The internet has this peculiar way of turning groundbreaking scientific achievements into a circus of misunderstanding, and nothing illustrates this better than the recent news about China’s successful nine-day pig lung transplant in a brain-dead patient. What should have been a celebration of human ingenuity instead became a perfect case study in how online discourse can completely miss the mark.

The science itself is genuinely remarkable. We’re talking about genetically modified pig lungs, created using CRISPR technology, successfully functioning in a human body for over a week. This isn’t just slapping a pig’s lung into someone and hoping for the best – it’s a sophisticated process where human cells grow within the pig’s body, creating what’s essentially a humanised organ. The complexity and precision required for this kind of work is mind-boggling.