Something Happening

Five months ago we wrote that CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) "may become one of the most significant acronyms of the 21st century."

More about CRISPR from Wired:

researchers have already reversed mutations that cause blindness, stopped cancer cells from multiplying, and made cells impervious to the virus that causes AIDS. Agronomists have rendered wheat invulnerable to killer fungi like powdery mildew, hinting at engineered staple crops that can feed a population of 9 billion on an ever-warmer planet. Bioengineers have used Crispr to alter the DNA of yeast so that it consumes plant matter and excretes ethanol, promising an end to reliance on petrochemicals. Startups devoted to Crispr have launched. [snip]

Crispr....could at last allow genetics researchers to conjure everything anyone has ever worried they would—designer babies, invasive mutants, species-specific bioweapons, and a dozen other apocalyptic sci-fi tropes. It brings with it all-new rules for the practice of research in the life sciences. But no one knows what the rules are—or who will be the first to break them.

One of the most exciting--and alarming--aspects of CRISPR is its low expense:

“Genome editing started with just a few big labs putting in lots of effort, trying something 1,000 times for one or two successes,” says Hank Greely, a bioethicist at Stanford. “Now it’s something that someone with a BS and a couple thousand dollars’ worth of equipment can do. What was impractical is now almost everyday. That’s a big deal.”

CRISPR joins other powerful, cheap technologies, e.g., drones, 3D printing, that have arisen suddenly and are spreading like wildfire. Society will be transformed dramatically, but in what directions we don't know.

There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
             ---Buffalo Springfield