Althouse: "Scientists have figured out how to brew morphine using the same kit used to make beer at home."

May 19, 2015

"Scientists have figured out how to brew morphine using the same kit used to make beer at home."

"They have genetically modified yeast to perform the complicated chemistry needed to convert sugar to morphine."

12 comments:

Eric the Fruit Bat said...: Anybody who thinks that yeast is hard to come by never met my ex-wife.; 5/19/15, 10:30 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: Yeah, but can she brew morphine?; 5/19/15, 10:31 AM
MadisonMan said...: Government will figure out a way to make it illegal. Have no fear.; 5/19/15, 10:32 AM
Largo said...: Awesome!; 5/19/15, 10:36 AM
Xmas said...: My heroes.

Yeast, is there anything it can't do?; 5/19/15, 10:48 AM
Gabriel said...: Fortunately chemists have also found a way to synthesize Sudafed from meth, since Sudafed is so hard to obtain legally nowadays.; 5/19/15, 11:00 AM
Todd said...: Gabriel said...
Fortunately chemists have also found a way to synthesize Sudafed from meth, since Sudafed is so hard to obtain legally nowadays.

5/19/15, 11:00 AM

Briliant! So, I will soon be able to modify my home beer kit to make morphine that I can further modify to become Sudafed so I don't have to go through all the government / drugstore crap to get some! DYI here I come!; 5/19/15, 11:03 AM
traditionalguy said...: There goes the local Rx pain Killers market.

Sell CVS short.; 5/19/15, 11:57 AM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: Oh boy. This is going to cause a lot of trouble.; 5/19/15, 12:13 PM
Anthony said...: There was also a yeast strain that would produce tetracyclines (antibiotic) in beer, albeit in ancient Nubia and also Egypt.; 5/19/15, 12:37 PM
Rich Rostrom said...: If the yeast gets out, or is replicated, this is a huge game changer. It will destroy the economic basis of opium cultivators in places like Afghanistan, the Golden Triangle.; 5/19/15, 2:39 PM
Anonymous said...: Morphine today, cocaine tomorrow. Amazing what nature's own 3d printers can do.

How will government be able to manage our lives when all good and bad things are essentially speech (in the past this "speech" used to be recipes in a book and required some expertise and perhaps rare materials, soon they will just be programs on the internet followed by a robot chef)?

I suspect society will have to become more honest with itself - managing the "what" rather than the "how." e.g. "don't be inebriated where you can be observed, else you're due for a weekend in the combo jail, rehab center." "Rather than brew / print your own, here are a dozen commercial sources of drugs and weapons that are better and cheaper than any you can cook up on your own, please use these sources first."; 5/20/15, 6:21 AM