Crispr is a breakthrough in genetic engineering that has given humans more power than ever to change nature.
The name, Crispr, is an acronym for "clustered regularly Interspaced short palindromic repeats".
And no, you don't need to know or remember this.
What you need to know is Crispr is a gene editing approach that allows scientists to cut out a section of DNA and replace it with whatever they choose.
For example, Crispr is starting to be used to delete the genetic code that causes inherited diseases, such as Huntington’s disease.
Crispr has the potential to positively impact the world in amazing ways. Gene editing could cure many diseases, improve crops, create new types of green fuels - the list of potential uses goes on and on.
And it's not science fiction, it's being used today. And not just on lab mice; it's being used to change the genetic makeup of humans.
New Scientist Magazine reports there are as many as 20 human Crispr trials underway or soon to be underway.
Most of these trials aim to cure genetic diseases. If successful, millions will benefit.
But as we've pointed out in the past, genetic engineering (also called synthetic biology) is the technology that scares us the most at Small Business Labs.
It's not that genetic engineering or Crispr is bad. It's not. As mentioned above, its potentially one of the most important and impactful technologies ever invented.
But genetic engineering is a field where scientific advancements are happening very fast.
So fast, it's outpacing our ability as a society to understand and think through the implications - good and bad - of what the science is capable of doing.
Wired's article CRISPR MAKES IT CLEAR: THE US NEEDS A BIOLOGY STRATEGY, points out many of the issues associated with this technology. It also points out the U.S. basically has no policy position or strategy related to genetic engineering.
The fear is, of course, that humans aren't ready to have "the power to play God with people's DNA".
A big concern is designer babies (and yes, this gives us another chance to use one of our favorite picture).
But that's just the tip of the ethical iceberg with this technology.
As the Freakonomics Radio show Evolution, Accelerated points out, Crispr could "lead to the sort of dystopia we used to only read about in sci-fi novels".
There clearly needs to be much more attention and debate about the use of gene editing.
We encourage everyone to listen to the Freakonomics podcast and read the Wired article.
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