The Quest For Peachy Vaginas
Not for nothing is a certain breed of California tech entrepreneur derisively called “douche bros”. According to Inc. Magazine, a couple of these douche bros showed up at a tech/venture-capital dog and pony show yesterday to announce their “plans for a new probiotic supplement that will enable women to change the way their vaginas smell”. Using already-controversial synthetic biology technology, the bros claim that their “Sweet Peach” product “will have practical benefits, like preventing yeast infections and other health problems caused by microorganisms.” “The idea is personal empowerment,” one of the bros said. “All your smells are not human. They’re produced by the creatures that live on you.”
It is perhaps revealing that their other proposed product is “a probiotic for dogs and cats that makes their feces smell like bananas.”
When challenged by the Inc. reporter to explain why “feminine odor” was the target of their venture, the other bro claimed that the peach smell was really just a sort of diagnostic. “”It tells us where the protein is expressed,” he said. “What, would you rather have it glow?”
Me, I’m praying for this product to fail early and often. I’m on record: I like the smell of pussy. Plus, I agree with the gentleman here: “If you don’t love pussy THIS MUCH you are not big enough to get on this ride.”
If I want peaches, I’ll go to a farmer’s market.
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There is no way these morons should be let near a DNA sequencer let alone human pussy.
I would guess the smell would be either γ-decalactone, γ-undecalactone or γ-dodecalactone, all peachy/apricotty and relatively simple to produce from biological starter chemicals. Of course they could as easily produce intensely coconutty flavours depending on what exact process they were using. If the enzyme is not sufficiently selective in its substrates it could produce other lactones, including several that are active analogues of GHB. Potent sedatives that can kill in high enough doses, especially when mixed with alcohol.
The douchehacks seem a little vague but the use of the word “probiotics” suggests that they will genetically engineer bacteria, introduce them into the vagina where they produce an enzyme that will produce this peachy smell. The only scientifically-supportable probiotic would produce undecanoic acid, a known vaginal antifungal of high efficacy, but then the smell could be a little goaty.
Their statement that “It’s a better idea than trying to hack the gut microbiome because it’s less complicated and more stable,” implies that that have no idea that bacteria can spread from one place to another. The mouth and gut being the obvious first places after cunnilingus, as well as anything else that comes in contact. Babies get their first microbiome from the mother’s vagina. From there the microbes will spread to any place they can survive. Do these bacteria have killswitches? That would be the only way to control the first clinical trials that would be necessary to prove safety. I don’t get the impression that these people will have the money or inclination to do the research safely or ethically.
If you look at their Glowing Plants Kickstarter it is all about lighting the streets with plants and other such stupidity. Astronomers would be very upset. The plant botherers are producing thale cress, a plant that is only a few inches tall. The glow can only be seen on a photograph with a 20 second exposure. They don’t appear to be shipping seeds yet, 6 months after their estimate.
Their state-of-the-art biolab includes a plant growing area that would be despised by even the most amateur indoor dope grower.
Kyle Taylor got his PhD in 2012. Omri Amirav Drory got his PhD in 2007 and graduated from the suspiciously Ray Kurzweil-backed Singularity University in 2011. These are not people with experience, just greedy entrepreneurs being helped by an MBA to monetise a simple procedure.
Transhumanists and fans of “The Singularity” seem to hate the flesh, not accepting that we are animals. Thus, an attack on the reproductive system is to be expected. For some of them the best case scenario for this experiment would be the failure of reproduction in humans. We will then have to rely on their beloved cloning, genetic engineering to overcome the reproductive block or downloading human minds onto computing media.
The microbial flora of the human body has developed over millions of years and we have only just started understanding a small proportion of what species and chemotypes of those species are present and what those microbes do. To start hacking pussy now is arrogant and dangerous.
In my rage and disgust I left out a remark on their belief that “It has only one interference per month.” They really have not thought this through. Here is a full and free-to-read research paper entitled “The composition and stability of the vaginal microbiota of normal pregnant women is different from that of non-pregnant women”.
http://www.ncbi...4.pdf
For those without scientific training the Background section on pages 2 to 3 just requires a reasonable level of reading comprehension skill. The Discussion starting on page 11 likewise.
Here is another interesting paper, this one on stability of the microbiome in non-pregnant women.
http://www.ncbi...1.pdf
There is some follow up to this, with some quotes from the inventor herself…but I don’t know if I feel better or worse about it now.
http://www.inc.....html
Well, thank you Emma, that is a relief;
1) it is just going to be a personalised probiotic with wild-type bacteria
2) idiots who don’t know what they are doing or talking about got a bad reputation and lowered funding for their genetic tomfoolery.