The 2007 Nobel Prize in Medicine: 3 Giant Leaps For Mankind

© The Nobel Committee for Physiology Illustration: Annika Röhl

The 2007 Nobel Prize winners in medicine -- Mario R. Capecchi, 70, of the University of Utah; Oliver Smithies, 82, of the University of North Carolina; and Sir Martin J. Evans, 66, of Cardiff University in Wales - worked independently, but their genetics research overlapped greatly. Many other geneticists contributed to the state of the art, but the discoveries of Capecchi, Smithies, and Evans are considered watershed.

In layman's terms, what exactly did these Nobel Prize winners do?

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