Blog

Origins of SARS-CoV-2 512 342 Jamie Metzl
  • 19 Comments

Origins of SARS-CoV-2

A number of people have reached out to me questioning my assertion that “the most likely starting point of the coronavirus crisis is an accidental leak from one of the Chinese virology institutes in Wuhan.” (See this CNN interview and…

read more
Jamie Metzl Statement on Suspension of US Funding for the WHO 620 413 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
We Can’t Get Out of this Alone 342 147 Jamie Metzl
  • 2 Comments

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…

read more
Declaration of Global Interdependence 1280 720 Jamie Metzl
  • 5 Comments

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.…

read more
Virtualizing our Physical Lives 310 163 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
Love in a Time of COVID 275 183 Jamie Metzl
  • 1 Comment

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…

read more
Our Best Values Must Guide Our Most Powerful Technologies 279 181 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
Standing with the People of Hong Kong 720 405 Jamie Metzl
  • 1 Comment

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…

read more
Has the Third CRISPR Baby Already Been Born? 800 480 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
Inviting You to a Genetic Engineering Dinner Party (*) 284 284 Jamie Metzl
  • 2 Comments

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.…

read more
Human gene editing is too transformative to be guided by the few 275 183 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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.

read more
American Must Come to Terms with its Tragic History 298 474 Jamie Metzl
  • 1 Comment

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…

read more
Crossing the Rubicon of Genetically Engineered Human Babies 275 183 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
Censored in China 450 289 Jamie Metzl
  • 14 Comments

Censored in China

In spite of the restrictions on free speech in China, I’ve always had very positive experiences at academic conferences. Although Chinese academics are not always free to speak their minds, I’ve repeatedly experienced surprising levels of candor from Chinese counterparts…

read more
Louise Brown at 40! 284 177 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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.

read more
President for Life? 275 183 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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.

read more
Trump Chaos Undermining America’s International Interests 726 500 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
America’s New National Security Strategy 2048 1580 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
A Visit to Weizenbaum Contest 225 225 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
Gene editing of human embryos 600 220 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
Why Korean Reunification is in China’s Strategic National Interest 275 183 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
为何朝鲜半岛统一符合中国国家利益 275 183 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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。

read more
Trump’s North Korea Crisis 292 173 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
In the Twilight Rise Up Monsters: Why the Trump Foreign Policy Undermines US and World Security 640 503 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
NAS Human Genome Editing Report 1720 1147 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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.…

read more
Reflections Before the Trump Inauguration 1160 629 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
Obama in Asia 2048 1122 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
Creating a Bach “Eternal Sonata” 800 1190 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

Creating a Bach “Eternal Sonata”

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 memory of his late wife by curing cancer…

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

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…

read more
President Obama Should Visit Hiroshima Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
Do We Need a New Universal Religion? 300 168 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
China Still Holds the Key for Getting Tough with Pyongyang 150 150 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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. 

read more
China Market Turmoil 150 150 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
Korea-Japan Agreement on “Comfort Women” 150 150 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
A Moral Imperative to Visit Paris (but while there you must eat) 259 194 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
Being Human in an Age of Artificial Intelligence 150 150 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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.

read more
NIH Restrictions on Chimera Research a Mistake 150 150 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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,…

read more
UK Should Not Abandon Its Values Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
Korea’s Free Trade Future Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
China’s Market Wobble 150 150 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
Japan and History 150 150 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
Is China Overreacting to its Market Correction? Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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.

read more
China’s Stock Bubble Will Burst Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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.

read more
The Coming Collapse of North Korea? 150 150 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
Has the Genetic Arms Race Begun? 150 150 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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.

read more
China’s Pakistan Adventure Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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.

read more
China’s Slowing Economy Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
Kim Jong Un Going to Moscow? Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
Possibly the Greatest Pumpkin Oatmeal Recipe in Human History Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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.

read more
The Genetic Age Began on February 3, 2015 150 150 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
Would I Genetically Enhance My Own Children? 150 150 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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?”

read more
Would I Genetically Enhance My Own Children? 150 150 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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?”

read more
Sony, North Korea, and Human Rights Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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. 

read more
Books as Sacred Objects 150 150 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
Books as Sacred Objects 150 150 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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.…

read more
Is Something Stirring with North Korea? 150 150 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
If GMOs worry you, what will you think of genetically modified humans? 150 150 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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…

read more
The Case Against “Nature” (and for regulated GMOs) 276 183 Jamie Metzl
  • 2 Comments

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.

read more
Our Genetic Future is Coming… Faster Than We Think 150 150 Jamie Metzl
  • 4 Comments

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.

read more
We’ll Know Xi Jinping is Serious About Cracking Down on Corruption Wen… Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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.

read more
China Missing an Historic Opportunity with Tibet 150 150 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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

read more
Russia and China Dragging the World Back to the 19th Century 150 150 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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

read more
Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom to Conquer Ageing (but…) Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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.

read more
Our Conversation of Genetic Modification must be Evidence-Based 150 150 Jamie Metzl
  • No Comments

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.

read more
NY Times story on PGD only the tip of the iceberg! 150 150 Jamie Metzl
  • 1 Comment

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. 

read more
Enter your
text here