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Comment by DoreenMichele | Hacker News Reader

This is cool info and all but:

“This tells us we should be looking for drugs that bind to that pocket and can serve the same purpose as the cryptochrome tail.”

We don't yet know why this genetic variation exists, but we are leaping to the conclusion that we just need to drug these folks and force their bodies to work 'normally' and that's that.

I wish I were in a position to expand on why I think that's problematic, but I'm not. Ironically, I'm incredibly short of sleep myself at the moment and need to go try to get more sleep.

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> We don't yet know why this genetic variation exists, but we are leaping to the conclusion that we just need to drug these folks and force their bodies to work 'normally' and that's that.

The normal way to deal with that is to make the medicine available but optional.

> "Why is it normal?"

> "Because it is normal."

The word usage "drug these people" "force their bodies", indicated to me that she hadn't even considered the possibility of just making it available without forcing it, so I thought mentioning how it's usually done would be helpful.

I have long used a metaphor I call "Pale Skin Disorder."

Imagine a world in which being Caucasian is treated like a Genetic Disorder and the world acts like you are weird and broken for not tolerating sunlight as well as others. In this world, everyone runs around nearly naked under a tropical sun and people with Pale Skin Disorder are constantly sunburned to the point of peeling and routinely die at very young ages of malignant skin cancer.

There's really a simple fix: Acting like being Caucasian is normal and covering up when out in the sun is normal etc. But not only will no one think of that solution if you view the issue as Pale Skin Disorder, the possibility that this fixes the problem will be actively and openly mocked while people decry what an inordinate burden it is to expect people to wear long sleeves and how desperately important it is to find a genetic intervention -- and never mind that genetic treatments are still new enough that we don't really know how awful the unintended side effects might be but we can guess "probably pretty freaking bad, to be honest."

White skin is adaptive at northern latitudes. That said tan-in-a-pill would be pretty cool. I could see it being popular.

It's more of a tan-in-a-syringe kind of thing, but Melanotan has been available for a while now.

White skin is adaptive at northern latitudes.

Exactly.

Sickle Cell protects against malaria. As awful as it is, it persists because your survival with sickle cell was better with it than without it in some regions where malaria was a big issue. (Granted, it may be a case where having one copy of the gene is a good thing with minimal downside and two copies is "Damn, that suuuucks." But the mutation persists for a compelling survival reason and not actually because the butthead in charge of the universe is simply a sadistic jackass like I so often feel they are.)

Probably most major "genetic disorders" are adaptive to some degree and in some manner. And most drugs have significant side effects. If "tan in a pill" causes heart attacks or cuts off circulation to your toes such that they necrotize and fall off, welp, you can keep your damn "tan in a pill" as far as my pale ass is concerned.

> Sickle Cell protects against malaria.

Sickle cell trait (being heterozygous for the gene that replaces beta-globin with hemoglobin S) protects against anemia, and does not, in and of itself, produce sickle cell disease.

> As awful as it is, it persists because your survival with sickle cell was better with it than without it in some regions where malaria was a big issue.

It persists because being heterozygous for the sickle cell gene makes you much more likely to survive and reproduce where malaria is widespread. Actual sick cell disease, whether being homozygous for hemoglobin S (sickle cell anemia) or having some other defect on the other copy of the HBB gene while also having the sickle cell trait, IIRC, isn't a net advantage, even there.

Yes, I did try to make that distinction. Sorry I wasn't clearer.

At the individual level, having two copies of the gene is hell to pay. At the group survival level, the existence of the mutation is protective of group survival.

I'm pretty short of sleep still.

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