{"id":329142,"date":"2025-11-07T22:30:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T02:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deepenglish.com\/?post_type=daily&#038;p=329142"},"modified":"2025-11-28T16:05:39","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T20:05:39","slug":"expression-of-the-day-open-a-can-of-worms","status":"publish","type":"daily","link":"https:\/\/deepenglish.com\/lessons\/daily\/expression-of-the-day-open-a-can-of-worms\/","title":{"rendered":"Expression of the Day: Open A Can Of Worms"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Why Neanderthal Cloning Could Be a Huge Mistake<\/h3>\n<p><strong>open a can of worms<\/strong>: to start doing something that causes many new and unexpected problems<\/p>\n<p>More than 30,000 years after Neanderthals disappeared, one scientist says they could return. Harvard professor George Church helped start a company called Colossal Biosciences. His team became famous for using gene editing to bring back extinct animals like the dire wolf.<\/p>\n<p>Church believes gene editing tools like CRISPR could one day make it possible to rebuild the Neanderthal genome. But most experts say this idea would <strong>open a can of worms<\/strong>. There are no clear laws against it in every country. Some worry that a private lab might try it without public approval. Jennifer Raff from the University of Kansas said, \u201cThat is one of the most unethical things I can possibly think of to attempt&#8230;\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Other scientists say that the technology isn\u2019t ready. They also warn that it would be cruel to bring a Neanderthal into today\u2019s world. A cloned Neanderthal would have no family or community. People might treat them like an experiment or put them in a zoo.  Raff explains that this would be wrong, because \u201cNeanderthals are human\u2014they\u2019re just a different kind of human.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h5>Sample sentences<\/h5>\n<p>I asked my teacher why some students got higher grades for the same project. I didn\u2019t know my question would <strong>open a can of worms<\/strong> about unfair grading.<\/p>\n<p>My friend decided to look into her family history with a DNA test. She <strong>opened a can of worms<\/strong> when she found secrets no one wanted to talk about.<\/p>\n<p>The city tried to fix one small traffic problem. Instead, it <strong>opened a can of worms<\/strong> that made the whole system worse.<\/p>\n<h5>Origin<\/h5>\n<p>This expression started in the United States in the 1950s. It came from the image of fishermen opening a real can of worms for bait and watching them wriggle everywhere. Today, it means starting something messy or complicated that is hard to control.<\/p>\n<p>Read More:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/archaeology\/human-evolution\/neanderthals-could-be-brought-back-within-20-years-but-is-it-a-good-idea\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Neanderthals could be brought back within 20 years \u2014 but is it a good idea?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why Neanderthal Cloning Could Be a Huge Mistake<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4018,"featured_media":329144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","class_list":{"0":"post-329142","1":"daily","2":"type-daily","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"js-lettering","8":"entry"},"better_featured_image":{"id":329144,"alt_text":"Image of a neanderthal walking through a modern city.","caption":"","description":"","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":1280,"height":549,"file":"2025\/11\/open-up-a-can-of-worms.jpeg","filesize":312398,"sizes":{"medium":{"file":"open-up-a-can-of-worms-300x129.jpeg","width":300,"height":129,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":12792,"source_url":"https:\/\/deepenglish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/open-up-a-can-of-worms-300x129.jpeg"},"large":{"file":"open-up-a-can-of-worms-1024x439.jpeg","width":1024,"height":439,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":109799,"source_url":"https:\/\/deepenglish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/open-up-a-can-of-worms-1024x439.jpeg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"open-up-a-can-of-worms-150x150.jpeg","width":150,"height":150,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":7288,"source_url":"https:\/\/deepenglish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/open-up-a-can-of-worms-150x150.jpeg"},"medium_large":{"file":"open-up-a-can-of-worms-768x329.jpeg","width":768,"height":329,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":67627,"source_url":"https:\/\/deepenglish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/open-up-a-can-of-worms-768x329.jpeg"},"free-lessons":{"file":"open-up-a-can-of-worms-200x132.jpeg","width":200,"height":132,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":8735,"source_url":"https:\/\/deepenglish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/open-up-a-can-of-worms-200x132.jpeg"},"top-rated":{"file":"open-up-a-can-of-worms-300x198.jpeg","width":300,"height":198,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":17728,"source_url":"https:\/\/deepenglish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/open-up-a-can-of-worms-300x198.jpeg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0","keywords":[]}},"post":329142,"source_url":"https:\/\/deepenglish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/open-up-a-can-of-worms.jpeg"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Expression of the Day: Open A Can Of Worms - Deep English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Expression of the Day: Open A Can Of Worms Learn a new English idiom or slang term each day and practice it with our English AI Chatbot. 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