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…
read more
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…
read more
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…
read more
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…
read moreIn 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…
read moreArticles 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 moreWhen 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 moreI 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,…
read moreI 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…
read moreIn 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…
read more