It's rare to see the accused and the accusers in a conflict of interest case end up on the same note. But that appears to be what happened last week when the University of Texas, Austin, accepted an independent review panel's harsh findings, echoing outside critics, about a controversial study conducted earlier this year by the university's Energy Institute.

Zinc finger nucleases and TALENS are not the only up-and-coming genome engineering tools. There are meganucleases that are DNA-cutting enzymes encoded by certain mobile elements, nucleases that might do the job solo, and a potential bacterial defense system.

Kudos and criticism greet a landmark new report, filling the largest ever issue of The Lancet, on the global burden of disease.