Considering their potential to completely change the world as we know it, CRISPRs (short for "clustered regularly-interspaced short palindromic repeats" andpronounced "crispers") have been pretty low key so far. CRISPRs are the latest in gene-editing technology. Using this technique, scientists can locate, remove and replace specific sections of DNA, enabling them to turn genes on or off at will. This could allow us to remove harmful mutations, switch on super-abilities such as super strength and speed, develop resistance to disease, cure cancers, grow organs, create designer humans and countless other applications. All at a super low cost. In fact, the potential ability to rewrite the base code of life itself is so versatile and revolutionary, it's quicker to list the things that it can't do, rather than what it can. Leading experts in the field predict that the impact that CRISPRs could have would be analogous to the transformation to society brought about by computing in the last 50 years or so. Only time will tell where this new technology will lead us, but watch this space, because it's gonna be big. Want to write for WhatCulture Science? Click here to find out how you could get paid to write about what you love.Hey, you. Yeah, you. You want some more science? Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for your next fix.
