Skeeters

We all hate them, and they can carry dangerous diseases. Now scientists have discovered a way to crash mosquito populations using CRISPR. They're using the technique to introduce a gene that makes all the females into hermaphrodites.

Now, this is a weird story idea, but it's also chilling. I mean, if this ends up working on mammals, it could cause all kinds of apocalypses.

Or, you know, what if this gene somehow hooks itself over into bees or ants and creates something bizarre?

Fortunately, they're not rushing to try this in the wild, mostly because we don't actually want to wipe out all of the skeeters...but...

I'm not normally one to say "Hey, put the brakes on," but if we can introduce a single gene into a population and have it become dominant (17 generations)...then that could allow us to adapt ourselves to a colony.

Or, I don't know, eliminate certain racial characteristics. Or we could get some fanatic who decides crashing our population is a good idea...