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God's Red Pencil? CRISPR and The Three Myths of Precise Genome Editing
Latham, Jonathan
http://www.independentsciencenews.org/science-media/gods-red-pencil-crispr-and-the-three-myths-of-precise-genome-editing/http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/04/27/gods-red-pencil-crispr-and-the-three-myths-of-precise-genome-editing/ Date Written: 2016-04-27 Publisher: Counterpunch Year Published: 2016 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX19253 For the last seventy years all chemical and biological technologies, from genetic engineering to pesticides, have been built on a myth of precision and specificity. They have all been adopted under the pretense that they would function without side effects or unexpected complications. Yet the extraordinary disasters and repercussions of DDT, leaded paint, agent orange, atrazine, C8, asbestos, chlordane, PCBs, and so on, when all is said and done, have been stories of the steady unraveling of a founding myth of precision and specificity. Nevertheless, with the help of industry propagandists, their friends in the media, even the United Nations, we are once again being preached the gospel of precision. But no matter how you look at it, precision is a fable and should be treated as such. Subject Headings |