It always feels like some form of VR tech comes out with some sort of fanfare and with a promise it will take over the world, but it never does.

  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    11·
    11 hours ago

    It’s not very high profile, but there are definitely a number of major plant cultivars that have been genetically engineered.

    searches

    https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/adoption-of-genetically-engineered-crops-in-the-united-states/recent-trends-in-ge-adoption

    We just don’t really talk about it much, because the changes are things like better disease resistance or something useful but not especially mediagenic. We don’t have, oh, cats that can breathe underwater or something like that in 2026.

    • trxxruraxvr@lemmy.world
      6·
      11 hours ago

      We don’t have, oh, cats that can breathe underwater or something like that in 2026.

      If we had that, I’d be a major extinction event for a lot of fish species, causing food shortages for humans and famines around the globe.

      • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
        5·
        11 hours ago

        And so these humans would…be willing to do much to avoid the unchaining of these aquatic cats, you say?

    • Saapas@piefed.zipEnglish
      5·
      11 hours ago

      We still don’t have cats who glow when near radiation. It’s bullshit!

      • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
        4·
        11 hours ago

        Well, it depends on the frequency range you’re talking about. In common usage, “radiation” often means something like ionizing radiation, but technically, UV light is a frequency of electromagnetic radiation.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_radiation

        In physics, electromagnetic radiation (EMR) or electromagnetic wave (EMW) is a self-propagating wave of the electromagnetic field that carries momentum and radiant energy through space.[1][2] It encompasses a broad spectrum, classified by frequency (inversely proportional to wavelength), ranging from radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays, to gamma rays.[3][4]

        And if you include the ultraviolet frequency range, we did it decades ago:

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1080042/Meet-Mr-Green-Genes--worlds-glow-dark-cat.html

        Meet Mr Green Genes - the world’s first glow-in-the-dark cat

        His eyes glow ghoulishly in the right light, just like any other cat’s - but so do his nostrils, gums and tongue.

        Mr Green Genes of New Orleans in the U.S. is the country’s first ‘glow in the dark’ ginger tom.

        In daylight he looks normal, but put him in a darkened room and switch on an ultraviolet light, and his face will beam out a bright green.