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Me again!
There's been news lately about a new method for gene editing. Fascinating stuff, and making me think I can plausibly include gene editing in general in my worldbuilding for my near-future SF. But there's a big piece missing in all the articles I'm finding: what equipment is used?
I understand (at a very rudimentary level) the chemical methodology they're talking about. But I'm trying to picture the hardware that's involved. How delicate is the equipment? What kinds of materials and methods are required to manufacture it? What is maintenance like? What's its practical shelf-life? If they need to replace parts, how complex are those parts? Are we talking microcircuits, or just ordinary electrical/optical equipment?
For SF I know I can just invent Hardware Thing That Works. But I'd like, as much as I can, to do some real-world extrapolation.
There's been news lately about a new method for gene editing. Fascinating stuff, and making me think I can plausibly include gene editing in general in my worldbuilding for my near-future SF. But there's a big piece missing in all the articles I'm finding: what equipment is used?
I understand (at a very rudimentary level) the chemical methodology they're talking about. But I'm trying to picture the hardware that's involved. How delicate is the equipment? What kinds of materials and methods are required to manufacture it? What is maintenance like? What's its practical shelf-life? If they need to replace parts, how complex are those parts? Are we talking microcircuits, or just ordinary electrical/optical equipment?
For SF I know I can just invent Hardware Thing That Works. But I'd like, as much as I can, to do some real-world extrapolation.