Blog

Origins of SARS-CoV-2 512 342 Jamie Metzl
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Origins of SARS-CoV-2

NOTE: This post was originally published on April 16, 2020 and has been updated regularly. Many people have reached out to me questioning the assertion I have been making since early 2020 that “the most likely starting point of the…

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Draft Legislation Holding China Accountable for COVID-19 310 163 Jamie Metzl
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Draft Legislation Holding China Accountable for COVID-19

It has now been nearly five and a half years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the pandemic led to approximately 28 million excess deaths, hundreds of millions of lives shattered, and tens of trillions of dollars in…

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If We Don’t Save It, America Will Lose our Democracy 271 186 Jamie Metzl
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If We Don’t Save It, America Will Lose our Democracy

As a deeply patriotic American who has spent my entire professional life building bipartisan consensus around critical issues, I am deeply concerned by what is happening in our country. In fact, I believe we stand on the verge of losing…

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America Can Leverage Trump’s Withdrawal Threat to Push WHO Reform 275 183 Jamie Metzl
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America Can Leverage Trump’s Withdrawal Threat to Push WHO Reform

In May 2020, the first-term Trump administration began its process of withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization, the international public health entity the US played the lead role creating in 1948. Because WHO member states can only…

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My 8 Keys to Living a Long, Healthy, and Fulfilled Life 441 720 Jamie Metzl
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My 8 Keys to Living a Long, Healthy, and Fulfilled Life

As an author of books about the future of healthcare, ironman triathlete, and health “guru,” I am often asked for my thoughts about how people can live healthier lives. As my holiday gift to you, dear readers, I offer the…

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Elon Musk Has Become a Threat to America’s Democracy 300 168 Jamie Metzl
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Elon Musk Has Become a Threat to America’s Democracy

As impressed as we all may be with his technological prowess, strategic vision, and entrepreneurial flair, Elon Musk has become a threat to American democracy. But while it might be easy for Democrats like me to critique Musk as if…

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We Democrats Need to Take a Hard Look in the Mirror 300 168 Jamie Metzl
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We Democrats Need to Take a Hard Look in the Mirror

I am not a drinker and have never been drunk, but now I know what a hangover must feel like. Although I respect people with different perceptions, I awoke this morning observing the evidence of a wild bender. The metaphoric…

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Technological Revolutions and Global Governance 281 179 Jamie Metzl
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Technological Revolutions and Global Governance

In recognition of the annual gathering of the United Nation General Assembly, which has just begun here in New York, I wanted to share with you my essay outlining how we can better address our greatest common global challenges. In…

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Lead witness in March 2023 US congressional hearing on COVID-19 origins
“Fauci Under Fire” 900 600 Jamie Metzl
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“Fauci Under Fire”

A major article on COVID-19 origins was published today in Der Spiegel, Germany’s leading news magazine. Here is a link. Because the article is in German and behind a paywall, I hope my German friends will forgive me for posting…

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Report of our Nonpartisan Commission on China and COVID-19 150 150 Jamie Metzl
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Report of our Nonpartisan Commission on China and COVID-19

I am pleased to share with you this link to the just-released report of our Nonpartisan Commission on China and COVID-19. I had the honor of serving on this commission alongside former US Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, former CDC Director…

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Jamie Metzl Statement Following the 6/27/24 Presidential Debate 150 150 Jamie Metzl
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Jamie Metzl Statement Following the 6/27/24 Presidential Debate

President Joe Biden stepped up to save American democracy in 2019. He’s done a tremendous job stabilizing the ship of state over the past 3.5 years and returned decency to the White House. I love Joe Biden. He was my…

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Can AI Foster a Global Consciousness? 1350 811 Jamie Metzl
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Can AI Foster a Global Consciousness?

Please find linked here and reproduced below my just released Project Syndicate column. Can AI Foster a Global Consciousness?  By Jamie Metzl NEW YORK – Our ancestors long feared the world-ending wrath of angry gods. But it is only recently that…

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My Dubai Commencement Address 1350 900 Jamie Metzl
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My Dubai Commencement Address

I had the distinct honor of being invited to deliver the commencement address for the graduation of the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University in Dubai two weeks ago, on March 15, 2024. The video of my remarks can be found here. Here…

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My Korean (and Japanese and Arabic-speaking) Doppelgänger 1707 2560 Jamie Metzl
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My Korean (and Japanese and Arabic-speaking) Doppelgänger

I hope you will watch this incredible short video of my Korean virtual doppelgänger speaking in my voice and with my mannerisms, presenting words I have written in English (I wish I did, but I don’t speak Korean) describing my new book, Superconvergence.…

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Response to Gaza Open Letter 275 183 Jamie Metzl
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Response to Gaza Open Letter

On March 17, 2024, I received an email regarding the Gaza conflict from six of my former colleagues from when I served in the White House and State Department during the Clinton administration. The people who sent the letter are…

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The Time Has Come for a Full Accounting of COVID-19 Origins 300 168 Jamie Metzl
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The Time Has Come for a Full Accounting of COVID-19 Origins

The case for a COVID-19 research-related origin is becoming exponentially stronger while arguments for other origin hypotheses have either been debunked or are clearly not supported by the available evidence. Phylogenetic analysis shows that something significantly like the SARS-CoV-2 virus…

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Confessions of a Chocolate Shaman 914 835 Jamie Metzl
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Confessions of a Chocolate Shaman

In 2018, I was invited to give a keynote at TOA, a major tech conference in Berlin. While there, I was invited to join a sacred cacao ceremony. I’ve been a lifelong chocolate lover (dark chocolate, of course), so the…

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The UK’s first approval of a CRISPR gene therapy is a big deal 348 522 Jamie Metzl
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The UK’s first approval of a CRISPR gene therapy is a big deal

It’s a huge deal that UK regulators today granted their first-ever approval for a gene therapy created using CRISPR. Casgevy, developed by the companies Vertex and CRISPR Therapeutics, treats the blood disorders sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia. America’s FDA will…

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AI, Governance, and the Future of Humanity 275 183 Jamie Metzl
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AI, Governance, and the Future of Humanity

If you weren’t previously paying attention to AI, I am guessing now you are. It’s hard for most people to imagine the ChatGPT bot was only released to the public last November. Today, ChatGPT and systems like it are everywhere…

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ChatGPT and the Future of Storytelling 269 188 Jamie Metzl
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ChatGPT and the Future of Storytelling

Like most everyone else, I am in the throes if learning what generative AI systems like ChatGPT can do today and what will be possible in the future. Even in these early days, it’s clear to me that 1) they…

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ChatGPT and Humanity’s Eternal Sonata 267 400 Jamie Metzl
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ChatGPT and Humanity’s Eternal Sonata

If you are living somewhere on planet Earth, I imagine by now you have heard of the incredible AI chatbot ChatGPT. Although the technology underpinning ChatGPT is not more advanced than many other AI algorithms, the ease and popularity of the user…

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Essential Unanswered Questions re Pandemic Origins 300 168 Jamie Metzl
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Essential Unanswered Questions re Pandemic Origins

Today, I posted a list of 23 essential questions regarding pandemic origins on Twitter. That thread is linked here and reproduced below. We all remain at unnecessary risk until we determine how the #COVID19 pandemic began and address our greatest…

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Countering Beijing’s Olympic Propaganda 275 183 Jamie Metzl
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Countering Beijing’s Olympic Propaganda

Like many sports fans around the world, I love the Olympics for what they represent: an opportunity for incredible athletes from 200-plus countries and territories to come together in a spirit of healthy competition. But as the 2022 Winter Olympics…

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Life: Coming to a Screen Near You 460 387 Jamie Metzl
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Life: Coming to a Screen Near You

I wanted to share with you this link to my 2008 World Policy Journal article entitled “Life: Coming to a Screen Near You.” As we all know,  the pandemic has very significantly shifted our lives from the physical to virtual…

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Questions about the October 2019 Military World Games in Wuhan 285 177 Jamie Metzl
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Questions about the October 2019 Military World Games in Wuhan

Earlier today, a Canadian military officer who had heard my interview on pandemic origins with Lex Fridman, contacted me through my website, telling me he had participated in the October 2019 World Military Games in Wuhan, where he and many…

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Joe Rogan, Vaccination, & Dialogue Across Difference 1280 720 Jamie Metzl
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Joe Rogan, Vaccination, & Dialogue Across Difference

In my five-hour podcast interview with Lex Fridman, released on December 8, 2021, I discussed many issues including the origins of the pandemic and the lab incident hypothesis, China and global geopolitics, interdependence and the OneShared.World movement, the case for…

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Our WHO Expert Committee Report on Human Genome Editing 243 208 Jamie Metzl
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Our WHO Expert Committee Report on Human Genome Editing

As you may know, I’ve had the great honor of serving as a member of the World Health Organization expert advisory committee on human genome editing, created by WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in the aftermath of the shocking…

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10 Questions for Zhao Lijian 962 720 Jamie Metzl
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10 Questions for Zhao Lijian

On April 7, 2021, a community of scientists and other experts released an open letter, which I co-organized, calling for a full and unrestricted investigation into all Covid-19 origin hypotheses with full access to relevant records, samples, and personnel within…

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Open Letter on Fully Investigating the Origins of COVID-19 310 163 Jamie Metzl
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Open Letter on Fully Investigating the Origins of COVID-19

I have been calling since early 2020 for a full and unrestricted international forensic investigation into the origins of the pandemic, with full access to all necessary data, records, and personnel in China and elsewhere. Whatever the origin, we must…

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SARS-CoV-2的起源 300 168 Jamie Metzl
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SARS-CoV-2的起源

NOTE: This is the Chinese translation of my English language blog post on the origins of SARS-CoV-2. The English blog was initially posted on April 16, 2020, and has been regularly updated since. This Chinese translation was posted on February…

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Jamie Metzl Statement on WHO COVID-19 Wuhan Press Conference 900 600 Jamie Metzl
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Jamie Metzl Statement on WHO COVID-19 Wuhan Press Conference

In response to the WHO-China joint study press conference, held in Wuhan on February 9, 2021, I today issued the following statement: Although I remain a steadfast supporter of the World Health Organization and its Director General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom,…

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Saaim Khan and the Antidote to Despair 295 171 Jamie Metzl
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Saaim Khan and the Antidote to Despair

I receive a lot of emails from people who’ve learned about OneShared.World or read my books and want to share their stories and explore possible collaborations. All of them move me but a few blow my socks off. I was…

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Human Genetic Engineering and the Catholic Church 512 423 Jamie Metzl
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Human Genetic Engineering and the Catholic Church

I was deeply honored to be invited last year to speak on the future of human genetic engineering at a small and high-level Vatican conference. While I do not agree with every position of the Catholic Church, I have great…

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Jamie Metzl Statement on Suspension of US Funding for the WHO 620 413 Jamie Metzl
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Jamie Metzl Statement on Suspension of US Funding for the WHO

On April 14, US President Donald Trump announced that the United States was suspending funding to the World Health Organization. Here is my statement: New York April 15, 2020 Cutting off US funding to the World Health Organization in the…

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We Can’t Get Out of this Alone 342 147 Jamie Metzl
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We Can’t Get Out of this Alone

Thousands of people are now dead and billions now sheltering at home in fear of a proliferating deadly virus that could have been contained at its source. But even though this crisis is and feels like a health crisis, it…

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Declaration of Global Interdependence 275 183 Jamie Metzl
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Declaration of Global Interdependence

Jump to: Post/Introduction Join Us Declaration of Global Interdependence Progress Notes For years, we have seen a fundamental mismatch between the magnitude of the common global challenges we humans face and the insufficiency of our existing institutions to address them.…

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Virtualizing our Physical Lives 310 163 Jamie Metzl
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Virtualizing our Physical Lives

As more of us sensibly restrict our social interactions in an effort to slow the spread of this coronavirus, we will speed up a process of virtualizing our physical world that has been playing out for decades. In 1996, I…

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Love in a Time of COVID 275 183 Jamie Metzl
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Love in a Time of COVID

Given the seriousness of the coronavirus (technically SARS-COV-2/COVID-19) crisis, I hope you are taking extreme precautions, at least until the full magnitude of what we are facing becomes clearer. If you happen to be in quarantine or are smartly spending…

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Our Best Values Must Guide Our Most Powerful Technologies 279 181 Jamie Metzl
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Our Best Values Must Guide Our Most Powerful Technologies

Soon after a series of incredible discoveries almost five decades ago launched the era recombinant DNA (later renamed genetically modified organisms, or GMOs), some of the world’s leading scientists and ethicists gathered at California’s Asilomar conference center to establish principles…

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Standing with the People of Hong Kong 720 405 Jamie Metzl
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Standing with the People of Hong Kong

The people of Hong Kong have been fighting for many years to hold China to the commitments Beijing voluntary made in 1984 allowing Hong Kong a “high degree of autonomy,” and guaranteeing that democracy, rule of law, and basic human…

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Has the Third CRISPR Baby Already Been Born? 800 480 Jamie Metzl
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Has the Third CRISPR Baby Already Been Born?

For years, I have been saying the genetics revolution is not just coming but already here. As we unlock the secrets of our genomes and systems biology more broadly, we are now witnessing the transition from generalized medicine based on…

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Inviting You to a Genetic Engineering Dinner Party (*) 284 284 Jamie Metzl
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Inviting You to a Genetic Engineering Dinner Party (*)

I am inviting you to a dinner party – where you are the host. You can invite whomever you’d like: your family, friends, co-workers, book club members, etc. The preparation is extremely simple. I promise the conversation will be passionate.…

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Human gene editing is too transformative to be guided by the few 275 183 Jamie Metzl
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Human gene editing is too transformative to be guided by the few

My editorial from today’s (3/18/19) Financial Times: Far sooner than most people realise, the genetics revolution will transform the world within and around us — and we are not remotely ready for what’s coming. Yet we must be, to optimise the benefits and minimise the potential harms of genetic technologies.

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American Must Come to Terms with its Tragic History 298 474 Jamie Metzl
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American Must Come to Terms with its Tragic History

I recently finished reading James Wilson’s excellent book The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America with a deep sense of shame. Whether we call it genocide, genocidal, or unimaginably monstrous, the despicable treatment of the Native American Indian…

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Crossing the Rubicon of Genetically Engineered Human Babies 275 183 Jamie Metzl
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Crossing the Rubicon of Genetically Engineered Human Babies

For years I have been writing about how our species is at the cusp of a genetic revolution that will transform our healthcare in the short term, how we make babies and the nature of the babies we make in…

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Censored in China 450 289 Jamie Metzl
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Censored in China

Blogger’s note: (added on September 9, 2021) When I first posted this blog, I chose note to identify that all of this happened at Wuhan University. I did this to protect the identities of the brave academics at that university…

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Louise Brown at 40! 284 177 Jamie Metzl
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Louise Brown at 40!

Forty years ago today, Louise Brown, the world’s first “test tube baby,” was born in Manchester, England. The idea that a human could be conceived outside the mother’s body is now commonplace but it shook the world back in 1978.

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President for Life? 275 183 Jamie Metzl
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President for Life?

In my CNN interview from earlier today, I discuss China’s constitutional change paving the way for the indefinite extension of Xi Jinping’s presidential term.

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Trump Chaos Undermining America’s International Interests 726 500 Jamie Metzl
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Trump Chaos Undermining America’s International Interests

You may have seen this recent Gallup survey showing the total collapse of global confidence in US leadership since Donald Trump assumed the presidency one year ago. International approval of the US is, sadly, at the lowest point since this…

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America’s New National Security Strategy 2048 1580 Jamie Metzl
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America’s New National Security Strategy

As you may know, the Trump administration today released its National Security Strategy outlining a range of policies designed to “make America great again.” In my CNN interview from earlier today linked here, I evaluate the document and make a…

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A Visit to Weizenbaum Contest 225 225 Jamie Metzl
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A Visit to Weizenbaum Contest

I absolutely love that the Atlantic Council held a playwriting competition for new works inspired by my short story, “A Visit to Weizenbaum.” My story, which came out last year, explores what is means to be human in an age…

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Gene editing of human embryos 600 220 Jamie Metzl
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Gene editing of human embryos

You may have seen today’s New York Times article describing how scientists have for the first time successfully edited genes in unimplanted human embryos. As the article notes: “Scientists at Oregon Health and Science University, with colleagues in California, China and…

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Why Korean Reunification is in China’s Strategic National Interest 275 183 Jamie Metzl
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Why Korean Reunification is in China’s Strategic National Interest

Here is a the full text of my talk delivered July 22, 2017 at the Chinese Summit Forum on Korean Peninsula Studies at Yanbian University in Yanji, China. The Chinese translation be found at https://jamiemetzl.com/为何朝鲜半岛统一符合中国国家利益/ Why Korean Reunification is in China’s Strategic National…

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为何朝鲜半岛统一符合中国国家利益 275 183 Jamie Metzl
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为何朝鲜半岛统一符合中国国家利益

7月4号，朝鲜发射洲际弹道导弹再次突显了朝鲜的核武器及攻击行为能在何种程度上造成亚太地区动荡，也再次突显了相关各方迄今为止为了朝鲜弃核所做的努力不起作用。尽管朝鲜发展核武器主要是为了维系其政权，一旦朝鲜的核武器可完全用于实战，平壤方面就将拥有肆无忌惮地恐吓邻国的能力，尤其是恐吓中国的能力。如果中国领导人不想受制于朝鲜，那就需要直面难题，思考一下中国长期以来对朝政策的代价和利益，重新定位中国对朝鲜的态度。

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Trump’s North Korea Crisis 292 173 Jamie Metzl
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Trump’s North Korea Crisis

Please have a look at this link to my recent CNN interview on North Korea (with David Gergen). For all of President Trump’s huffing and puffing, we just came through a very tense weekend to realize the Trump North Korea…

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In the Twilight Rise Up Monsters: Why the Trump Foreign Policy Undermines US and World Security 640 503 Jamie Metzl
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In the Twilight Rise Up Monsters: Why the Trump Foreign Policy Undermines US and World Security

The United States is facing perhaps the most dangerous moment since the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack or the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. This danger does not stem from terrorism, immigration, or Islamic extremism but instead from the rapid deterioration of…

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NAS Human Genome Editing Report 1720 1147 Jamie Metzl
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NAS Human Genome Editing Report

With all our attention focused on the circus of US presidential politics, it’s easy to overlook other developments of even greater importance. As you know, I’ve been speaking and writing for many years about the implications of the genetics revolution.…

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Reflections Before the Trump Inauguration 1160 629 Jamie Metzl
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Reflections Before the Trump Inauguration

The day before the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States, the level of anxiety and uncertainty among the majority of Americans is dangerously high. Whatever critiques any Americans may have had of President Obama, even his…

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Obama in Asia 2048 1122 Jamie Metzl
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Obama in Asia

As I mention in my CNN interview from yesterday, President Obama’s trip this week to China and Laos has demonstrated the significant progress our country has made in Asia these past eight years… and also the great deal of work we…

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Creating a Bach “Eternal Sonata” 800 1190 Jamie Metzl
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Creating a Bach “Eternal Sonata”

This section of blog written in August 2016: My new novel, Eternal Sonata (publication date October 4, 2016), imagines a future global struggle to control the science of extreme human life extension. In the novel, a brilliant scientist working to honor the…

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Homo Sapiens 2.0? We Need a Species-Wide Conversation on the Future of Human Genetic Enhancement 230 219 Jamie Metzl
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Homo Sapiens 2.0? We Need a Species-Wide Conversation on the Future of Human Genetic Enhancement

In my article in TechCrunch, released today, I call for a species-wide conversation on the future of human genetic enhancement. Such a dialogue has never before been carried out. We didn’t do it at the dawn of the industrial or…

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President Obama Should Visit Hiroshima Jamie Metzl
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President Obama Should Visit Hiroshima

President Obama should visit Hiroshima when he will be in Japan for the G7 Summit in Ise-Shima in late May. If he does, he will be the first sitting US President to visit the city where the first US atomic…

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Do We Need a New Universal Religion? 300 168 Jamie Metzl
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Do We Need a New Universal Religion?

New York’s 92Y recently launched a challenge as part of its 7 Days of Genius Festival, in which it asked people to design a new religion that strengthens communities and acts as a force of good. Because I’ve been talking…

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China Still Holds the Key for Getting Tough with Pyongyang 150 150 Jamie Metzl
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China Still Holds the Key for Getting Tough with Pyongyang

Only China has the means of taking action that could alter North Korea’s behavior—by cutting back trade, tourism, and food and energy assistance to Pyongyang—but China will still be unlikely to take these kinds of strong measures for fear of destabilizing the North Korean regime. Such a policy undermines security in North Asia and should not be cost free for Beijing. 

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China Market Turmoil 150 150 Jamie Metzl
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China Market Turmoil

As I mention in my CNN interview from earlier today, this week’s market turmoil in China is likely only the beginning of a more significant correction. When the Chinese government acted so aggressively last summer to staunch the market crisis…

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Korea-Japan Agreement on “Comfort Women” 150 150 Jamie Metzl
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Korea-Japan Agreement on “Comfort Women”

The deal between Japan and Korea on the “comfort women” issue is a positive step for both countries. Japan committed terrible atrocities before and during WWII and, as I’ve written before, the country has not done as much as it…

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A Moral Imperative to Visit Paris (but while there you must eat) 259 194 Jamie Metzl
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A Moral Imperative to Visit Paris (but while there you must eat)

Before the Paris attacks it was our responsibility to ourselves to visit Paris because it is such a wonderful, magical city. After the attacks, we have a moral imperative to stand with Parisians of all faiths and backgrounds in support…

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Being Human in an Age of Artificial Intelligence 150 150 Jamie Metzl
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Being Human in an Age of Artificial Intelligence

My short story, “A Visit to Weizenbaum,” which recently came out yesterday as part of the Atlantic Council’s War Stories from the Future anthology. The story explores what it means to be a human being in an age of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and anthropomorphized robotics. You can download the e-book for free in any format at this link or read the full text below.

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NIH Restrictions on Chimera Research a Mistake 150 150 Jamie Metzl
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NIH Restrictions on Chimera Research a Mistake

In a letter published today in Science, leading researchers argue against the National Institute of Health’s recent moratorium on funding for scientists implanting human stem cells into non-human embryos (see this link). The scientists are correct, the NIH is wrong,…

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UK Should Not Abandon Its Values Jamie Metzl
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UK Should Not Abandon Its Values

In my CNN and BBC World Service interviews on Xi Jinping’s visit to the UK, I argue that it’s great for the UK to strengthen commercial ties with China, just not at the expense of Britain’s values and the global strategic interests…

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Korea’s Free Trade Future Jamie Metzl
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Korea’s Free Trade Future

In my keynote address last week in Seoul at the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy Foreign Investment Week summit, cohosted by KOTRA and Invest Korea, I argued that Korea is a miracle country whose success is based on the…

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China’s Market Wobble 150 150 Jamie Metzl
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China’s Market Wobble

In my China/market interviews yesterday on Bloomberg TV and CNN Quest Means Business I expressed my concern that China, the world’s second largest economy, is getting caught between its desire for stimulus to address the short term crisis and its deep need…

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Japan and History 150 150 Jamie Metzl
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Japan and History

Japan has truly been a miracle country in the 70 years since the end of the war. It has grown its conomy spectacularly, built a vibrant democracy, and been an exemplary champion of world peace. With so much to be…

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Is China Overreacting to its Market Correction? Jamie Metzl
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Is China Overreacting to its Market Correction?

In my Bloomberg TV interview from earlier today, linked here, I discuss the preliminary popping of China’s equities bubble. Trading of nearly half of China’s listed companies has been suspended, and I believe it very likely those shares will continue to fall once the suspension is removed. These are challenging times for China.

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China’s Stock Bubble Will Burst Jamie Metzl
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China’s Stock Bubble Will Burst

In my CNN interview from this morning, linked here, I explore China’s stock market bubble. Like all bubbles, this one will pop. The only question is when.

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The Coming Collapse of North Korea? 150 150 Jamie Metzl
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The Coming Collapse of North Korea?

In my National Interest editorial linked here, I predict that the North Korean government will collapse within ten years. Although the regime’s inflexibility and willingness to use deadly force virtually ensures that change will be painful, North Korea’s drive to both build deliverable…

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Has the Genetic Arms Race Begun? 150 150 Jamie Metzl
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Has the Genetic Arms Race Begun?

Articles in Nature yesterday and in today’s New York Times describe the controversial recent announcement by a Chinese researcher that he has used cutting edge precision gene editing techniques (CRISPR-cas9) on non-viable human embryos.  It is rumored that the results of more research like this will be announced from China in the coming months. Every day we are receiving more evidence like this that the human genetic revolution, with its massive scientific, ethical, political, and national security implications, has already begun.

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China’s Pakistan Adventure Jamie Metzl
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China’s Pakistan Adventure

Xi Jinping’s just completed visit to Pakistan is a big deal for China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and the United States. China has pledged $46 billion to develop the port, road, and pipeline infrastructure linking the Pakistani port at Gwadar to Western China’s Xinjiang province, to construct badly needed power plants, and to upgrade Pakistan’s submarines, presumable to carry nuclear weapons. In return,  Pakistan is giving China essentially full access to the Gwadar port. But dealing with Pakistan is never as simple as it may at first seem.

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China’s Slowing Economy Jamie Metzl
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China’s Slowing Economy

Please have a look at my CNN interview on China’s slowing economy, linked here. Just released GDP, import, and export numbers all indicate a further slowing of the Chinese economy. The 7% quarterly GDP number is probably overstated, and the 13% drop…

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Kim Jong Un Going to Moscow? Jamie Metzl
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Kim Jong Un Going to Moscow?

The Russian government has announced that Lil’ (not-so-Lil’ these days – someone should draw the lot to tell him he’s not looking so good these days and that it might possibly hurt his image to be so fat when so…

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Possibly the Greatest Pumpkin Oatmeal Recipe in Human History Jamie Metzl
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Possibly the Greatest Pumpkin Oatmeal Recipe in Human History

After years of experimentation, I believe I have come up with the greatest pumpkin oatmeal recipe ever. Total preparation time is under five minutes. It’s so delicious, nutritious, fast, and simple that I felt I would be betraying my friends by not sharing the recipe. So here it is.

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The Genetic Age Began on February 3, 2015 150 150 Jamie Metzl
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The Genetic Age Began on February 3, 2015

I believe that future generations will look back at yesterday’s vote in the British Parliament authorizing mitochondrial transfer treatment for mothers undergoing IVF as the beginning of the human genetic age. Although this particular procedure is limited in scope, this…

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Would I Genetically Enhance My Own Children? 150 150 Jamie Metzl
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Would I Genetically Enhance My Own Children?

When someone at a Los Angeles book event asked me a personal question, I was already disarmed, exposed, and predisposed to a more personal answer.

“Would you genetically enhance your own children?”

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Would I Genetically Enhance My Own Children? 150 150 Jamie Metzl
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Would I Genetically Enhance My Own Children?

When someone at a Los Angeles book event asked me a personal question, I was already disarmed, exposed, and predisposed to a more personal answer.

“Would you genetically enhance your own children?”

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Sony, North Korea, and Human Rights Jamie Metzl
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Sony, North Korea, and Human Rights

The recent cyberattack on Sony, allegedly perpetrated by North Korea, highlights a dangerous increase in the vulnerability of our globalized world. 

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Books as Sacred Objects 150 150 Jamie Metzl
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Books as Sacred Objects

I hope you’ll have a look at my new bookreporter.com piece on books as sacred objects.  “As a great lover of books, I felt myself not only drawn to their words, but to the physical presence of the books themselves…

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Books as Sacred Objects 150 150 Jamie Metzl
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Books as Sacred Objects

I hope you’ll have a look at my bookreporter.com piece on books as sacred objects. In it, I explore the challenges to the physical book in a digital world where words and images are gaining an independent identity of their own.…

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Is Something Stirring with North Korea? 150 150 Jamie Metzl
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Is Something Stirring with North Korea?

It is no coincidence in my opinion that American detainees Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller were released by North Korea just as President Obama is arriving in Beijing for the APEC Summit. With North Korea-China relations more strained than they…

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If GMOs worry you, what will you think of genetically modified humans? 150 150 Jamie Metzl
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If GMOs worry you, what will you think of genetically modified humans?

In my Foreign Affairs article out this week, I argue that we need to do a lot more thinking about the implications of the genetics revolution. It seems crazy to me that we are on the verge of taking active…

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The Case Against “Nature” (and for regulated GMOs) 276 183 Jamie Metzl
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The Case Against “Nature” (and for regulated GMOs)

     I love nature as much as the next guy.

     I would swap in a moment the beautiful view of the Chrysler building from my New York City office for the span of the Rockies from the top of Colorado’s Independence Pass. I’d happily trade the Disney-like perfection of an American red delicious apple for a misshapen but stronger-tasting French pear.

     But would I rather gather food in the forest than have it planted in farms and delivered to the grocery store? Would I rather fight cancer with meditation and prayer than chemotherapy? Would I condemn my friend’s Chihuahua as a genetically manipulated monstrosity of a wolf?

     The truth of the matter is that much of what we call “natural” is the product of our own manipulation over time, and that nature, on its own, doesn’t seem to give a rat’s tail (or other part pf the rat’s anatomy) about us. I wish it did.

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Our Genetic Future is Coming… Faster Than We Think 150 150 Jamie Metzl
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Our Genetic Future is Coming… Faster Than We Think

Our species is on the cusp of a revolution that will change every aspect of our lives but we’re hardly talking about it.

After three and a half billion years of evolution, two hundred and fifty thousand years of them as the ass-kicking bipedal hominins we call homo sapiens, we are on the verge of taking control of our evolutionary process unlike never before. This revolution will take hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years to play out but it has already begun.

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We’ll Know Xi Jinping is Serious About Cracking Down on Corruption Wen… Jamie Metzl
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We’ll Know Xi Jinping is Serious About Cracking Down on Corruption Wen…

In my CNN.com blog post, I argue that if Xi Jinping’s top down approach is not matched by a bottom-up empowerment of the people being most harmed by China’s corruption pandemic it will have little chance of success. When Chinese media reports critically on the vast wealth accrued by the families of former Chongqing leader Bo Xilai, Zhou Yongkang, and others, it’s easy to remember the Bloomberg and New York Times reports on the millions of dollars held by Xi’s and former Premier Wen Jiabao‘s families. And no one believes that China’s government leaders, among the wealthiest in the world, are getting rich from their salaries alone.

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China Missing an Historic Opportunity with Tibet 150 150 Jamie Metzl
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China Missing an Historic Opportunity with Tibet

I’m just back from spending four days in the Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, India visiting my Tibetan friends exiled there.

As is well known, the Chinese army marched into Tibet in October 1949 and routed the Tibetan army a year later. In 1951 China and a Tibetan delegation signed the “seventeen point agreement” codifying the new status of Tibet as a national regional autonomy within the People’s Republic of China. As conditions worsened, a Tibetan national uprising broke out in 1959, which was crushed by the Chinese, resulting in an estimated eighty-seven thousand Tibetan deaths

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Russia and China Dragging the World Back to the 19th Century 150 150 Jamie Metzl
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Russia and China Dragging the World Back to the 19th Century

My Project Syndicate column released today argues that Russia and China are dragging the world back to 19th century norms through their actions in Ukraine and the South and East China Seas. We know that 19th century nationalisms and political thinking led ultimately to two world wars and global destruction, so why we we want to bring back such a failed model? Only if we had absolutely no other options

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Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom to Conquer Ageing (but…) Jamie Metzl
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Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom to Conquer Ageing (but…)

Genomics pioneer Craig Venter’s announcement that he is creating a company to try to conquer human ageing is great news.

His theory that the human gut biome holds the key to the aging process is only a hypothesis, but there’s no harm done by testing it by sequencing 40,000 genomes in a year.

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Our Conversation of Genetic Modification must be Evidence-Based 150 150 Jamie Metzl
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Our Conversation of Genetic Modification must be Evidence-Based

Marcy Darnovsky’s call to arms against “radical biological procedures,” namely mitochondrial transfer from the eggs of a woman with healthy mitochondria to replace the diseased mitochondria of an aspiring mother, in her New York Times editorial today [linked here] goes too far.

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NY Times story on PGD only the tip of the iceberg! 150 150 Jamie Metzl
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NY Times story on PGD only the tip of the iceberg!

Gina Kolata’s important article in today’s New York Times (linked here) on the ethical questions surrounding preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and embryo selection only touches the very tip of the genetic iceberg. 

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