They might sound like something straight out of the pages of an Isaac Asimov or Arthur C Clarke novel, but genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes are very firmly science fact and not science fiction, as visitors to the Edinburgh Science Festival learned during a talk entitled The Buzz About GM Insects on April 7, 2019, in Edinburgh, UK. Event host Ali Floyd, Public Engagement Manager at the Wellcome Centre for Anti-Infectives Research at the University of Dundee, Dundee, UK, opened the session by asking members of the audience to raise their thumbs, keep them level, or point them downwards depending on how they felt about the use of GM insects—a fairly equal spread of thumbs up and thumbs level signalled the crowd was open to debate on the topic, which Floyd then facilitated by inviting the three guest speakers to deliver short talks, before opening the floor to questions from the audience.
Original Article: [Media Watch] The flightpath of genetically modified insects