> How so? With other gene editing techniques, such as TALENs (and others before that). > And if so, why is CRISPR such a big deal? CRISPR/Cas9 is a big deal

> How so? With other gene editing techniques, such as TALENs (and others before that). > And if so, why is CRISPR such a big deal? CRISPR/Cas9 is a big deal because it makes gene editing a lot easier and less error-prone (and hence cheaper, etc.). But (and not to diminish the tremendous scientific achievement behind the technique) the hype in the press around this technique is only partially warranted, and a lot is getting lost in translation. Part of the reason why CRISPR specifically is a big deal in the popular press is due to the extremely dirty fight for its exclusive patent (and the Nobel prize for its discovery): To gear up support for their side, both institutes involved created substantial media coverage that far exceeds what new discoveries normally get. > CRISPR is an over-simplistic view of DNA I would really like to read that original article because stated like this, the claim is simply incorrect. > Right. Because the world was and still is flat? SMH I honestly don’t know what you mean by the rest of your comment. But it’s worth noting that, in the modern history of science (i.e. since doing something that actually deserves that name), crackpots have virtually never been right. Progress (even paradigm shifts) came always from experts inside the field. The only near-counter-examples I can think of are Semmelweis (but that was before modern biology existed, and even he was an expert in his field), and Wegener (likewise, for continental drift). It’s easy to assert that science doesn’t have all the answers, and that theories are a temporary view of the world that’s going to be proved wrong in the future. But this has never been accomplished by people who doubt the veracity of extremely well established facts. Our knowledge of DNA is far from complete. But the things we know about it today will stick around: they have been tested by millions of experiments, performed around the globe each day. Paradigm shifts will come because we will discover new things about it, not because we’ll disprove established facts.