Technical Knockout

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Gene Knockout/Targeting Information Resources

A few years ago, a scholarly scientific society published an anecdote in its monthly newsletter that described the different approaches to scientific discovery taken by geneticists and biochemists. In the story, a geneticist and a biochemist are on a hill overlooking an auto manufacturing plant, observing parts and workers going into one end of the plant and a finished product moving out of the other. The two are intrigued and want to find out how the familiar-looking product, a metal shell with transparent solid parts sitting on round rubber rings, works. The biochemist's approach is to steal one of the finished products, then take it apart and analyze each part separately. The geneticist's approach is to tie up certain workers or steal certain parts before assembly, then observe (from afar!) the effect on the product exiting the plant.

The...