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If CRISPR Had Stayed Fully Open Science from Day One

CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing published with immediate open-tooling covenant

Divergence · June 28, 2012

Timeline comparison

Use the scrubber to walk through the fork. Each marker shows what historians document versus what plausibly changes—with evidence notes, not alternate-reality fiction.

CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing published with immediate open-tooling covenant

Fork date · June 28, 2012 · Select any marker below to inspect evidence and mechanisms.

Fork

201020122025

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Point of divergence

high

What happened (actual)

Jinek et al. show Cas9 programmable DNA cleavage in vitro

Evidence · Published Science 2012; Doudna/Charpentier lineage widely cited as enabling precise editing.

Counterfactual branch

Plausibility · Addgene already distributed molecular biology tools; funders occasionally required data-sharing—extending that norm to editing reagents is administratively feasible.

Significance 10/10 — higher marks events that structurally reshape the scenario, not mere headlines.

Full chronology