Gene drives are an extremely new technology with many risks and unanswered questions. Despite this there has been intense military and business interest in the approval process and a push to deploy them as soon as possible.

Debra Harry explores key questions around the differences in worldview between gene drive developers and indigenous wisdom and the ties between the proposed uses of gene drives and the present and past reality of colonialism.

Ignacio Chapela explains how, underlying the mentality of biotechnology, is the assumption that the living world can be pushed to behave in the same mechanistic ways as the material, non-living world.

Riley Taitingfong explores different perspectives on debates over gene drives, analysing how the researchers and gene drive marketers try to manipulate the public into accepting this technology.

Tom Wakeford explains what horizon-scanning is and outlines how the ‘dominant knowledge system’ factor prevails in current debates over gene drives.

In this interview, Ching describes how horizon-scanning and monitoring of potentially hazardous new biotechnologies are embedded in the historical origins and central provisions of the work of UN Convention on Biological Diversity – and also apply to gene drives.

 Sabrina describes the phenomenon of the corporate capture of some African governments by the biotech industry, emphasizing why it is important to always protect and uphold the rights of smallholder farmers and local communities.

Providing a Nigerian perspective on new technologies like gene drives, Mfoniso explains the role of African Technology Assessment Platform in spreading awareness and raising critical questions about new technologies, including gene drives, and the impact.

Fassil presents the different approach that indigenous perspective brings to understanding technological interventions into the natural world. He also examines how we could strive for maintaining the equilibrium between the scientific and indigenous knowledge systems in the context of gene drives research.

Warning that the prospects of the environmental release of gene drives are extremely alarming, Barbara Ntambirweki uncovers the different layers of risks that environmental releases of gene drives could bring for the environment.

Caroline describes a range of biosafety technical tools and scientific methods available to do effective unbiased biosafety science, pointing out that biosafety research is often left neglected as many researchers have commercial interests invested in the companies developing GMO products.

In the interview Prof. Nodari discusses the current state of science regarding what is known of the effects of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing, as well as the implications of using CRISPR/Cas9 in gene drive systems, and how evolutionary biology would impact on any release of gene drive organisms.