Abstract

New techniques have made genome modification cheaper, easier, and faster than before, leading to a boom in research—both “basic” research and research applied to many species, and to germlines as well as somatic cells, with especially strong interest in biomedical uses. Given the scope and potential power of this work, it is vital that people be provided with accurate information about what is being done or proposed, and why. Such information is crucial to their making good decisions both in their private roles as patients and in their public roles as citizens. Communicating this information, however, is not easy.Metaphors can be useful in explaining these kinds of complex biological processes. They present the...