dna

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

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…

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

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…

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

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…

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

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…

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

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…

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

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

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

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,…

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

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…

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

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…

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