The modification of genomes is synonymous with human progress. As such, technological advances improving the precision with which we are able to modify genomes can only be a good thing. So why does it make us so uneasy?

Much of human progress can be attributed to the domestication of plants and animals into crops and livestock. Domestication is the slow and arduous process of concentrating desirable traits within a particular species by deliberately breeding individuals carrying these traits. Domestication is usually undertaken with the intention to secure a predictable supply of resources from the particular species, and as such these traits are usually relevant to the particular human application in question.

For example, red junglefowl have been domesticated over the last 7,000 years into the important source of meat and eggs for many humans around the world now known as the domestic chicken. Domestication of plants and animals was a tipping point in human progress some 12,000 years ago as it permitted settled farming and ultimately the development of civilisations.

It should come as no surprise that with the discovery of genes as units of information came the desire to understand how they work.

Technically speaking, these desirable traits are encoded by genes in the genomes of individual organisms, commonly referred to simply as “in its DNA”. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that with the discovery of genes as units of information came the desire to understand how they work. With time, scientists have gone from crude approaches that introduce random mutations throughout genomes by any means imaginable, to more refined methods of genome modification. Increases in knowledge usually translate into a reciprocal increase in the control humans can exert upon themselves, animals and their environment.