March 29, 2024

Everything you wanted to know about genetic engineering in one chirpy video

It may be too optimistic about the future, but it is a good overview of a complex field.

This chirpy video about genetic engineering explains the complex present and speculative future quite well although it probably takes too optimistic a view of how the new technology will be used. Elliot Hosman, of the Center for Genetics and Society, grumbles that it: 

… adopts an exceedingly narrow vision of democratic progress and governance. “The only thing we know for sure,” it asserts, “is that things will change irreversibly.” By this logic, technology’s impending arranged marriage to biology is inevitable, and we might as well sit back and watch the Silicon Valley “cradle of innovation” unburden us from our human imperfections—one human birthing experiment at a time.

However, it has been extremely popular. Released in August by the German company Kurgesagt (“In a Nutshell”), it has clocked up 3.2 million views. 

With the great public interest in CRISPR, the CGS recently produced a resource page on human germline editing. It’s quite useful. 

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