We just ran a CRISPR backronym contest here at the Niche blog. What were we looking for in terms of CRISPR backronyms? We were hoping to see backronyms that were in a sense clever explanations using the letters C, R, I, S, P, R for what CRISPR might “really” stand for if it weren’t Clustered, Regularly, […]
Winner of CRISPR backronym contest Read More »
My new book GMO Sapiens just recently came out. You can see a few reviews of it here and you can order it here. It’s an approachable, quick read on the unsettling, but exciting topic of using CRISPR gene editing technology to make a new kind of people. Here’s an excerpt from the book (publisher: World
GMO Sapiens: An excerpt from my new book on human #CRISPR Read More »
It’s exciting that the reviews are starting to come in on my new book, GMO Sapiens, on human genetic modification including CRISPR. Here is one from The Scientist and the book was recommended by Scientific American. Reviews from individual authors and scientists are below. “GMO Sapiens could not be more timely. New technologies like CRISPR-Cas9 gene
Reviews of my new book GMO Sapiens on #CRISPR & human modification Read More »
I had fun doing an interview on This Week in Science (TWIS) this week with Dr. Kiki Sanders. The video is below. We talked specifically about CRISPR, designer babies, gene drive, and my new book GMO Sapiens. Check out the book. TWIS is so awesome and I am now going back to watch their older
Video: #CRISPR, designer babies, gene drive, my book & more on TWIS Read More »
Update: you can also enter our contest on Twitter using the hashtag #CRISPRback. Do you like contests, words, science, and cash? Enter our new contest. It’s a backronym contest for CRISPR. The author of the best backronym will win a $50 prize paid by me and fame of course as the winner. The judges will be
Enter Fun CRISPR Backronym Contest: $50 Prize Read More »
Sounds recommended weekend reads for you to enjoy since it is Friday and almost the weekend including stem cells, CRISPR, cats, cloning, and more. Holy GMO, China wants to buy Syngenta. RetractionWatch says that Macchiarini will soon be out at Karolinska. For more on this “super surgeon” who used stem cells, see here regarding recent Vanity
TGIF weekend reads: stem cells, GMOs, #CRISPR, cats, cloning and more Read More »
With the approval today of the use of CRISPR in human embryos, the UK continues its recent trend toward a more permissive regulatory policy on human genetic modification. There are both risks and scientific benefits that come along with this trend. Last year the UK approved an experimental technology with the goal of preventing the
CRISPR embryo OK signals ongoing liberal UK trend on human modification Read More »
Politicians including Trump may start talking about CRISPR more and more in the near future. What if politicians weighed in on CRISPR with Tweets or statements in debates? What if this happened during the particularly charged time of a political campaign such as now? Below is a Saturday science satire in that spirit of imagined Tweets
If Trump & Other Politicians Debated #CRISPR: Saturday Science Satire Read More »
Eric Lander’s recent piece in Cell on The Heroes of CRISPR has sparked strong reactions that are mostly critical and have argued that the article is biased. I’m going to weigh in with my own thoughts at some point later, but I thought it would be interesting to try a word cloud-based text mining of the Lander
Does Word Cloud of Lander’s Heroes of CRISPR Text Suggest Bias? Read More »
The patent dispute on CRISPR between UC/Jennifer Doudna and The Broad/Feng Zhang has been the subject of major attention including in a recent piece on Stanford Center for Law & Biosciences Blog. There is a lot of confusion over this important CRISPR dispute so I turned to a patent expert for their take on this via an interview
Patent expert weighs in on CRISPR dispute between UC & Broad Read More »