ages, the plague, which erased 1/4 of the population of Europe at that time, and this is still only a pathogen that evolved in the natural environment.
Today, species that have been improved by biotechnology will definitely bring greater crisis and even extinction pressure to humans and other species.
And the United States,
It has both the strength and technology to modify the organism and use it for "bio-war";
There are also means of war against countries that do not conform to its ideas, less sanctions, and more war;
There are also previous wars in the past, and in modern times the use and development of biological and chemical weapons.
So, biotechnology is not terrible, what is scary is the people who use it.
There is a saying that behind every serious accident, there must be 29 minor accidents and 300 attempted precursors and 1,000 accident hazards.
This is the conclusion reached by an expert after investigating the super-large explosion in the fuel industry area of the United States.
This is Hayne's law, meaning that no catastrophe happens in isolation, and its occurrence is accompanied by a prelude, like the huge shadow that sinks into the sea under the tip of an iceberg.
And it is most appropriate to use it to describe the fruit flies this time, we have only seen the number of those detained by customs this time, and the number of those who have not been detained, I believe, is hundreds of thousands of times.
I don't know what the real use of this batch of fruit flies is, and I don't want to speculate maliciously that this batch of fruit flies is really used to fight "biological warfare", and I would rather believe that this is used for experiments, but if it is an experiment, why not declare it to customs? Why sneaky "smuggling"? Moreover, the words "species invasion" are really too heavy.
I don't know if you've ever seen a banner like this.
It was a protracted war against species invasions in June 1979, the protagonist of which was called the American White Moth.
It has a wide range of adaptations, and can survive in environments as low as minus 16 ° C and as high as 40 ° C, in other words, China is so big that it can run at its disposal, and its larvae can survive for 10-15 days without food.
The most frightening thing is its ability to reproduce, theoretically, a female can breed up to 3,000-6,000 larvae a year.
And such a terrible scale of reproduction, for forest vegetation and farming is simply a "species extinction", if not restricted, in a few years, a city will become a "gray city" without green, its hazard registration can be called "worldwide".
In order to cope with the invasion of the "American white moth", China can be described as a huge investment,
In 2013, Xinxiang City invested 13 million yuan;
In 2015, Jinan invested 82.79 million yuan;
In 2016, Fuyang invested 30 million yuan and Anhui invested 135 million yuan
……
In fact, the "American white moth" is only the tip of the iceberg of China's defense against species invasion, and the "cotton bollworm" that has almost destroyed China's cotton industry; the "Mediterranean real fly" that has caused major economic losses to many countries is showing human beings the terrible invasion of species, and this is only a "species invasion" that has not been modified by biotechnology.
Those species that have been "enhanced by biotechnology" with special purposes, once invaded, I think the consequences will only be more serious than the American white moth, cotton bollworm, Mediterranean fruit fly, and the destruction of ecosystems is an obstacle to the development of a country, and its biggest culprit is only that "technology" is used by people with ulterior motives.
Around 2000, scientists sequenced 13,600 pairs of genes in Drosophila nigricans, and we found that most of them had striking similarities with human genes, and scientists also found genes or potential genes that cause cancer in humans from the genetic material of fruit flies.
And because of the deeper understanding of the Drosophila gene, the more likely it is to make a fuss about it, the more potential threats there are.
The black-bellied fruit fly can lay 400 eggs at a time and hatch directly in 24 hours, and the 7,000 black-bellied fruit flies intercepted by the customs this time alone are enough to form hundreds of thousands of scales in a very short period of time.
If the fruit fly gene is maliciously modified by hostile forces to secrete toxins and eat fruits and vegetables like crazy, it will cause a fatal blow to the invading country, which is one of the reasons why many countries strictly guard against the illegal flow of fruit flies.
Big countries are in a game, small countries are angry, gods and immortals are fighting, and mortals are suffering.
I don't know how many of these packages are smuggled to China, but our customs, the first time they can intercept them, they can have a second time, and the third time, they shut them out before the crisis comes.
The gateway to the country is well deserved.