How Gene Editing Could Ruin Human Evolution

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http://time.com/4626571/crispr-gene-modification-evolution/

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CRISPR snips away risky genes—but even the bad have good in them

In the 1960s, Thomas Kuhn suggested that scientific ideas undergo fits of revolution, challenging the foundation of establishment science. But it was Peter Galison who emphasized the impact of a tool or method, and encouraged the notion that technology creates the tangible breach or disruption of a field. Alfred Hersey, in a similar spirit, once told a colleague, “ideas come and go, but a method lasts.”

CRISPR-Cas9, the new gene modification tool, which has been heralded as a means for inserting ourselves into evolution, is itself evolving as a technology, even as you read this. That technology itself can evolve means there is greater urgency for how we think of our biology: either as a machine (which can break down and get new spare parts) or as part of ecology (whereby breakdown is not necessarily bad and can be part of growth, renewal or reorganization). CRISPR may be used to repair a gene that has a deficient product, such as an enzyme or receptor...

Human Genetic Modification

Genomics

U.S. Federal

A "Post-Human" Future?

Reviews of Two Books Wrestling with Genomics

By Pete Shanks | 08.28.2026

Biopolitical Times

What We Inherit by Sam Trejo and Daphne O. Martschenko; and Original Sin by Kathryn Paige Harden have a great deal in common, with substantial differences in style and emphasis. Both books attempt, in different ways, to show the reader just where current research into human genomics stands, where that might be going, and why the authors are interested. In short, the influence of genomic research on our societies is already large and seems likely to change them in ways...

Human Genetic Modification

The Return of a Discredited Pseudoscience

By Dan Falk, Nautilus | 08.20.2026

Aggregated News

The pseudoscience of eugenics, founded on the mistaken notion that nature envisions some “right” combination of genes, and that selective breeding can improve the human race, is making a comeback. While the heyday of eugenics was a century ago, the...

Genetic Selection

The Promise and Perils of Gene Editing

By Emily Packard Dawson and Lainie Friedman Ross, MedPage Today | 08.18.2026

Aggregated News

Few things evoke a greater sense of desperation than a parent seeking an experimental treatment for their child. That desperation can make even extraordinary risks seem worth taking. This dynamic has come into stark relief after Mei, a 6-year-old girl...

U.S. Federal

Three deaths in China shake trust in the country's speedy clinical trial system

By Ryan Cross, Endpoints News | 08.20.2026

Aggregated News

China’s cheap, fast and quiet system for testing cutting-edge medicines is facing scrutiny after the deaths of three people in investigator-initiated trials.

The studies, also known as IITs, allow experimental cell and gene therapies to be tested without oversight from...

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How Gene Editing Could Ruin Human Evolution

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CRISPR snips away risky genes—but even the bad have good in them

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