ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Human germline engineering

Human germline engineering is like magic where scientists try to change the genes of a person before they are born, so they grow up with better traits or features.

Our genes are like a recipe book that tells our body how to work and what we look like, and we inherit them from our parents. Scientists use germline engineering technology to change these recipes in our genes, so they can make us smarter, taller, stronger, or healthier.

Germline engineering changes the genes that make up the sperm and egg cells that are used to create a human being. So, it's like changing the recipe before it gets baked into a cake!

But, some people think that changing human genes is like playing with fire because we don't yet fully understand how genes work and what the long-term consequences of changing them might be. So, scientists are working very carefully to study the effects of germline engineering before deciding to use it on actual humans.