Gene editing can still change the world

At a now famous conference in 1975, a group of biologists met at Asilomar State Beach in California to discuss a new technology called recombinant DNA. For the first time, scientists could stitch together genes from different species: bacterial DNA could be put into a plant, say, or a human gene put into a fungus. The Asilomar conference agreed on a set of guidelines to ensure responsible research, and (after a few years of heated debates) a new era of biology eventually blossomed. Human insulin made by bacteria and yeast helped millions with diabetes. Doctors got tests for infectious diseases through genetic probes that bound to the DNA of dangerous germs. And agricultural companies began producing genetically modified plants with built-in pest protection.