A team of researchers led by Axel Visel at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has replaced part of a mouse's DNA—a small sequence known as ZRS— with the equivalent sequence from a snake. That tiny change was enough to “serpentize” the mouse, to stop it from developing any limbs. Jeff and Anthony discuss the ramifications of these gene modifiers, and what it could mean for our future.

GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns

Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://wehaveconcerns.com/shop

Hey! If you’re enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate/review it on whatever service you use to listen. Here’s the iTunes link: http://bit.ly/wehaveconcerns And here’s the Stitcher link: http://bit.ly/stitcherwhc

Jeff on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jeffcannata

Anthony on Twitter: http://twitter.com/acarboni

Today’s story was sent in by Joseph Kane: http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/10/what-a-legless-mouse-tells-us-about-snake-evolution/504779/

If you’ve seen a story you think belongs on the show, send it to [email protected] or leave it on the subreddit:http://reddit.com/r/wehaveconcerns