Today Matt & Jeff go back to basics to look at CRISPR and the Blockchain and ask: What are they and how do they work? It’s time to Mattsplain.

Episode Excerpt
You’re looking very decomposed today. Why’s that?
•I don't really spend much time in this temporal reality.

Of course you don’t. You spend most of your time propping up a bar and practising your lies. Why don’t you tell us about black holes?
•You are a little bit grumpy this morning, aren’t you? They aren't lies so much as alternative truths
•As for the black holes, It’s really very straightforward.
•You look at the velocity of the light coming from a dying star.
•Then you account for the friction of gravity, and the density of the planet’s gasses
•The you account for how they multiply as the star is pulled into the hole and the matter is compressed.

Did you just make that up?
•Yes. I’m very good at pretending to know what I’m talking about.
•Usually, if I'm speaking it's a fairly good indication that I'm lying.

Once again. An episode with very few expectations. Where would you like to start today?
•Gosh. It sounds like I've knocked all of the hope out of you.
•Should we start with CRISPR?
•We’ve been talking about genetic modification an awful lot on the show recently.
•Editing out the genes that create certain diseases, all conditions or hacking your body to try and create enhancements.
•And then on the show we keep saying that tools like crisper actually incredibly cheap.

If you don’t really understand what CRISPR is, then it doesn’t really matter how expensive it is or isn’t?
•Precisely. I’m sure a lot of people think that CRISPR is the part of the fridge where you store leafy vegetables.
•And you wouldn’t be wrong.
•It’s not the best analogy but we can use CRISPR to extend the life of things.

Why not tell everyone what it means?
•It’s quite incredible what we take for granted, isn’t it?
•We use this terminology all the time, and it’s become part of our lexicon, yet how many of us know what those initials stand for, other than sounding cool and futuristic?