This article helps flash so many memories back to me. I was actively engaged with recombinant DNA, DNA profiling, and RNA quantification research/application more than a decade ago. However, those were the tough days, with bleak hope for a career in biology (industry still immature and tough competition in academia). I remember one of the running jokes back then was that the first advice given by senior or graduate students to new bio-major undergrads was to change major.

There were also tons of sad stories of biology postdocs got stuck as postdoc for 10+ years, with no hope of leading their own lab, no path to a tenured position, and no industry position as plan B. Long and harsh working hours was the norm (when bacteria is ready to harvest at 2AM in the morning, you'd better be in the lab for it, or else your previous week's work is gone). And your graduation was held hostage by the flies, fish, mice, etc, if they don't mate or don't produce offsprings of the desired genetic makeup.

I got scared of these prospects. I was spoon fed the prophecy in early 2000s that the 21st century would be the century of biology. It probably is true, but it was clear to me that it wouldn't happen in my college years. So I quit.

Now, a decade later, seeing that biology is finally on a solid upward trajectory, I feel really happy. The prophecy will be realized, and I hope the boom of biotech would mirror that of the silicon tech. That said, I have major concerns regarding ethic issues (genetically modified human babies, it already happened) and general public's backlash (e.g. the politicized vaccination). While technological barriers will be broken given time and money (e.g. CRISPR), the societal and political ones are much harder to overcome, if at all. I hope biotech learns from the missteps of silicon tech; it is always better to be honest and upfront about the potential issues than dealing with them after they blow up.