But it’s becoming increasingly clear there is a Moore’s law equivalent for understanding and altering all biology, including our own. We are coming to realize our biology is yet another form of information technology. (Location 188)
Tags: #pink
To provide the right drug or treatment tailored just for you, your doctor will need to know who you are on a much deeper level than what is currently the case. That’s why, in very short order, most of us will have our genomes sequenced as part of the electronic health records our doctors and their artificial intelligence algorithms will use when deciding how best to treat us. As an essential part of our systemic transition to personalized care, we’ll very soon have many people who’ve had their genomes sequenced—which will change everything. (Location 197)
“Experiments in Plant Hybridization,” (Location 428)
Tags: #orange
With more genetic diseases becoming avoidable, parents who conceive children the old-fashioned way will seem like today’s anti-vaccination zealots. (Location 631)
We wouldn’t expect to make perfectly fresh cheese from old milk, but it seems perfectly normal to us that two thirty-year-old adult humans can have a child who is born zero years old, not thirty or sixty. (Location 1458)
Tags: #pink
A CRISPR is like an Old West most-wanted poster of a virus that a bacterium stores in its own genetic code after an initial exposure. The bacteria archives fragments of the viral DNA from these past exposures into the bacteria’s own genetic code to create a series of genetic “mug shots” of bad guy viruses. If the virus rolls into cellular town, the bacteria sends an RNA probe to search for code in the virus’s DNA that matches the stored genetic CRISPR target list. When it finds one, the bacteria uses an enzyme to bind to the virus’s matching code and cut apart the viral DNA just at the site where the bacterial and viral codes match. When this works, the viral attackers are cut to pieces, the bacteria survive the attack, the piano starts up again, and the saloon customers go back to their card games. (Location 1757)
