Genetic modification can be an absolute boon but the technique has become so simple (via CRISPR) that it can be carried out in your front room.
I think this is the most amazing and frightening potential.
In the right hands it can transform the world for the good – agriculture, health, manufacturing (plastics, oil and a whole new range of materials from bugs) and removal of all those deleterious genes that we are dogged with. We can make better plants, better crops, better livestock and a healthier population.
In the hands of religious fanatics (who might want to bring about ‘the end of days’) it could signal the end of humans on this planet.
Who is regulating it? How is it being policed? Who decides how it is used?
