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[audience applauds]

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Dr. Bonner,
fellow prophets, and...

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[laughter]
Ladies and gentlemen...

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This summer,
I traveled through

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northern Arizona
and southern Utah.

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In this land,
the rivers have carved

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great gorges,

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and on the sheer cliffs
of these gorges,

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one can read a billion years
of the history of the Earth.

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On that immense scale

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of what represents the passage of perhaps 100,000 years,

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all of man's recorded history

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took place as
an inch was deposited,

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all of organized science,
a millimeter,

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all we know of genetics,
a few tens of microns.

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[soft string music]

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♪

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The dramatic advances
of the past few decades

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have led to
the discovery of DNA

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and to the decipherment of the universal hereditary code,

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the age-old language
of the living cell.

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And with this understanding

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will come
the control of processes

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that have known only
the mindless discipline

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of natural selection
for 2 billion years.

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And now the impact of science
will strike straight home,

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for the biological world
includes us.

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We will surely come to the time

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when man will have
the power to alter,

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specifically and consciously,
his very genes.

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This will be a new event
in the universe.

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The prospect is, to me,

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awesome in its potential
for deliverance

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or equally for disaster.

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[indistinct chatter]

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There we go.
Much better.

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You want to squeeze my hand?

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Relax your shoulders.

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Relax your toes.

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-Being in the hospital
isn't scary to me.

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Having a certain new problem
isn't scary to me anymore

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'cause it's happened
so many times.

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I don't know.

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My blood just does not
like me very much, I guess.

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Your red cells are
supposed to be round

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and have oxygen in them.

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Mine are half-moon-shaped,
sickle-shaped,

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which is why
it's called sickle cell,

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so I don't get
the same amount of oxygen.

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[woman laughs softly]

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I always say, like,
oil change, you know?

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You're draining the dirty out
and then put a clean in.

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Yeah, so he just
needs a tune-up

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every four to six weeks,
yeah, uh-huh.

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Yeah.
That okay?

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-Okay.
-Put this on.

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Take deep breath and hold.

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Mm.

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Okay.

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You okay, David?
Mm-hmm?

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He used to tell me,
"Don't cry, Nonna.

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Why are you crying?"

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I said, you know,
"Love you, baby."

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He goes,
"Don't worry about it."

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He says, "If I lose my life,"
he goes,

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"You'll see me again,"
and I thought,

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"This child has more strength
and faith than I do."

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[soft dramatic music]

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♪

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-It's often called
the first molecular disease.

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It's caused by a single change
in the DNA sequence.

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It's the letter A
changed to a letter T.

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-That's it?
-That's it.

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-And that mutation causes
a kink in the protein

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that prevents it
from folding properly.

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If your folding structure
of a protein is disrupted,

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now that protein
can't function.

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It causes the red blood cell

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to really collapse.

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-It becomes very stiff,
and it can't squeeze through

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and you're not able
to get red blood cells

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to the tissues where
they can deliver oxygen,

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and if you block the ability of
oxygen to get to those tissues,

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those tissues won't work well
and they'll get damaged.

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[indistinct chatter]

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In Africa, the life expectancy

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for somebody with
sickle cell disease

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is on the order of
five to eight years of age.

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In the U.S.,
it's the early to mid-40s.

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What do you say to a kid
that their life is gonna be--

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We avoid it.
We avoid that conver--

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-it's not a--it's--
-Really?

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It's not a conversation
we're good at having.

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Makes me very nervous.

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David can go from
crazy teenager,

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joking, jumping around,

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to a fetal position
on his knees.

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-It's, like, pulsing.

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"This hurts.

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You're having
a sickle cell crisis."

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I can have, like,
a little pain crisis

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where it really doesn't count,

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and then I can have
something really bad,

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but I'm not just gonna
not play basketball.

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You can't just
not play basketball.

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This is David's
old red blood cells.

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We're gonna save for research.

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How do you sing?

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♪ Rain, rain, go away

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♪ Come again...

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It's a genetic disorder,

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so in order to cure
a genetic disorder,

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you literally have to
go in and fix the gene.

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We just didn't have the tools

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to make that single letter
change in a precise fashion.

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-Even one letter?
-Especially one letter.

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-Deoxyribonucleic acid,
or DNA for short,

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is the material
that's the basis of life.

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Each living thing
has its unique DNA

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that determines what
that living thing will be:

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plant or animal,
man or muskrat.

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[soft synth music]

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♪

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If we understood
the structure of genes,

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the structure of chromosomes
and how genes work,

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then we might better
be able to understand

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and treat genetic diseases
which occur in humans.

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The work that Paul Berg did,

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that was probably
the beginning.

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This dream of gene therapy

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was born out of those
1970s experiments,

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and we were still
very far away from it,

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but you'll see people talking
about that hope right away.

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The hope is that
the isolation of the gene

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will lead to treatment
of people

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with muscular dystrophy.

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Scientists are
working on genetic cures

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for diseases such as
Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

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A, T, A, G, C...

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-The idea behind gene therapy
is really simple:

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add in a copy
of the gene that works.

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Then they'll make
the protein that works,

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and then
they won't be sick anymore.

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But the devil, as is often
the case, is in the details.

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Right now,
we have the ability

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to identify the gene,
to isolate it,

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but the ability
to put it where we want it

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is still a long ways away.

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-If you put a gene
into a cell,

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you cannot tell
exactly where that gene

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is going to enter
the cell's chromosome.

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-Conventional gene therapy

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is an essentially
random process.

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00:10:02,776 --> 00:10:05,822
So imagine taking this
century-long narrative,

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00:10:05,866 --> 00:10:07,781
which is human DNA,

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00:10:07,824 --> 00:10:09,347
which is a very,
very long text,

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and taking one paragraph

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and just sticking it
somewhere random.

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The change you are creating
is not a controlled one.

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00:10:18,313 --> 00:10:21,272
[speaking French]

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-There was a clinical trial
that was done in France.

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This was for
really sick children.

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I want to be clear.

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This was for children who would have died otherwise.

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00:10:43,077 --> 00:10:45,775
Four of these children
developed cancer.

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One of them died.

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The gene went into
the wrong place

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00:10:51,955 --> 00:10:53,696
because it's a random process,
and, by chance,

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it went into the wrong place,

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and that random event
caused cancer.

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[speaking French]

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00:11:00,224 --> 00:11:03,924
You know, you always think
that what you know

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00:11:03,967 --> 00:11:05,795
is gonna get a little better
and a little better

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00:11:05,839 --> 00:11:07,710
and a little better
and soon will be there,

175
00:11:07,754 --> 00:11:10,713
and what we knew how to do

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00:11:10,757 --> 00:11:12,019
wasn't getting
a whole lot better.

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00:11:12,062 --> 00:11:13,803
It was getting
a little bit better.

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00:11:13,847 --> 00:11:16,893
The technology
was just too clumsy

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00:11:16,937 --> 00:11:19,374
to actually use it
with human beings.

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00:11:19,417 --> 00:11:22,203
It became very,
very clear to us

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00:11:22,246 --> 00:11:24,814
that we are at the foot
of a very tall mountain

182
00:11:24,858 --> 00:11:27,077
and we may not even have
the right mountaineering gear.

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00:11:27,121 --> 00:11:30,907
[pensive music]

184
00:11:30,951 --> 00:11:34,171
I worked at this company
called Sangamo Biosciences.

185
00:11:34,215 --> 00:11:36,826
We decided to figure out a way

186
00:11:36,870 --> 00:11:40,961
to change human genes
in a precise fashion.

187
00:11:41,004 --> 00:11:43,485
You know, this would be like
word processors for your DNA.

188
00:11:43,528 --> 00:11:46,357
[ethereal music]

189
00:11:46,401 --> 00:11:50,318
This will get technical
but good technical.

190
00:11:50,361 --> 00:11:53,843
DNA breaks all the time.

191
00:11:53,887 --> 00:11:55,802
You go get a dental X-ray.

192
00:11:55,845 --> 00:11:57,368
The technician points
this thing at your face...

193
00:11:57,412 --> 00:11:58,761
[cracking sound]

194
00:11:58,805 --> 00:12:00,850
And the X-rays
actually hit your DNA,

195
00:12:00,894 --> 00:12:02,373
and they physically
create a break,

196
00:12:02,417 --> 00:12:05,028
so the familiar double helix
of DNA physically goes...

197
00:12:05,072 --> 00:12:06,769
[clicks tongue]
The good news is,

198
00:12:06,813 --> 00:12:10,860
the cell has its own machine
to fixing breaks.

199
00:12:10,904 --> 00:12:12,470
Inside our cells,

200
00:12:12,514 --> 00:12:14,429
there are two identical
DNA molecules

201
00:12:14,472 --> 00:12:16,910
lying side by side,
literally side by side.

202
00:12:16,953 --> 00:12:20,565
If one is broken,
it can say to its sister--

203
00:12:20,609 --> 00:12:22,916
and that, in fact, is the
technical term--the sister.

204
00:12:22,959 --> 00:12:25,483
"Hey, sis, I'm sorry.
I've had a break.

205
00:12:25,527 --> 00:12:28,356
I'm wondering if I can copy the
missing genetic information."

206
00:12:28,399 --> 00:12:30,401
And the sister goes, "Yeah."

207
00:12:40,455 --> 00:12:43,284
Done.

208
00:12:43,327 --> 00:12:45,503
"Chromosome broken

209
00:12:45,547 --> 00:12:48,898
"awaits sounds
of strands pairing,

210
00:12:48,942 --> 00:12:51,422
preserving the life's thread."

211
00:12:53,207 --> 00:12:56,863
There's really a haiku about
homology directed repair.

212
00:12:56,906 --> 00:12:58,516
[man laughs]

213
00:12:58,560 --> 00:13:00,170
Why is that useful?

214
00:13:00,214 --> 00:13:02,259
So it's useful because

215
00:13:02,303 --> 00:13:05,915
if you can cut a gene
inside a cell,

216
00:13:05,959 --> 00:13:10,267
so if you can create a break
at a place of interest,

217
00:13:10,311 --> 00:13:13,314
then you can change that gene.

218
00:13:13,357 --> 00:13:16,883
You fool the cell,

219
00:13:16,926 --> 00:13:21,452
give it a separate piece
of DNA that you have made,

220
00:13:21,496 --> 00:13:24,151
a piece of DNA
which is identical

221
00:13:24,194 --> 00:13:26,457
to the chromosome
that you are cutting

222
00:13:26,501 --> 00:13:29,330
except for the change
that you wish to make.

223
00:13:32,507 --> 00:13:35,292
And Mother Nature will
not know she's being fooled.

224
00:13:35,336 --> 00:13:37,251
She will repair the break

225
00:13:37,294 --> 00:13:40,123
using this piece of DNA
you provided as a template,

226
00:13:40,167 --> 00:13:42,038
and so whatever change
you brought in

227
00:13:42,082 --> 00:13:43,953
will then go into
the chromosome.

228
00:13:49,263 --> 00:13:52,962
You can think of it like
a cursor in Microsoft Word.

229
00:13:53,006 --> 00:13:55,486
In Word, if you have
a document where you edit,

230
00:13:55,530 --> 00:13:58,359
first you have to
place the cursor there.

231
00:14:01,492 --> 00:14:04,191
In DNA,
wherever you make a cut

232
00:14:04,234 --> 00:14:06,584
is the equivalent of a cursor

233
00:14:06,628 --> 00:14:10,110
in this word processor
of the genome.

234
00:14:10,153 --> 00:14:12,329
That's where you can
type in a new word.

235
00:14:12,373 --> 00:14:15,289
[keyboard clacking]

236
00:14:17,073 --> 00:14:20,424
So if you wanted
to use that capability

237
00:14:20,468 --> 00:14:23,558
to "engineer the genome,"

238
00:14:23,601 --> 00:14:27,040
the challenge was to
introduce breaks in the DNA

239
00:14:27,083 --> 00:14:31,000
at places where you wanted
to alter the code.

240
00:14:31,044 --> 00:14:35,265
-How were we gonna do that?

241
00:14:35,309 --> 00:14:37,615
We need something
that cuts only one gene

242
00:14:37,659 --> 00:14:40,575
out of the, you know,
25,000 that we have.

243
00:14:44,187 --> 00:14:49,149
-There were just such serious
blocks in the way.

244
00:14:49,192 --> 00:14:52,456
So it looked like
it was gonna be a long road

245
00:14:52,500 --> 00:14:55,459
and that's what changed

246
00:14:55,503 --> 00:14:57,505
and that came
sort of overnight.

247
00:14:57,548 --> 00:15:01,422
[soft dramatic music]

248
00:15:01,465 --> 00:15:04,381
[switch clicks]

249
00:15:04,425 --> 00:15:07,602
David's doctor told me,
"Just hold on.

250
00:15:07,645 --> 00:15:10,561
There's something coming."

251
00:15:12,999 --> 00:15:14,261
-When I first heard about it,

252
00:15:14,304 --> 00:15:15,697
I was at a conference
in New York,

253
00:15:15,740 --> 00:15:18,613
and it was a very strange
conference of futurists.

254
00:15:18,656 --> 00:15:20,180
It was put on by a Russian guy

255
00:15:20,223 --> 00:15:22,051
whose ambition
is to download his brain

256
00:15:22,095 --> 00:15:23,661
and become an android
who lives forever.

257
00:15:23,705 --> 00:15:26,447
In this future, people
will be young, beautiful.

258
00:15:26,490 --> 00:15:29,406
They will have multiple bodies,
not only just one.

259
00:15:29,450 --> 00:15:31,234
-But they had a lot
of good people there,

260
00:15:31,278 --> 00:15:33,236
including an important
geneticist from Harvard,

261
00:15:33,280 --> 00:15:36,109
George Church,
and I remember him saying,

262
00:15:36,152 --> 00:15:38,546
"Remember this word: CRISPR."

263
00:15:41,462 --> 00:15:43,986
It's like, you know,
in "The Graduate," plastics.

264
00:15:44,030 --> 00:15:46,597
Remember the word CRISPR.

265
00:15:46,641 --> 00:15:49,078
This is going to allow
human genome engineering

266
00:15:49,122 --> 00:15:52,038
on a unprecedented scale.

267
00:16:05,790 --> 00:16:07,749
-How old is CRISPR?

268
00:16:07,792 --> 00:16:09,185
Oh, in terms
of millions of years?

269
00:16:09,229 --> 00:16:11,274
-Yeah.
-Oh.

270
00:16:11,318 --> 00:16:13,407
I mean,

271
00:16:13,450 --> 00:16:17,367
probably...billions.

272
00:16:17,411 --> 00:16:20,762
[ethereal music]

273
00:16:20,805 --> 00:16:23,721
[seagulls cawing]

274
00:16:23,765 --> 00:16:30,728
♪

275
00:17:37,491 --> 00:17:39,493
How you say even?

276
00:17:43,236 --> 00:17:46,195
[stirring music]

277
00:17:46,239 --> 00:17:53,202
♪

278
00:17:58,555 --> 00:18:01,732
-Well, I'll tell you
the story that I know.

279
00:18:01,776 --> 00:18:05,736
Microbial genome sequencing
started sometime in the 1990s.

280
00:18:05,780 --> 00:18:07,738
What does that mean?

281
00:18:07,782 --> 00:18:11,829
See--okay, so unraveling the
DNA code of organisms of life.

282
00:18:11,873 --> 00:18:14,658
It's a relatively
recent part of biology,

283
00:18:14,702 --> 00:18:17,574
and in the late 1990s, people
started to turn their attention

284
00:18:17,618 --> 00:18:19,794
to the sequencing
of microbial genomes.

285
00:18:24,799 --> 00:18:27,845
They're amazingly
highly evolved entities

286
00:18:27,889 --> 00:18:32,154
that just chose a different
way of surviving in the world

287
00:18:32,198 --> 00:18:34,809
than the cells that became us.

288
00:18:41,294 --> 00:18:44,166
[reciting letters in Spanish]

289
00:19:56,020 --> 00:19:59,502
Clustered
regularly interspaced

290
00:19:59,546 --> 00:20:02,418
short palindromic repeats.

291
00:20:07,989 --> 00:20:09,643
-There really wasn't
much precedence

292
00:20:09,686 --> 00:20:13,255
for anything like this
in the DNA of living things,

293
00:20:13,299 --> 00:20:14,735
and when you see
something unusual,

294
00:20:14,778 --> 00:20:16,693
you automatically assume
that it's interesting.

295
00:20:16,737 --> 00:20:18,608
That's just how science works.

296
00:20:21,002 --> 00:20:22,873
-CRISPR is actually clustered

297
00:20:22,917 --> 00:20:25,746
regularly interspaced
palindromic repeats,

298
00:20:25,789 --> 00:20:29,445
and so it's actually
named for the repeats.

299
00:20:29,489 --> 00:20:31,273
But what was
really interesting

300
00:20:31,317 --> 00:20:34,320
were these sequences
in between

301
00:20:34,363 --> 00:20:36,757
that were completely
enigmatic.

302
00:20:37,671 --> 00:20:40,369
-Spacers.

303
00:20:40,413 --> 00:20:42,371
-And each spacer
was different.

304
00:20:42,415 --> 00:20:45,287
[frantic string music]

305
00:20:45,331 --> 00:20:47,289
♪

306
00:20:47,333 --> 00:20:49,465
Never seen anything
like this before.

307
00:20:50,684 --> 00:20:53,861
Where the hell
come these sequences from?

308
00:20:53,904 --> 00:20:56,777
[Rachmaninoff's
"Piano Concerto No. 3"]

309
00:20:56,820 --> 00:20:59,736
[frantic piano music]

310
00:20:59,780 --> 00:21:06,526
♪

311
00:21:06,569 --> 00:21:07,875
I- have my own way of kind of

312
00:21:07,918 --> 00:21:09,355
telling the story
in short form,

313
00:21:09,398 --> 00:21:12,488
is, I show this article
from 2007, right,

314
00:21:12,532 --> 00:21:14,403
five years before anybody
was talking about CRISPR,

315
00:21:14,447 --> 00:21:17,058
and it's this headline
from a yogurt company saying,

316
00:21:17,101 --> 00:21:19,278
"Holy grail is discovered."

317
00:21:23,020 --> 00:21:25,588
And what was this
yogurt company's holy grail?

318
00:21:25,632 --> 00:21:28,939
It was CRISPR.
It was CRISPR.

319
00:21:31,768 --> 00:21:33,640
When did you get
your CRISPR license plate?

320
00:21:35,119 --> 00:21:37,992
-The first one I got back
in the days in Wisconsin,

321
00:21:38,035 --> 00:21:39,776
and when I first moved
to North Carolina...

322
00:21:39,820 --> 00:21:42,039
[car beeps]
One of the first things I did

323
00:21:42,083 --> 00:21:44,085
was make sure
I still had my CRISPR rights

324
00:21:44,128 --> 00:21:45,826
with my CRISPR mobile.

325
00:21:48,176 --> 00:21:49,699
People were like,

326
00:21:49,743 --> 00:21:51,353
"Have you heard about this
CRISPR thing?" And I'm like,

327
00:21:51,397 --> 00:21:52,789
"Dude, like, I've heard of this
CRISPR thing for ten years.

328
00:21:52,833 --> 00:21:53,877
Like, what the hell
are you talking about?"

329
00:21:53,921 --> 00:22:00,797
♪

330
00:22:00,841 --> 00:22:03,365
-Danisco is a company
that sells microbes

331
00:22:03,409 --> 00:22:05,019
to people who want
to make food.

332
00:22:05,062 --> 00:22:09,371
A lot of foods are produced
using bacteria, and--

333
00:22:09,415 --> 00:22:11,765
yogurt, for example.

334
00:22:11,808 --> 00:22:14,463
Rodolphe was trying
to work out how to deal

335
00:22:14,507 --> 00:22:17,423
with the problem
of his bacterial cultures

336
00:22:17,466 --> 00:22:21,818
suddenly dying because
of viral infections.

337
00:22:21,862 --> 00:22:23,603
Most people don't wake up
in the morning and think about

338
00:22:23,646 --> 00:22:25,822
how bacteria defend themselves
against viruses.

339
00:22:25,866 --> 00:22:27,607
It's just not on their...
[stammers]

340
00:22:27,650 --> 00:22:29,478
sort of front and center
in people's agenda,

341
00:22:29,522 --> 00:22:30,871
but it should be.

342
00:22:30,914 --> 00:22:33,830
[soft dramatic music]

343
00:22:33,874 --> 00:22:35,615
♪

344
00:22:35,658 --> 00:22:39,009
-Viruses are very simple
lean machines.

345
00:22:39,053 --> 00:22:41,664
They have one job to do:

346
00:22:41,708 --> 00:22:44,145
look for a host, take
the host over, and multiply.

347
00:22:44,188 --> 00:22:47,191
That's it.

348
00:22:47,235 --> 00:22:50,499
-The virus will
attach to the surface,

349
00:22:50,543 --> 00:22:53,894
and then it will inject
its genetic material.

350
00:22:58,159 --> 00:23:00,988
It hijacks the cell
and use the cell

351
00:23:01,031 --> 00:23:03,556
just as a factory
of new viruses.

352
00:23:08,648 --> 00:23:12,042
And then it's over.

353
00:23:12,086 --> 00:23:14,523
It's over for the cell.

354
00:23:18,745 --> 00:23:20,094
This is when people

355
00:23:20,137 --> 00:23:21,748
call companies
like Danisco and say,

356
00:23:21,791 --> 00:23:23,663
"You sold us a culture
that's not working.

357
00:23:23,706 --> 00:23:25,621
We want our money back."

358
00:23:30,496 --> 00:23:33,542
But there's a small subset
of the population

359
00:23:33,586 --> 00:23:36,415
that survives
the viral attack.

360
00:23:38,242 --> 00:23:41,202
We don't know why they make it,
but they make it.

361
00:23:41,245 --> 00:23:43,030
They become resistant.

362
00:23:44,988 --> 00:23:46,642
At that time,

363
00:23:46,686 --> 00:23:48,078
we still don't know what
CRISPR is or what it does,

364
00:23:48,122 --> 00:23:50,429
so there's no assumption
that CRISPR is involved.

365
00:23:52,909 --> 00:23:56,913
Then what we do is, we take
the survivor that made it,

366
00:23:56,957 --> 00:23:59,046
and then we check its DNA.

367
00:24:01,962 --> 00:24:04,921
The DNA sequence had changed.

368
00:24:04,965 --> 00:24:07,837
[soft piano music]

369
00:24:07,881 --> 00:24:10,449
♪

370
00:24:24,811 --> 00:24:28,031
-And now it's immune.

371
00:24:28,075 --> 00:24:29,685
-So now
scientists have a clue,

372
00:24:29,729 --> 00:24:31,078
and, you know,
at this point, of course,

373
00:24:31,121 --> 00:24:32,819
you've sort of put
your Sherlock Holmes hat on,

374
00:24:32,862 --> 00:24:35,169
you take in your virtual pipe,
and you go,

375
00:24:35,212 --> 00:24:36,257
"What are these clues
telling us?"

376
00:24:38,694 --> 00:24:42,959
-We do the experiment
five different times,

377
00:24:43,003 --> 00:24:47,834
and consistently, the bacteria acquired a spacer

378
00:24:47,877 --> 00:24:50,793
that contains a sequence
from the virus

379
00:24:50,837 --> 00:24:52,665
and became resistant.

380
00:24:57,147 --> 00:24:59,802
So what if I take it away?

381
00:24:59,846 --> 00:25:02,979
You lose the resistance.

382
00:25:03,023 --> 00:25:05,547
Without that
little piece of DNA,

383
00:25:05,591 --> 00:25:08,811
the microbial cell,
the bacterial cell, will die,

384
00:25:08,855 --> 00:25:10,204
and if it had it,
it would survive.

385
00:25:10,247 --> 00:25:12,119
Oh, that was like--
that was like,

386
00:25:12,162 --> 00:25:14,817
"We got it."

387
00:25:14,861 --> 00:25:17,777
-CRISPR is an immune system.

388
00:25:20,693 --> 00:25:23,565
What an idea, a piece of
the genome of your predator

389
00:25:23,609 --> 00:25:26,046
now stuck in your genome so you
can recognize it in the future.

390
00:25:36,186 --> 00:25:39,146
That was really fantastic.

391
00:25:43,629 --> 00:25:45,021
-At the time, you know,

392
00:25:45,065 --> 00:25:48,851
it's useful
in manufacturing cultures

393
00:25:48,895 --> 00:25:52,594
that are resistant to viruses,

394
00:25:52,638 --> 00:25:54,901
and it's extremely valuable
to Danisco, you know?

395
00:25:54,944 --> 00:25:57,207
But...

396
00:25:57,251 --> 00:25:59,601
but we don't know what
the future holds... [laughs]

397
00:25:59,645 --> 00:26:02,299
We have no idea how useful
another's technology

398
00:26:02,343 --> 00:26:03,605
is gonna be or pan out
in the end.

399
00:26:08,131 --> 00:26:10,699
[indistinct chatter]

400
00:26:10,743 --> 00:26:12,396
-I think I first
heard about it

401
00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:15,399
when I had coffee
with Jill Banfield,

402
00:26:15,443 --> 00:26:17,053
my colleague here at Berkeley,

403
00:26:17,097 --> 00:26:19,839
at the Free Speech
Movement Cafe,

404
00:26:19,882 --> 00:26:21,971
classic Berkeley cafe.

405
00:26:22,015 --> 00:26:24,060
One thing they'll write
on my tombstone is,

406
00:26:24,104 --> 00:26:27,107
"Told Jennifer Doudna
about CRISPR-Cas."

407
00:26:27,150 --> 00:26:30,023
[laughs] Like, that will
be the sum of my life.

408
00:26:30,066 --> 00:26:32,982
[soft dramatic music]

409
00:26:33,026 --> 00:26:34,462
♪

410
00:26:34,505 --> 00:26:35,898
-I love things that
not a lot of people

411
00:26:35,942 --> 00:26:37,770
are paying attention to,

412
00:26:37,813 --> 00:26:39,728
which certainly CRISPR was
in its early days.

413
00:26:39,772 --> 00:26:41,251
Not anymore, but--
but, you know,

414
00:26:41,295 --> 00:26:43,079
in the early days,
it was like that.

415
00:26:43,123 --> 00:26:45,081
But then you always
ask yourself,

416
00:26:45,125 --> 00:26:47,344
"Huh, is everybody else
just a lot smarter than me

417
00:26:47,388 --> 00:26:49,216
and they've figured out
that this is a--you know,

418
00:26:49,259 --> 00:26:52,393
a dead path and..."
[laughs]

419
00:26:52,436 --> 00:26:54,874
So we've got the
antibody tethered to Cas9.

420
00:26:54,917 --> 00:26:57,703
It's finding
the T cell-specific antigen.

421
00:26:57,746 --> 00:27:01,097
-We're biochemists
in the lab.

422
00:27:01,141 --> 00:27:04,927
We study the way
molecules work.

423
00:27:04,971 --> 00:27:07,234
We try to isolate them from

424
00:27:07,277 --> 00:27:10,846
all of the other pieces
and parts of the cell.

425
00:27:10,890 --> 00:27:12,805
We love to ask,

426
00:27:12,848 --> 00:27:17,113
"Well, what are the essential parts of this little machine?"

427
00:27:17,157 --> 00:27:20,116
In nature, what
CRISPR systems are doing is,

428
00:27:20,160 --> 00:27:22,771
they're giving bacteria
immunity to viruses,

429
00:27:22,815 --> 00:27:24,773
so they're protecting them
from viruses.

430
00:27:33,826 --> 00:27:36,132
-When an invader shows up,

431
00:27:36,176 --> 00:27:40,310
the bacterium has a way
to store a small bit

432
00:27:40,354 --> 00:27:43,705
of the invader's DNA
in its own DNA.

433
00:27:48,318 --> 00:27:50,494
When the invader comes back,

434
00:27:50,538 --> 00:27:53,193
the bacterium makes a copy,

435
00:27:53,236 --> 00:27:57,719
like a little "Most Wanted"
poster of that spacer,

436
00:27:57,763 --> 00:27:59,373
and gives it to
the marvelous machine

437
00:27:59,416 --> 00:28:03,159
at the heart of CRISPR,

438
00:28:03,203 --> 00:28:06,685
this extraordinary protein
that we call Cas9.

439
00:28:08,904 --> 00:28:11,690
Cas9 is truly wondrous.

440
00:28:13,866 --> 00:28:17,739
When Cas9 polices the
intercellular neighborhood

441
00:28:17,783 --> 00:28:21,917
for invasions,
it literally carries a copy

442
00:28:21,961 --> 00:28:26,226
of that "Most Wanted"
poster with it,

443
00:28:26,269 --> 00:28:30,273
asking everyone that comes in, "Excuse me.

444
00:28:30,317 --> 00:28:33,537
Do you contain an exact match

445
00:28:33,581 --> 00:28:37,063
to this little 'Most Wanted'
poster that I'm carrying?

446
00:28:37,106 --> 00:28:39,718
Yes? Then I'll cut you."

447
00:28:43,896 --> 00:28:46,202
-The thing about Cas9
that struck me at the time

448
00:28:46,246 --> 00:28:48,378
was that, you know,
fundamentally,

449
00:28:48,422 --> 00:28:51,991
this thing was
a programmable protein

450
00:28:52,034 --> 00:28:56,038
that finds and cuts DNA.

451
00:28:58,562 --> 00:29:02,001
As a tool, right,
you could immediately see

452
00:29:02,044 --> 00:29:05,004
a lot of uses
for something like that.

453
00:29:05,047 --> 00:29:07,310
I will never forget

454
00:29:07,354 --> 00:29:10,879
reading the last paragraph
of Jennifer Doudna's

455
00:29:10,923 --> 00:29:14,578
and Emmanuelle Charpentier's
deservedly--

456
00:29:14,622 --> 00:29:18,060
"immortal" is a strong word,
so I'm gonna use it carefully--

457
00:29:18,104 --> 00:29:21,063
immortal science paper

458
00:29:21,107 --> 00:29:24,414
in which they describe
that Cas9 can be directed.

459
00:29:24,458 --> 00:29:27,417
[pensive music]

460
00:29:27,461 --> 00:29:32,988
♪

461
00:29:33,032 --> 00:29:36,600
Cas9 cuts DNA based on an
instruction that it carries,

462
00:29:36,644 --> 00:29:40,604
and that instruction
is a molecule of RNA

463
00:29:40,648 --> 00:29:45,305
that matches perfectly
the DNA of the invader.

464
00:29:45,348 --> 00:29:49,178
-RNA, I think about it
as DNA's chemical cousin.

465
00:29:49,222 --> 00:29:51,920
Like DNA, it has four letters,

466
00:29:51,964 --> 00:29:54,444
and they can form pairs

467
00:29:54,488 --> 00:29:59,275
with matching letters in DNA.

468
00:29:59,319 --> 00:30:02,365
The letters in the RNA
allow Cas9

469
00:30:02,409 --> 00:30:06,456
to find a unique DNA sequence.

470
00:30:06,500 --> 00:30:08,589
Bacteria were programming
this thing all the time

471
00:30:08,632 --> 00:30:11,287
with different viral sequences and then using it

472
00:30:11,331 --> 00:30:14,290
to find and cut
and destroy those viruses.

473
00:30:17,946 --> 00:30:20,296
But because it's using
these little RNA molecules,

474
00:30:20,340 --> 00:30:25,301
those can easily be exchanged.

475
00:30:25,345 --> 00:30:28,478
RNA molecules
are trivial to make

476
00:30:28,522 --> 00:30:31,830
in a molecular biology lab
or order from a company.

477
00:30:34,702 --> 00:30:37,574
And I can cut any DNA I want
just by changing this--

478
00:30:37,618 --> 00:30:39,576
this little piece of RNA.

479
00:30:42,710 --> 00:30:45,104
It was clearly a useful tool,

480
00:30:45,147 --> 00:30:47,367
and I--initially I was thinking
about it that way, right?

481
00:30:47,410 --> 00:30:48,934
'Cause, I mean, again,
I'm a biochemist, right?

482
00:30:48,977 --> 00:30:51,240
I was thinking
about it as a tool.

483
00:30:51,284 --> 00:30:53,329
I was thinking about
all the cool experiments

484
00:30:53,373 --> 00:30:54,983
you could now do
with this tool, right?

485
00:30:55,027 --> 00:30:56,463
I was thinking about that.

486
00:30:56,506 --> 00:30:58,465
I wasn't thinking about,

487
00:30:58,508 --> 00:31:02,425
oh, my gosh, I mean,
this is a tool that,

488
00:31:02,469 --> 00:31:05,298
you know,
it fundamentally allows us

489
00:31:05,341 --> 00:31:07,517
to change
our relationship with nature.

490
00:31:07,561 --> 00:31:11,608
It actually allows us
to change human evolution

491
00:31:11,652 --> 00:31:13,480
if we want to, right?

492
00:31:13,523 --> 00:31:15,656
It's that--it's that profound.

493
00:31:15,699 --> 00:31:18,615
[ethereal music]

494
00:31:18,659 --> 00:31:22,968
♪

495
00:31:23,011 --> 00:31:26,536
In my left hand here,
I have purified Cas9 nuclease,

496
00:31:26,580 --> 00:31:30,062
and in my right hand here,
I have a guide RNA,

497
00:31:30,105 --> 00:31:33,021
and so CRISPR essentially
is the combination

498
00:31:33,065 --> 00:31:36,068
of these two ingredients.

499
00:31:36,111 --> 00:31:38,244
It's actually millions
of Cas9 molecules,

500
00:31:38,287 --> 00:31:42,944
and this is millions
of RNA molecules.

501
00:31:42,988 --> 00:31:46,513
I have to say it didn't
immediately hit me

502
00:31:46,556 --> 00:31:48,732
until I started seeing the data

503
00:31:48,776 --> 00:31:53,433
that this could be an
extraordinary transformation.

504
00:31:53,476 --> 00:31:57,306
You know, it was real.

505
00:31:57,350 --> 00:32:01,615
You can actually use CRISPR
in humans to change DNA.

506
00:32:03,660 --> 00:32:06,098
You can actually do it.

507
00:32:08,448 --> 00:32:12,234
Here's a copy
of a human gene.

508
00:32:12,278 --> 00:32:16,978
You give it to Cas9 and
put it inside human cells.

509
00:32:17,022 --> 00:32:20,286
It runs away, finds that DNA,
and cuts it.

510
00:32:23,115 --> 00:32:27,423
-Before CRISPR, we were
getting 1% to 2% correction.

511
00:32:27,467 --> 00:32:30,339
We're now up to
50% to 80% of the cells.

512
00:32:32,646 --> 00:32:34,126
This could really work.

513
00:32:34,169 --> 00:32:39,696
This could really
cure a patient.

514
00:32:39,740 --> 00:32:42,351
-I think it's gonna help
a lot of people,

515
00:32:42,395 --> 00:32:44,440
not just people
with sickle cell,

516
00:32:44,484 --> 00:32:49,010
'cause I know they're working
on it for other things.

517
00:32:49,054 --> 00:32:50,620
And I know so many
other people

518
00:32:50,664 --> 00:32:53,188
that have--that have
things like this,

519
00:32:53,232 --> 00:32:55,321
like--like my friend.

520
00:32:55,364 --> 00:32:59,020
He...uh, had leukemia.

521
00:32:59,064 --> 00:33:02,458
He actually--he didn't make it
out of the hospital.

522
00:33:02,502 --> 00:33:06,375
If he had it
just a little bit later,

523
00:33:06,419 --> 00:33:08,551
of course, he probably
could have been cured of that

524
00:33:08,595 --> 00:33:11,119
'cause that's what
they're working on.

525
00:33:11,163 --> 00:33:14,122
[ethereal music]

526
00:33:14,166 --> 00:33:20,128
♪

527
00:33:20,172 --> 00:33:22,478
-CRISPR has,
really, the ability

528
00:33:22,522 --> 00:33:25,786
to recognize and to target
any piece of DNA

529
00:33:25,829 --> 00:33:27,788
in any type of cell
and organism.

530
00:33:27,831 --> 00:33:31,270
It's really a universal tool.

531
00:33:31,313 --> 00:33:33,576
It's often described as
a kind of Swiss Army Knife.

532
00:33:33,620 --> 00:33:36,536
[pensive music]

533
00:33:36,579 --> 00:33:42,585
♪

534
00:33:49,810 --> 00:33:51,246
-We have
thousands of customers

535
00:33:51,290 --> 00:33:53,466
who are working with CRISPR
in a wide variety

536
00:33:53,509 --> 00:33:54,858
of organisms,
pretty much any organism

537
00:33:54,902 --> 00:33:57,078
you can think of
from butterflies

538
00:33:57,122 --> 00:34:01,300
to dogs to horses
to wheat to corn.

539
00:34:01,343 --> 00:34:03,389
We have a design tool online.
[mouse clicks]

540
00:34:06,740 --> 00:34:10,874
Specify a gene that
you're looking to knock out.

541
00:34:10,918 --> 00:34:12,528
You can specify
the types of edit

542
00:34:12,572 --> 00:34:14,617
that you're looking to do.

543
00:34:14,661 --> 00:34:16,619
You swipe your credit card,
and a few days later,

544
00:34:16,663 --> 00:34:18,099
a couple tubes
of all the materials

545
00:34:18,143 --> 00:34:20,188
that you need
show up at your door.

546
00:34:20,232 --> 00:34:24,888
Obviously we like to validate
the researchers' authenticity

547
00:34:24,932 --> 00:34:28,544
and credibility with regard
to their institution.

548
00:34:28,588 --> 00:34:29,893
Meaning you're not
just shipping it off?

549
00:34:29,937 --> 00:34:31,417
Correct.
We don't ship to just anyone.

550
00:34:31,460 --> 00:34:32,635
That's correct.

551
00:34:32,679 --> 00:34:35,551
[dramatic percussive music]

552
00:34:35,595 --> 00:34:40,382
♪

553
00:34:40,426 --> 00:34:43,211
-The analogy I like
is automobiles.

554
00:34:43,255 --> 00:34:45,866
There were cars
before there were Model Ts,

555
00:34:45,909 --> 00:34:49,478
but they were expensive and
they broke down all the time.

556
00:34:49,522 --> 00:34:52,307
Ford comes out with
the Model T, and, suddenly,

557
00:34:52,351 --> 00:34:55,441
it's cheap, and it's reliable.

558
00:34:55,484 --> 00:34:57,878
Pretty soon,
everybody's got a car.

559
00:34:59,967 --> 00:35:02,709
[metallic clanking]

560
00:35:05,494 --> 00:35:08,367
[choir singing indistinctly]

561
00:35:08,410 --> 00:35:14,373
♪

562
00:35:37,831 --> 00:35:40,790
[frantic music]

563
00:35:40,834 --> 00:35:44,751
♪

564
00:35:44,794 --> 00:35:48,494
-CRISPR gives us the chance
to make precise,

565
00:35:48,537 --> 00:35:52,324
targeted changes in the DNA
of any living organism.

566
00:35:54,413 --> 00:35:56,676
It's a power
to change the biosphere.

567
00:35:56,719 --> 00:35:58,852
That's what makes
CRISPR revolutionary.

568
00:35:58,895 --> 00:36:00,332
[insects chirping]

569
00:36:09,689 --> 00:36:12,561
[choir continues singing]

570
00:36:12,605 --> 00:36:19,568
♪

571
00:36:27,489 --> 00:36:29,361
[dramatic musical flourish]

572
00:36:42,809 --> 00:36:46,682
Can you just sort of describe
where we are right now?

573
00:36:49,294 --> 00:36:50,512
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-Oh.

574
00:37:10,010 --> 00:37:12,882
[gentle harp music]

575
00:37:12,926 --> 00:37:14,449
♪

576
00:37:14,493 --> 00:37:17,409
-The field is called
xenotransplantation,

577
00:37:17,452 --> 00:37:21,326
transplantation of an organ
from one species to the next.

578
00:37:21,369 --> 00:37:24,416
These things have
actually been tried a lot,

579
00:37:24,459 --> 00:37:26,287
and some of them
are pretty weird,

580
00:37:26,331 --> 00:37:28,594
like people were--
were, you know,

581
00:37:28,637 --> 00:37:31,336
in the early 1800s,
that kind of stuff,

582
00:37:31,379 --> 00:37:33,729
they were trying
to transplant monkey testes

583
00:37:33,773 --> 00:37:37,385
into men
to make them more virile.

584
00:37:37,429 --> 00:37:38,908
So it's a--you know,
conceptually,

585
00:37:38,952 --> 00:37:41,389
people have been trying this
for a long time,

586
00:37:41,433 --> 00:37:44,958
but scientifically, this field
is probably about 20 years old.

587
00:37:47,961 --> 00:37:49,789
Whether we like
to believe or not,

588
00:37:49,832 --> 00:37:52,444
we are very similar
to the pig.

589
00:37:52,487 --> 00:37:54,054
This pig, this pig, this pig,

590
00:37:54,097 --> 00:37:56,578
all the organs in these pigs
have been modified

591
00:37:56,622 --> 00:37:57,927
very, very slightly.

592
00:37:57,971 --> 00:37:59,929
-They tried it 20 years ago.

593
00:37:59,973 --> 00:38:02,758
Novartis had had a
billion-dollar investment in it

594
00:38:02,802 --> 00:38:05,718
sort of gracefully retreated.

595
00:38:05,761 --> 00:38:07,676
[pigs snorting]

596
00:38:07,720 --> 00:38:11,027
They did--they just didn't
have the technology.

597
00:38:11,071 --> 00:38:14,030
Without the CRISPRs,
can't do it.

598
00:38:16,859 --> 00:38:19,601
-Luhan Yang and her team,

599
00:38:19,645 --> 00:38:22,778
they started as
a ragtag team of scientists

600
00:38:22,822 --> 00:38:25,955
in my academic lab, and then
they went to a ragtag team

601
00:38:25,999 --> 00:38:29,611
in the basement
of a startup incubator.

602
00:38:31,091 --> 00:38:33,485
Nice to meet you, hey.
[laughter]

603
00:38:33,528 --> 00:38:35,095
Happy Halloween...
[laughs]

604
00:38:35,138 --> 00:38:38,925
You know, I dressed up today.
How are you?

605
00:38:38,968 --> 00:38:41,101
Can you see anything?

606
00:38:41,144 --> 00:38:42,711
Kind of.
Something, not everything...

607
00:38:42,755 --> 00:38:44,060
[laughter]

608
00:39:06,605 --> 00:39:09,521
[pensive music]

609
00:39:09,564 --> 00:39:11,740
♪

610
00:40:05,751 --> 00:40:07,056
[laughs softly]

611
00:40:11,670 --> 00:40:12,932
[shutter clicks]

612
00:40:12,975 --> 00:40:14,890
-We have a revolution
going on.

613
00:40:14,934 --> 00:40:16,239
We've never had
a revolution like this.

614
00:40:16,283 --> 00:40:19,025
Closest we've come
is maybe the Internet

615
00:40:19,068 --> 00:40:20,679
and computer revolution,

616
00:40:20,722 --> 00:40:23,769
and that took us
kind of unaware.

617
00:40:23,812 --> 00:40:27,120
We do a lot of iteration
of the pig production.

618
00:40:27,163 --> 00:40:28,861
-How are the pigs
coming along?

619
00:40:31,298 --> 00:40:32,778
So, uh...

620
00:40:51,579 --> 00:40:54,495
[stirring music]

621
00:40:54,539 --> 00:40:56,541
♪

622
00:41:02,982 --> 00:41:05,941
[rocket whooshing]

623
00:41:12,208 --> 00:41:15,255
[speaking Russian]

624
00:41:20,739 --> 00:41:23,655
[cheers and applause]

625
00:41:26,571 --> 00:41:29,487
[speaking Russian]

626
00:42:32,680 --> 00:42:35,814
[eerie music]

627
00:42:35,857 --> 00:42:37,816
This is Aldous Huxley,

628
00:42:37,859 --> 00:42:40,906
a man haunted by
a vision of hell on Earth.

629
00:42:40,949 --> 00:42:45,084
Mr. Huxley 27 years ago
wrote "Brave New World."

630
00:42:45,127 --> 00:42:48,391
Today Mr. Huxley says that
his fictional world of horror

631
00:42:48,435 --> 00:42:52,221
is probably just around
the corner for all of us.

632
00:42:52,265 --> 00:42:58,271
♪

633
00:42:59,968 --> 00:43:02,057
-I first read
"Brave New World"

634
00:43:02,101 --> 00:43:05,757
in a literature class
in high school,

635
00:43:05,800 --> 00:43:08,063
and, yeah, it was startling,

636
00:43:08,107 --> 00:43:11,240
and, yeah, it was provocative,

637
00:43:11,284 --> 00:43:13,416
but I reread it recently,

638
00:43:13,460 --> 00:43:19,858
and I was startled
by how a book written in 1932

639
00:43:19,901 --> 00:43:22,861
could have the foresight
to predict

640
00:43:22,904 --> 00:43:25,124
in vitro fertilization.

641
00:43:31,304 --> 00:43:33,088
[crying]

642
00:43:33,132 --> 00:43:35,917
Now, of course,
it went beyond it.

643
00:43:35,961 --> 00:43:38,137
It told a story
where human beings

644
00:43:38,180 --> 00:43:39,921
were literally manufactured

645
00:43:39,965 --> 00:43:42,315
to play specific roles
in society.

646
00:43:47,059 --> 00:43:50,279
It was so sobering
to me because

647
00:43:50,323 --> 00:43:54,283
CRISPR makes
that original worry

648
00:43:54,327 --> 00:43:58,200
about engineering human
heredity actually feasible.

649
00:44:08,733 --> 00:44:10,952
-We mustn't
be caught by surprise

650
00:44:10,996 --> 00:44:12,780
by our own
advancing technology.

651
00:44:12,824 --> 00:44:14,782
This has happened
again and again in history

652
00:44:14,826 --> 00:44:16,741
where technology has advanced

653
00:44:16,784 --> 00:44:19,439
and this changes
social conditions,

654
00:44:19,482 --> 00:44:21,702
and suddenly,
people have found themselves

655
00:44:21,746 --> 00:44:23,791
in a situation
which they didn't foresee

656
00:44:23,835 --> 00:44:26,664
and doing all sorts of things
they didn't really want to do.

657
00:44:29,057 --> 00:44:31,146
-There is no question
in my mind that

658
00:44:31,190 --> 00:44:32,887
as this field advances,

659
00:44:32,931 --> 00:44:35,760
people will be able to

660
00:44:35,803 --> 00:44:38,719
order a change
in their genetic makeup

661
00:44:38,763 --> 00:44:41,940
to create an outcome
of interest to them

662
00:44:41,983 --> 00:44:45,900
in their metabolism,
in their appearance,

663
00:44:45,944 --> 00:44:48,773
in principal, potentially,
in who they are as people,

664
00:44:48,816 --> 00:44:52,341
personality changes.

665
00:44:52,385 --> 00:44:53,908
And, again,
we have to be delicate

666
00:44:53,952 --> 00:44:57,042
to not cross into
science fiction territory.

667
00:44:57,085 --> 00:45:00,349
-We know that we could
engineer a single gene,

668
00:45:00,393 --> 00:45:03,526
myostatin, in a way
that could potentially

669
00:45:03,570 --> 00:45:05,180
make us all more muscular,

670
00:45:05,224 --> 00:45:08,749
but should we make that
universally available?

671
00:45:08,793 --> 00:45:10,055
They discovered that
there are people

672
00:45:10,098 --> 00:45:12,492
who can go by
on four hours of sleep.

673
00:45:12,535 --> 00:45:14,363
What would I give
for that mutation?

674
00:45:14,407 --> 00:45:16,844
One gene, one change,

675
00:45:16,888 --> 00:45:19,804
four hours of sleep,
no problem.

676
00:45:19,847 --> 00:45:24,852
So should this be--
I don't know,

677
00:45:24,896 --> 00:45:26,898
a job requirement for
air traffic controllers?

678
00:45:29,161 --> 00:45:31,859
Do I want the world
to go there?

679
00:45:37,996 --> 00:45:41,086
There are people
who feel no pain.

680
00:45:41,129 --> 00:45:42,870
This was discovered
by studying

681
00:45:42,914 --> 00:45:45,264
a 14-year-old boy in Pakistan

682
00:45:45,307 --> 00:45:47,919
who felt no pain,
and guess what he did?

683
00:45:47,962 --> 00:45:49,355
He performed street theater.

684
00:45:51,270 --> 00:45:53,794
He died before
his 14th birthday.

685
00:45:53,838 --> 00:45:55,535
He jumped, for money,
off a house roof.

686
00:45:55,578 --> 00:45:58,016
He knew it would be painless.

687
00:45:58,059 --> 00:46:02,194
The study of his DNA revealed
he has a mutation in one gene.

688
00:46:02,237 --> 00:46:05,414
It makes a protein that
transmits the pain signal

689
00:46:05,458 --> 00:46:08,896
from the periphery--
your finger, or your skin--

690
00:46:08,940 --> 00:46:10,419
through the spine
to your brain.

691
00:46:10,463 --> 00:46:12,334
You get rid of that gene,

692
00:46:12,378 --> 00:46:14,597
you cannot transmit
the signal.
You feel no pain.

693
00:46:14,641 --> 00:46:16,251
Why?

694
00:46:16,295 --> 00:46:19,385
Well, I'll give you
a legitimate reason.

695
00:46:19,428 --> 00:46:21,213
Pain due to cancer
is terrible,

696
00:46:21,256 --> 00:46:22,692
especially
if it's terminal cancer

697
00:46:22,736 --> 00:46:24,390
and we know a person
has months to live.

698
00:46:24,433 --> 00:46:26,609
Why not get rid of that gene?

699
00:46:26,653 --> 00:46:29,438
And I'm sure this will be.
I am surethis will be.

700
00:46:29,482 --> 00:46:32,354
We will have gene editing
of that gene

701
00:46:32,398 --> 00:46:35,140
to treat cancer pain.

702
00:46:35,183 --> 00:46:37,838
Now,

703
00:46:37,882 --> 00:46:40,841
do I want a scenario where
there are parts of the world

704
00:46:40,885 --> 00:46:45,019
where special forces soldiers
are made immune to torture?

705
00:46:45,063 --> 00:46:47,979
[pensive music]

706
00:46:48,022 --> 00:46:52,461
♪

707
00:46:52,505 --> 00:46:53,941
-I don't think my job
is that different

708
00:46:53,985 --> 00:46:57,162
than what scientists do.

709
00:46:57,205 --> 00:46:58,859
There's a lot of
kind of hunting around,

710
00:46:58,903 --> 00:47:00,469
hunting and pecking, you know,

711
00:47:00,513 --> 00:47:02,080
looking under things,

712
00:47:02,123 --> 00:47:05,039
turning over stones,

713
00:47:05,083 --> 00:47:06,519
and then eventually, you know,

714
00:47:06,562 --> 00:47:07,955
you kind of get on
the scent of something,

715
00:47:07,999 --> 00:47:10,828
and then that's
when the fun starts.

716
00:47:13,526 --> 00:47:14,788
Before science gets published,

717
00:47:14,832 --> 00:47:18,052
it circulates
among scientists.

718
00:47:18,096 --> 00:47:19,924
The papers go out for review.

719
00:47:19,967 --> 00:47:21,316
Someone passes it
to somebody else.

720
00:47:21,360 --> 00:47:23,666
Like, they have
a certain circulation,

721
00:47:23,710 --> 00:47:26,104
and so I'd gotten onto
the trail of these papers

722
00:47:26,147 --> 00:47:29,063
coming out of China.

723
00:47:29,107 --> 00:47:30,978
This was the first case
where someone had said about,

724
00:47:31,022 --> 00:47:33,154
you know,
"I'm gonna use CRISPR,

725
00:47:33,198 --> 00:47:38,159
and I'm gonna modify
a human embryo."

726
00:47:38,203 --> 00:47:42,250
They had knocked out CCR5.

727
00:47:42,294 --> 00:47:44,905
This is a receptor that,
if you don't have it,

728
00:47:44,949 --> 00:47:47,212
you can't get infected
with HIV.

729
00:47:47,255 --> 00:47:49,214
But think about what
they were proposing.

730
00:47:49,257 --> 00:47:51,607
They said, "We're gonna make
someone who's immune to HIV."

731
00:47:55,394 --> 00:47:57,004
Once I started
digging into it,

732
00:47:57,048 --> 00:47:59,006
I found more examples
of people

733
00:47:59,050 --> 00:48:03,315
that were thinking
along these lines.

734
00:48:03,358 --> 00:48:05,360
John Zhang runs the
third or fourth biggest

735
00:48:05,404 --> 00:48:08,189
fertility clinic
in the country,

736
00:48:08,233 --> 00:48:12,977
and then he started a company
called Darwin Life.

737
00:48:13,020 --> 00:48:14,587
He said that he was
enthusiastic about

738
00:48:14,630 --> 00:48:16,719
the whole idea
of designer babies.

739
00:48:16,763 --> 00:48:18,243
He basically said that,

740
00:48:18,286 --> 00:48:21,986
"Of course.
That's the whole point."

741
00:48:22,029 --> 00:48:24,249
There was a company
called OvaScience

742
00:48:24,292 --> 00:48:26,207
that I discovered
a tape recording

743
00:48:26,251 --> 00:48:28,383
that they had put on their own website of a investor meeting.

744
00:48:28,427 --> 00:48:30,429
-We will be able to
correct mutations

745
00:48:30,472 --> 00:48:33,432
before we generate your child.

746
00:48:33,475 --> 00:48:35,042
It may not be 50 years,
actually.

747
00:48:35,086 --> 00:48:37,436
It may only be 10,
the way things are going.

748
00:48:42,615 --> 00:48:45,444
-I ended up having
several dreams

749
00:48:45,487 --> 00:48:48,229
that were very intense
for me at the time,

750
00:48:48,273 --> 00:48:50,623
where I walked into a room
and a colleague said,

751
00:48:50,666 --> 00:48:52,451
"I want to introduce you
to someone,

752
00:48:52,494 --> 00:48:54,496
"and I want you to tell them--
they want to--

753
00:48:54,540 --> 00:48:56,542
they want to know
about CRISPR."

754
00:48:56,585 --> 00:48:59,240
And I walked into this room,
and it was--

755
00:48:59,284 --> 00:49:01,155
there was
a silhouette of a chair

756
00:49:01,199 --> 00:49:03,244
with someone sitting
with their back to me,

757
00:49:03,288 --> 00:49:07,031
and as they turned around,
I realized with horror

758
00:49:07,074 --> 00:49:09,990
that it was Adolf Hitler,
you know?

759
00:49:10,034 --> 00:49:14,299
And he leaned over,
and he said,

760
00:49:14,342 --> 00:49:18,172
"So tell me all about
how Cas9 works."

761
00:49:18,216 --> 00:49:21,132
[eerie music]

762
00:49:21,175 --> 00:49:22,785
♪

763
00:49:22,829 --> 00:49:24,396
I remember waking up
from that dream

764
00:49:24,439 --> 00:49:27,616
and I was shaking.

765
00:49:27,660 --> 00:49:30,141
And I thought, "Oh, my gosh.
I mean, what have I done?"

766
00:49:35,798 --> 00:49:38,627
5 1/2 years ago,
it was recognized that

767
00:49:38,671 --> 00:49:42,022
we could take the
CRISPR system out of bacteria

768
00:49:42,066 --> 00:49:43,763
and move it first
into a test tube

769
00:49:43,806 --> 00:49:46,026
and then into mammalian cells

770
00:49:46,070 --> 00:49:48,637
and use it as a tool
for genome editing.

771
00:49:48,681 --> 00:49:53,164
The Cas9 protein is gonna
make the cut in the DNA.

772
00:49:53,207 --> 00:49:56,428
We are correcting
the sickle mutation

773
00:49:56,471 --> 00:49:59,126
in blood cells.

774
00:49:59,170 --> 00:50:02,651
So if it's a woman,
their eggs are not corrected.

775
00:50:02,695 --> 00:50:05,045
If it's a man,
the sperm is not corrected.

776
00:50:05,089 --> 00:50:08,309
That change will not get passed
along to future generations.

777
00:50:08,353 --> 00:50:09,963
So they will be cured,

778
00:50:10,007 --> 00:50:12,270
but their children might
get the disease as well.

779
00:50:12,313 --> 00:50:16,143
Now we need to give the cell
another piece of DNA,

780
00:50:16,187 --> 00:50:21,453
except instead of having
the T, it has an A.

781
00:50:21,496 --> 00:50:24,499
So why not just do it
so that the disease gene

782
00:50:24,543 --> 00:50:27,502
never gets passed along
to future generations?

783
00:50:27,546 --> 00:50:29,200
And there's some people
out there who think

784
00:50:29,243 --> 00:50:30,766
that's what we should do.

785
00:50:30,810 --> 00:50:34,422
But we may be creating things

786
00:50:34,466 --> 00:50:36,337
that we can't put back
into the bottle.

787
00:50:36,381 --> 00:50:38,687
[machine whirring]

788
00:50:38,731 --> 00:50:41,603
-When we engineer
gene changes

789
00:50:41,647 --> 00:50:44,824
into my blood
or into my skin,

790
00:50:44,867 --> 00:50:49,394
those gene changes die with me,

791
00:50:49,437 --> 00:50:54,138
but the germ cells,
sperm, and eggs, embryos,

792
00:50:54,181 --> 00:50:57,097
those cells
are very different.

793
00:50:57,141 --> 00:50:59,839
They're part of what we call,
"the germ line."

794
00:50:59,882 --> 00:51:03,712
If we engineer gene changes
into my sperm,

795
00:51:03,756 --> 00:51:06,541
they're passed to my son.

796
00:51:06,585 --> 00:51:10,241
They're passed to his son
and forever.

797
00:51:10,284 --> 00:51:13,200
[gentle percussive music]

798
00:51:13,244 --> 00:51:15,898
♪

799
00:51:15,942 --> 00:51:20,120
My colleagues and I wrote a fairly strongly worded piece

800
00:51:20,164 --> 00:51:23,819
in "Nature" with the
fairly unequivocal title

801
00:51:23,863 --> 00:51:28,128
"Do Not Edit
the Human Germ Line."

802
00:51:28,172 --> 00:51:32,611
We proposed that there be
an unconditional moratorium:

803
00:51:32,654 --> 00:51:34,656
Don't edit human embryos.

804
00:51:34,700 --> 00:51:36,876
Don't use edited sperm and eggs to make human embryos,

805
00:51:36,919 --> 00:51:38,269
just nothing.

806
00:51:40,793 --> 00:51:42,621
We must understand that

807
00:51:42,664 --> 00:51:46,146
when we authorize research
on human embryo editing,

808
00:51:46,190 --> 00:51:47,756
we are enabling, ultimately,

809
00:51:47,800 --> 00:51:49,715
human embryo editing
for human enhancement.

810
00:51:49,758 --> 00:51:51,325
That's what we're doing.

811
00:51:51,369 --> 00:51:53,588
We're putting the recipe
out into the world.

812
00:51:53,632 --> 00:51:55,590
The debate that's being had

813
00:51:55,634 --> 00:51:58,245
is whether society
should go in this direction.

814
00:51:58,289 --> 00:52:01,466
Should you be allowed to make

815
00:52:01,509 --> 00:52:03,424
a genetic change
into the next generation

816
00:52:03,468 --> 00:52:06,427
that'll then go
on to other generations?

817
00:52:06,471 --> 00:52:08,473
The gene pool,

818
00:52:08,516 --> 00:52:10,649
like nature itself,
is kind of a common good.

819
00:52:10,692 --> 00:52:13,217
I used to have a T-shirt,
and it had a little--

820
00:52:13,260 --> 00:52:16,394
a guy that was kind of
a DNA spiral, right?

821
00:52:16,437 --> 00:52:18,526
But he was the lifeguard
and he's blowing a whistle

822
00:52:18,570 --> 00:52:21,442
and he says, "Hey, you,
get out of the gene pool!"

823
00:52:21,486 --> 00:52:23,401
I loved that shirt.
[laughs softly]

824
00:52:23,444 --> 00:52:25,968
[Modest Mussorgsky's
"Night on Bald Mountain"]

825
00:52:26,012 --> 00:52:28,188
-Baby shopping.

826
00:52:28,232 --> 00:52:31,670
Imagine being able
to program the IQ of a baby.

827
00:52:33,846 --> 00:52:36,414
Will we be sitting at computer
terminals like this one

828
00:52:36,457 --> 00:52:38,764
punching up the traits
we would like in our children,

829
00:52:38,807 --> 00:52:41,419
like the shape of their faces
or the color of their eyes?

830
00:52:41,462 --> 00:52:43,899
♪

831
00:52:43,943 --> 00:52:46,293
Well, you know, the fear
that everybody focuses on most

832
00:52:46,337 --> 00:52:48,252
is just this sort of
designer baby business.

833
00:52:48,295 --> 00:52:50,689
♪

834
00:52:50,732 --> 00:52:53,387
-We're turning reproduction
into production.

835
00:52:53,431 --> 00:52:55,955
We're turning children
into consumer products.

836
00:52:55,998 --> 00:52:58,914
-Every time there's
a new technology,

837
00:52:58,958 --> 00:53:01,265
we hear the same concerns.

838
00:53:01,308 --> 00:53:02,875
If there's a market
for cloning,

839
00:53:02,918 --> 00:53:04,572
there is no force on Earth

840
00:53:04,616 --> 00:53:09,316
that will keep
buyer and seller apart.

841
00:53:09,360 --> 00:53:11,840
Perhaps Saddam Hussein would
like to give birth to himself.

842
00:53:11,884 --> 00:53:16,671
♪

843
00:53:16,715 --> 00:53:20,240
-With CRISPR,
even reputable magazines

844
00:53:20,284 --> 00:53:23,374
could not resist
the temptation.

845
00:53:23,417 --> 00:53:26,681
The little thing that says
"high IQ,"

846
00:53:26,725 --> 00:53:28,770
as if we know
what intelligence is

847
00:53:28,814 --> 00:53:31,512
let alone how to measure it
let alone how to design it.

848
00:53:31,556 --> 00:53:32,992
Why do we keep
ignoring the fact

849
00:53:33,035 --> 00:53:35,342
that we've seen
the same argument

850
00:53:35,386 --> 00:53:38,258
every decade
for the last five decades?

851
00:53:38,302 --> 00:53:42,349
And these nightmares,
they haven't come to pass.

852
00:53:42,393 --> 00:53:48,312
♪

853
00:53:48,355 --> 00:53:51,619
We are capable
of really evil things,

854
00:53:51,663 --> 00:53:55,493
but we don't need technology
to commit evil acts.

855
00:53:55,536 --> 00:53:59,584
If the goal is genocide,
if the goal is eugenics,

856
00:53:59,627 --> 00:54:02,500
if the goal is discrimination,

857
00:54:02,543 --> 00:54:05,894
there will be another way
to do it and it will be found.

858
00:54:05,938 --> 00:54:07,896
I kind of divide the world
into the bio-optimists

859
00:54:07,940 --> 00:54:09,550
and the bio-pessimists.

860
00:54:09,594 --> 00:54:11,900
[soft mystical music]

861
00:54:11,944 --> 00:54:15,556
-Space: the final frontier.

862
00:54:15,600 --> 00:54:19,691
-I grew up with the
original "Star Trek."

863
00:54:19,734 --> 00:54:21,301
I have been a devoted follower

864
00:54:21,345 --> 00:54:23,869
of all of the
"Star Treks" since then.

865
00:54:23,912 --> 00:54:27,351
I've read pretty much
every "Star Trek" novel.

866
00:54:27,394 --> 00:54:29,396
Don't get me started.

867
00:54:29,440 --> 00:54:31,920
It is a vision of progress

868
00:54:31,964 --> 00:54:35,533
and the potential of science
to make life better.

869
00:54:35,576 --> 00:54:37,012
There are other people

870
00:54:37,056 --> 00:54:39,711
who have read
the cautionary tales.

871
00:54:39,754 --> 00:54:42,888
-A blade runner's job
is to hunt down replicants,

872
00:54:42,931 --> 00:54:46,848
manufactured humans you can't
tell from the real thing.

873
00:54:46,892 --> 00:54:48,720
-I don't think
the technologies

874
00:54:48,763 --> 00:54:51,505
are inherently good or evil.

875
00:54:51,549 --> 00:54:54,378
The technologies are tools.
They are power.

876
00:54:54,421 --> 00:54:57,816
What you do with the power
determines if the result

877
00:54:57,859 --> 00:55:01,559
is something that we applaud
or something that we deplore.

878
00:55:01,602 --> 00:55:04,779
But it's not the tool
that determines the end point.

879
00:55:04,823 --> 00:55:06,868
It's the user.

880
00:55:06,912 --> 00:55:10,959
Now here are 23 representing
mother's chromosomes,

881
00:55:11,003 --> 00:55:13,614
23 for father's.

882
00:55:13,658 --> 00:55:16,748
Now we put them together.

883
00:55:18,663 --> 00:55:20,142
[chips clattering]

884
00:55:20,186 --> 00:55:23,798
-Our way of determining

885
00:55:23,842 --> 00:55:27,149
the inheritance
of the next generation

886
00:55:27,193 --> 00:55:28,847
is a lottery.

887
00:55:31,676 --> 00:55:34,069
And it's a perfectly
good argument to say,

888
00:55:34,113 --> 00:55:37,638
"I would rather determine it

889
00:55:37,682 --> 00:55:40,467
than take a lottery."

890
00:55:40,511 --> 00:55:41,990
Well, I think the right way
to say it is that

891
00:55:42,034 --> 00:55:43,992
sex is for recreation

892
00:55:44,036 --> 00:55:46,995
and science is for procreation.

893
00:55:47,039 --> 00:55:49,171
[mellow music]

894
00:55:49,215 --> 00:55:51,086
50 years from now,
people may say, like,

895
00:55:51,130 --> 00:55:52,827
"I can't believe
those barbaric people

896
00:55:52,871 --> 00:55:54,655
in the early 21st century,

897
00:55:54,699 --> 00:55:56,831
they were having kids this crazy, old-fashioned way.

898
00:55:56,875 --> 00:55:58,137
They were just, like,
rolling the dice

899
00:55:58,180 --> 00:56:00,008
with their kids' lives."

900
00:56:03,925 --> 00:56:08,190
We've gone through
in vitro fertilization.

901
00:56:08,234 --> 00:56:11,019
We've harvested the eggs.

902
00:56:11,063 --> 00:56:13,500
It's not uncommon to produce

903
00:56:13,544 --> 00:56:17,025
multiple viable embryos.

904
00:56:17,069 --> 00:56:21,595
Which one do you choose?

905
00:56:21,639 --> 00:56:23,597
One possibility is, "Yeah,
just--we'll just roll the dice.

906
00:56:23,641 --> 00:56:25,077
We'll just--
I'll just point at one."

907
00:56:25,120 --> 00:56:28,428
[machine whirring]

908
00:56:28,472 --> 00:56:30,125
Another option would be

909
00:56:30,169 --> 00:56:33,041
I run some
fancy genetic tests.

910
00:56:37,263 --> 00:56:40,440
-Pre-implantation
genetic diagnosis

911
00:56:40,484 --> 00:56:45,445
is the process of doing
genetic tests on an embryo.

912
00:56:45,489 --> 00:56:46,838
When I talk
to most people about it,

913
00:56:46,881 --> 00:56:48,796
they think
it's science fiction,

914
00:56:48,840 --> 00:56:51,190
but it was first used
clinically in 1990.

915
00:56:54,106 --> 00:56:55,890
With today's technology,
you've been limited

916
00:56:55,934 --> 00:56:59,503
to looking at only
a handful of traits.

917
00:56:59,546 --> 00:57:02,897
But soon, genome sequencing
will become cheap enough,

918
00:57:02,941 --> 00:57:05,465
easy enough,
and accurate enough

919
00:57:05,509 --> 00:57:07,075
that you'll be able
to learn everything

920
00:57:07,119 --> 00:57:08,250
genetics can tell you.

921
00:57:08,294 --> 00:57:11,210
[ethereal music]

922
00:57:11,253 --> 00:57:14,909
♪

923
00:57:14,953 --> 00:57:17,085
-In the future,
let's imagine that CRISPR

924
00:57:17,129 --> 00:57:21,002
gets really, really good.

925
00:57:21,046 --> 00:57:24,484
Maybe you don't need
to produce lots of embryos.

926
00:57:24,528 --> 00:57:25,790
Maybe you just produce one,

927
00:57:25,833 --> 00:57:30,925
but you can make
whatever edits you want to it.

928
00:57:30,969 --> 00:57:32,231
-So the carrier screening

929
00:57:32,274 --> 00:57:34,102
that I was
talking about earlier

930
00:57:34,146 --> 00:57:38,803
tends to focus on disorders
that show up early.

931
00:57:38,846 --> 00:57:40,935
Everyone wants to have
a healthy, perfect baby.

932
00:57:40,979 --> 00:57:44,199
I think that's
a universal truth.

933
00:57:44,243 --> 00:57:45,853
You know,
"How can I make sure

934
00:57:45,897 --> 00:57:47,942
"that my child
will be healthy?

935
00:57:47,986 --> 00:57:49,901
"How can I make sure that,
you know,

936
00:57:49,944 --> 00:57:51,903
"they're gonna have
some of these positive traits,

937
00:57:51,946 --> 00:57:54,514
that they're gonna do well,
they're gonna learn well?"

938
00:57:54,558 --> 00:57:57,082
Looking at this family history,
certainly I...

939
00:57:57,125 --> 00:57:58,953
The opinion is that
information is good,

940
00:57:58,997 --> 00:58:02,261
and almost everyone that talks
to me wants more information

941
00:58:02,304 --> 00:58:03,958
and even wants more--
like, we'll give them

942
00:58:04,002 --> 00:58:05,873
a whole bunch of information,
and they even want more.

943
00:58:05,917 --> 00:58:08,746
-I know my grandmother
also had two...

944
00:58:08,789 --> 00:58:10,878
-I actually first heard
about genetic counseling

945
00:58:10,922 --> 00:58:13,185
from my mother.

946
00:58:13,228 --> 00:58:16,536
Hemophilia A is the condition
that runs in my family.

947
00:58:16,580 --> 00:58:18,930
It's a genetic
bleeding disorder.

948
00:58:18,973 --> 00:58:21,672
There is a gene
on the X chromosome.

949
00:58:21,715 --> 00:58:25,110
It encodes for a protein
called factor VIII.

950
00:58:25,153 --> 00:58:28,679
When factor VIII
isn't working,

951
00:58:28,722 --> 00:58:32,160
you can have a bleed
that will lead to death.

952
00:58:33,684 --> 00:58:35,816
If I decide to have
children naturally

953
00:58:35,860 --> 00:58:37,949
without
reproductive technology,

954
00:58:37,992 --> 00:58:40,995
I am putting
that child at 25% risk

955
00:58:41,039 --> 00:58:44,129
to have a really
severe disorder.

956
00:58:44,172 --> 00:58:48,089
That responsibility
feels like it's on me.

957
00:58:48,133 --> 00:58:51,745
It takes it from the universe's
decision to my decision.

958
00:58:54,922 --> 00:58:57,664
Today, I'm unusual
because I know that

959
00:58:57,708 --> 00:59:00,101
I'm a carrier of
a genetic condition,

960
00:59:00,145 --> 00:59:02,147
but soon, everyone will know

961
00:59:02,190 --> 00:59:04,715
genetic information
about themselves.

962
00:59:07,631 --> 00:59:10,764
-What about the cost of it?

963
00:59:10,808 --> 00:59:13,375
In the short term, there's
a disturbing possibility

964
00:59:13,419 --> 00:59:15,639
that people with means

965
00:59:15,682 --> 00:59:18,859
will be availing themselves
of this technology,

966
00:59:18,903 --> 00:59:22,123
and people who don't
have those means will not.

967
00:59:22,167 --> 00:59:23,908
So I kind of hope for a future

968
00:59:23,951 --> 00:59:27,215
where government makes it
free for everybody.

969
00:59:27,259 --> 00:59:29,783
You would have a generally
healthier population,

970
00:59:29,827 --> 00:59:33,178
maybe longer lived population
on average,

971
00:59:33,221 --> 00:59:36,660
maybe slightly smarter
population on average.

972
00:59:38,749 --> 00:59:41,795
So if you have a smaller
fraction of your population

973
00:59:41,839 --> 00:59:43,623
with Down syndrome,

974
00:59:43,667 --> 00:59:45,233
the average intelligence
is a little bit higher,

975
00:59:45,277 --> 00:59:47,322
and, you know,

976
00:59:47,366 --> 00:59:49,237
society might run
a little bit more efficiently

977
00:59:49,281 --> 00:59:51,152
if people are
a little bit smarter.

978
00:59:56,157 --> 00:59:58,072
What is the bearing
of the laws of heredity

979
00:59:58,116 --> 01:00:00,379
upon human affairs?

980
01:00:00,422 --> 01:00:03,904
Eugenics provides the answer,
so far as this is known.

981
01:00:03,948 --> 01:00:07,342
Eugenics seeks to apply
the known laws of heredity

982
01:00:07,386 --> 01:00:09,780
so as to prevent
the degeneration of the race

983
01:00:09,823 --> 01:00:11,825
and improve
its inborn qualities.

984
01:00:11,869 --> 01:00:13,131
Well,
the concept of eugenics,

985
01:00:13,174 --> 01:00:14,785
if you--if you go way back,

986
01:00:14,828 --> 01:00:17,918
it really just means
good genes.

987
01:00:17,962 --> 01:00:21,400
The idea is that the human
race could improve itself.

988
01:00:21,443 --> 01:00:24,359
[speaking German]

989
01:00:47,382 --> 01:00:49,167
-It was, of course, hijacked,

990
01:00:49,210 --> 01:00:51,691
and when people today
talk about eugenics,

991
01:00:51,735 --> 01:00:54,476
they think specifically of
the Nazis of Nazi Germany,

992
01:00:54,520 --> 01:00:57,392
of compulsory sterilization,
where, by force,

993
01:00:57,436 --> 01:00:59,786
people were compelled
to be sterilized or killed

994
01:00:59,830 --> 01:01:02,136
because the state
didn't like their genes.

995
01:01:02,180 --> 01:01:04,704
There was shock last month
over the revelation

996
01:01:04,748 --> 01:01:08,142
that the state of Virginia
sterilized thousands of persons

997
01:01:08,186 --> 01:01:10,710
between 1922 and '72

998
01:01:10,754 --> 01:01:13,974
in a program aimed at ridding
the state of so-called misfits.

999
01:01:14,018 --> 01:01:15,715
What we're talking about here

1000
01:01:15,759 --> 01:01:18,892
where we're being paid
to do these genetic tests

1001
01:01:18,936 --> 01:01:21,329
by loving parents who want
to have a healthy child,

1002
01:01:21,373 --> 01:01:24,811
to equate that with Nazism is,

1003
01:01:24,855 --> 01:01:28,510
I think, just--not just stupid
but actually insane.

1004
01:01:28,554 --> 01:01:30,034
I've taken the liberty
of eradicating

1005
01:01:30,077 --> 01:01:31,905
any potentially
prejudicial conditions:

1006
01:01:31,949 --> 01:01:34,516
alcoholism and addictive
susceptibility,

1007
01:01:34,560 --> 01:01:36,301
propensity for violence,
obesity, et cetera.

1008
01:01:36,344 --> 01:01:39,739
We didn't want--
I-I mean, diseases, yes,

1009
01:01:39,783 --> 01:01:41,741
-but, uh...
-Right, we were just wondering

1010
01:01:41,785 --> 01:01:45,092
if--if it's good to just leave
a few things to chance.

1011
01:01:45,136 --> 01:01:47,704
You want to give your child
the best possible start.

1012
01:01:49,140 --> 01:01:51,838
Now, keep in mind, this child
is still you,

1013
01:01:51,882 --> 01:01:54,798
simply the best of you.

1014
01:01:54,841 --> 01:01:58,192
[medical device beeping]

1015
01:02:00,542 --> 01:02:02,327
-My greatest fear in life,
honestly,

1016
01:02:02,370 --> 01:02:04,546
I--my two greatest fears,
going back to me

1017
01:02:04,590 --> 01:02:07,201
wanting to be a mom
at the age of five,

1018
01:02:07,245 --> 01:02:09,769
my first greatest fear is that
I wouldn't be able

1019
01:02:09,813 --> 01:02:11,205
to have a child,
and my second greatest fear

1020
01:02:11,249 --> 01:02:13,947
is that something would
be wrong with my child.

1021
01:02:13,991 --> 01:02:16,341
Okay, good job.
Not too much water.

1022
01:02:16,384 --> 01:02:17,908
Oh, careful, sweetie.

1023
01:02:17,951 --> 01:02:20,258
-With Ruthie,
I started seeing that

1024
01:02:20,301 --> 01:02:21,868
she kind of wasn't tracking.

1025
01:02:21,912 --> 01:02:24,044
[squeals]

1026
01:02:24,088 --> 01:02:25,872
When I would feed her,

1027
01:02:25,916 --> 01:02:28,788
her eyes would
slide back and forth.

1028
01:02:28,832 --> 01:02:31,791
Hi.

1029
01:02:31,835 --> 01:02:34,359
And then one day I went
to my friend's house,

1030
01:02:34,402 --> 01:02:36,796
and her baby looked me
right in the eyes

1031
01:02:36,840 --> 01:02:37,884
and I came home to Ethan
and I said,

1032
01:02:37,928 --> 01:02:40,278
"There's something wrong."

1033
01:02:40,321 --> 01:02:43,585
-We did genetic testing.

1034
01:02:43,629 --> 01:02:47,285
She inherited one mutated copy of this OCA2 gene from me

1035
01:02:47,328 --> 01:02:49,983
and one from Palmer.

1036
01:02:51,550 --> 01:02:53,291
I don't think I even
really understood

1037
01:02:53,334 --> 01:02:55,467
that people with albinism
had such impairment

1038
01:02:55,510 --> 01:02:57,251
of their vision.

1039
01:02:57,295 --> 01:02:58,992
-It's kind of like wrapping
Saran Wrap over your eyes

1040
01:02:59,036 --> 01:03:02,909
with Vaseline,
very, very hard for her to see.

1041
01:03:02,953 --> 01:03:04,432
Hi.

1042
01:03:04,476 --> 01:03:06,043
Now I just, like,
wanted to protect her.

1043
01:03:06,086 --> 01:03:08,262
Like, this isn't true.
This isn't happening.

1044
01:03:08,306 --> 01:03:10,438
It was horrible...
[laughs]

1045
01:03:10,482 --> 01:03:12,484
It was bad.

1046
01:03:14,529 --> 01:03:20,492
One, two, three, four.

1047
01:03:20,535 --> 01:03:22,015
Okay, where is he?
Where is he?

1048
01:03:22,059 --> 01:03:25,149
Whoa.
[laughs]

1049
01:03:25,192 --> 01:03:27,064
Hi.

1050
01:03:27,107 --> 01:03:28,282
[peaceful music]

1051
01:03:28,326 --> 01:03:30,154
[laughing]

1052
01:03:30,197 --> 01:03:34,114
She was really easy and happy.

1053
01:03:34,158 --> 01:03:37,117
-[water splashing]
-Whoo!

1054
01:03:37,161 --> 01:03:39,946
-And early on, I think
we wondered if she was

1055
01:03:39,990 --> 01:03:42,166
sort of, I don't know,

1056
01:03:42,209 --> 01:03:44,995
protected by the fact that
she couldn't see a lot.

1057
01:03:45,038 --> 01:03:46,431
Look, I have a flashlight!

1058
01:03:46,474 --> 01:03:49,129
-The world wasn't
as noisy to her.

1059
01:03:49,173 --> 01:03:50,478
-Blue.
-Light it. Light it.

1060
01:03:50,522 --> 01:03:53,046
-She was smart
and talkative.

1061
01:03:53,090 --> 01:03:54,961
Come here, Yoda.

1062
01:03:55,005 --> 01:03:57,529
-Super curious.
-[indistinct chatter]

1063
01:04:02,273 --> 01:04:03,927
Oops...
[laughs]

1064
01:04:03,970 --> 01:04:05,493
-You don't know
what you don't know.

1065
01:04:05,537 --> 01:04:08,279
You don't know that even though
it's going to be different

1066
01:04:08,322 --> 01:04:11,456
than what you thought,
you don't know, you know,

1067
01:04:11,499 --> 01:04:13,937
maybe how much better
that's going to be.

1068
01:04:13,980 --> 01:04:16,940
♪

1069
01:04:16,983 --> 01:04:23,947
♪

1070
01:04:33,391 --> 01:04:35,349
I want to be a professional
basketball player,

1071
01:04:35,393 --> 01:04:37,003
but I don't think
that's gonna happen...

1072
01:04:37,047 --> 01:04:39,179
[laughs softly]

1073
01:04:39,223 --> 01:04:40,441
[indistinct chatter]

1074
01:04:40,485 --> 01:04:42,617
Can I hold him?

1075
01:04:44,489 --> 01:04:47,361
"Mission is simply one..."

1076
01:04:47,405 --> 01:04:49,233
-Well, I mean,
I've known about CRISPR

1077
01:04:49,276 --> 01:04:50,625
from the perspective
of being a doctor

1078
01:04:50,669 --> 01:04:53,585
probably since
the first publications

1079
01:04:53,628 --> 01:04:56,022
in whatever it was, 2012.

1080
01:04:56,066 --> 01:04:58,198
Oh, they come
to teach the natives.

1081
01:04:58,242 --> 01:05:01,114
-It really didn't intersect with our own world with Ruthie

1082
01:05:01,158 --> 01:05:04,988
until probably about
a year and a half ago

1083
01:05:05,031 --> 01:05:07,033
when I read something
on Twitter.

1084
01:05:13,779 --> 01:05:16,738
A scientist who I respect
a lot said he thought that

1085
01:05:16,782 --> 01:05:20,351
in one or two generations that all children would be born

1086
01:05:20,394 --> 01:05:23,702
with all of these genetic
abnormalities edited out.

1087
01:05:28,098 --> 01:05:29,577
-I know people
who have children

1088
01:05:29,621 --> 01:05:32,537
who have really
debilitating diseases

1089
01:05:32,580 --> 01:05:35,366
that make
their children suffer,

1090
01:05:35,409 --> 01:05:37,063
make their family suffer a lot,

1091
01:05:37,107 --> 01:05:39,631
so I totally understand

1092
01:05:39,674 --> 01:05:43,417
that desire to change that,

1093
01:05:43,461 --> 01:05:45,680
but the rest of it
scares me to death.

1094
01:05:45,724 --> 01:05:48,640
[indistinct chatter]

1095
01:05:51,077 --> 01:05:52,774
I don't know where
you draw the line

1096
01:05:52,818 --> 01:05:55,038
between not having albinism

1097
01:05:55,081 --> 01:05:57,214
and deciding your kid needs
to be an extra foot taller

1098
01:05:57,257 --> 01:06:00,173
so they can be a good oarsman
and go to Yale.

1099
01:06:00,217 --> 01:06:02,349
You know, where--
where is that line?

1100
01:06:02,393 --> 01:06:05,526
Who's going to draw that?

1101
01:06:05,570 --> 01:06:08,703
We're maybe a society
who is afraid of things

1102
01:06:08,747 --> 01:06:11,445
that are different or afraid
of people who are different,

1103
01:06:11,489 --> 01:06:14,796
afraid of people
who have needs.

1104
01:06:14,840 --> 01:06:17,669
I worry that when we're

1105
01:06:17,712 --> 01:06:21,238
manipulating
future generations,

1106
01:06:21,281 --> 01:06:24,241
those opinions are
going to be passed on.

1107
01:06:26,678 --> 01:06:28,680
-You know, we as a society
may think

1108
01:06:28,723 --> 01:06:32,989
that doing better on the SATs
is better than doing worse.

1109
01:06:35,252 --> 01:06:41,301
Being taller, being handsomer,
being more creative,

1110
01:06:41,345 --> 01:06:43,303
being more courageous,

1111
01:06:43,347 --> 01:06:48,613
those are traits that we would
want to potentially select for.

1112
01:06:48,656 --> 01:06:50,528
Should we go there?

1113
01:06:50,571 --> 01:06:53,009
Is there an inevitability
to going there?

1114
01:06:55,185 --> 01:06:58,188
You know, sometimes,
I'm invited to give a talk on,

1115
01:06:58,231 --> 01:07:00,407
like, kind of
futuristic science things,

1116
01:07:00,451 --> 01:07:03,454
and I've had tall, blonde

1117
01:07:03,497 --> 01:07:06,109
trophy wives come up to me

1118
01:07:06,152 --> 01:07:08,502
after the talk and say,
"Wow, that was incredible.

1119
01:07:08,546 --> 01:07:10,374
That was an incredibly
interesting talk,

1120
01:07:10,417 --> 01:07:12,071
but don't you think there's
a problem with all this?

1121
01:07:12,115 --> 01:07:13,855
Won't every parent
just select their kids

1122
01:07:13,899 --> 01:07:16,336
to be tall and blonde?"

1123
01:07:16,380 --> 01:07:19,078
The geeks all come up to me
and say, "Isn't this dangerous,

1124
01:07:19,122 --> 01:07:20,558
'cause all the parents
are gonna select

1125
01:07:20,601 --> 01:07:22,255
for the smartest kid
they can possibly get,"

1126
01:07:22,299 --> 01:07:24,127
'cause that's what
the geeks think is cool.

1127
01:07:24,170 --> 01:07:26,259
You know, probably if you were
talking to some NFL coaches,

1128
01:07:26,303 --> 01:07:27,826
they'd say,
"Oh, what--everyone's gonna--

1129
01:07:27,869 --> 01:07:29,741
everyone's gonna select
their kid to be 6'5"

1130
01:07:29,784 --> 01:07:32,091
and run a 4.2 40,"
you know?

1131
01:07:32,135 --> 01:07:34,354
So, um,

1132
01:07:34,398 --> 01:07:37,096
there will be a wide range
of what people think

1133
01:07:37,140 --> 01:07:40,404
is the right thing to
select for or engineer for,

1134
01:07:40,447 --> 01:07:42,754
and, actually, there's nothing
wrong with that, right?

1135
01:07:43,929 --> 01:07:46,323
Let a million flowers bloom.

1136
01:07:48,760 --> 01:07:51,502
On this estate
30 miles north of San Diego

1137
01:07:51,545 --> 01:07:54,113
is housed a sperm bank said
to be made up exclusively

1138
01:07:54,157 --> 01:07:56,855
of donations by Nobel
Prize-winning scientists.

1139
01:07:56,898 --> 01:07:59,118
The bank's founder will
consider for fertilization

1140
01:07:59,162 --> 01:08:01,381
only women
of high intelligence.

1141
01:08:01,425 --> 01:08:03,818
You don't know about
the Nobel sperm bank?

1142
01:08:03,862 --> 01:08:05,429
[laughs]

1143
01:08:05,472 --> 01:08:07,300
-Businessman inventor
Robert Graham

1144
01:08:07,344 --> 01:08:09,128
adds liquid nitrogen
once a week

1145
01:08:09,172 --> 01:08:11,217
to a lead-shielded
sperm repository

1146
01:08:11,261 --> 01:08:13,567
in an underground concrete
bunker in his backyard.

1147
01:08:13,611 --> 01:08:16,483
The more good genes
in the human gene pool,

1148
01:08:16,527 --> 01:08:19,225
the more good individuals
will come out of it.

1149
01:08:19,269 --> 01:08:22,359
We aren't even thinking
in terms of the super race.

1150
01:08:22,402 --> 01:08:24,274
-The so-called
genius sperm bank,

1151
01:08:24,317 --> 01:08:28,234
a sperm bank to provide women, for free,

1152
01:08:28,278 --> 01:08:31,324
with donor semen from men
that they viewed as geniuses.

1153
01:08:31,368 --> 01:08:34,675
We utilize
sources such as this:

1154
01:08:34,719 --> 01:08:36,938
"Who's Who
of Emerging Leaders."

1155
01:08:36,982 --> 01:08:39,202
-Very few women
actually went ahead

1156
01:08:39,245 --> 01:08:41,769
and took advantage
of this offer

1157
01:08:41,813 --> 01:08:45,643
to be given
superior sperm for free.

1158
01:08:45,686 --> 01:08:48,211
I did a tour of sperm banks
for the U.S. Congress.

1159
01:08:48,254 --> 01:08:49,908
I think I'm the only person
who's ever gone

1160
01:08:49,951 --> 01:08:53,868
on a congressionally financed
tour of California sperm banks.

1161
01:08:53,912 --> 01:08:56,784
Despite the fact that
the donors are described

1162
01:08:56,828 --> 01:09:01,746
taller, skinnier, you know,
better-looking or not,

1163
01:09:01,789 --> 01:09:03,922
people tended to pick somebody
who looked like their partner,

1164
01:09:03,965 --> 01:09:05,793
no matter how imperfect,

1165
01:09:05,837 --> 01:09:09,406
because the emotional
importance of the connection

1166
01:09:09,449 --> 01:09:11,712
outweighed any notion of

1167
01:09:11,756 --> 01:09:15,238
improvability
or perfectibility.

1168
01:09:15,281 --> 01:09:17,805
If I were trying
to have a child

1169
01:09:17,849 --> 01:09:20,199
and my partner was
light-skinned, short,

1170
01:09:20,243 --> 01:09:22,854
with eczema, I would
have had a child with a guy

1171
01:09:22,897 --> 01:09:25,639
who was light-skinned,
short, and prone to eczema.

1172
01:09:25,683 --> 01:09:28,381
-But what if you could
take that guy's sperm

1173
01:09:28,425 --> 01:09:30,470
and edit those
specific things out?

1174
01:09:30,514 --> 01:09:31,906
Could I change his sperm

1175
01:09:31,950 --> 01:09:34,300
so it's still him
but a better him?

1176
01:09:34,344 --> 01:09:37,564
-Exactly, yeah.
-Right?

1177
01:09:37,608 --> 01:09:41,220
Maybe, but every change
does come with risks

1178
01:09:41,264 --> 01:09:44,223
that you'll make changes
you didn't intend,

1179
01:09:44,267 --> 01:09:47,705
so I think it'd be
a long, long time

1180
01:09:47,748 --> 01:09:50,751
before you would
take that risk for anything

1181
01:09:50,795 --> 01:09:53,885
other than something
that was pretty significant.

1182
01:09:53,928 --> 01:09:55,669
But I might want
to take advantage

1183
01:09:55,713 --> 01:09:58,498
of editing something out
that would give my kid

1184
01:09:58,542 --> 01:10:01,371
a very strong chance
of developing a severe cancer,

1185
01:10:01,414 --> 01:10:04,852
even if it's 40 years
in the future.

1186
01:10:04,896 --> 01:10:06,811
Yeah.

1187
01:10:06,854 --> 01:10:08,987
So maybe that will happen.

1188
01:10:13,296 --> 01:10:14,949
This committee's gonna be
looking at both somatic

1189
01:10:14,993 --> 01:10:18,518
and germ line applications
of gene editing.

1190
01:10:18,562 --> 01:10:20,303
The committee
that I co-chaired

1191
01:10:20,346 --> 01:10:23,610
for the National Academy
of Sciences,

1192
01:10:23,654 --> 01:10:25,612
we were asked to look deeply
at whether or not

1193
01:10:25,656 --> 01:10:29,050
there was something
intrinsically unethical

1194
01:10:29,094 --> 01:10:33,054
about manipulating genes in a way that makes them heritable.

1195
01:10:33,098 --> 01:10:34,665
Significant degree
of uncertainty.

1196
01:10:34,708 --> 01:10:36,667
This should be
the goal of society,

1197
01:10:36,710 --> 01:10:39,887
to promote
a better life for all

1198
01:10:39,931 --> 01:10:42,629
and to ensure that
everybody can live a life

1199
01:10:42,673 --> 01:10:44,718
in dignity and freedom.

1200
01:10:44,762 --> 01:10:48,896
Can this be achieved
by germ line gene editing?

1201
01:10:48,940 --> 01:10:51,943
My view is no.

1202
01:10:51,986 --> 01:10:53,858
-The American
Medical Association,

1203
01:10:53,901 --> 01:10:56,382
bunch of European countries,
you know,

1204
01:10:56,426 --> 01:10:57,905
any number of organizations
all had positions,

1205
01:10:57,949 --> 01:11:00,560
like meddling in the germ line would be wrong.

1206
01:11:00,604 --> 01:11:03,084
It would be unethical.

1207
01:11:03,128 --> 01:11:04,825
But they all said those things

1208
01:11:04,869 --> 01:11:07,437
at a time when it couldn't be
done, so it was easy to say.

1209
01:11:07,480 --> 01:11:09,395
It was a gimme, right?

1210
01:11:09,439 --> 01:11:12,703
And then as soon as it comes
that you can do it,

1211
01:11:12,746 --> 01:11:14,879
then the positions change.

1212
01:11:14,922 --> 01:11:19,318
-Huntington's lurks in our DNA
like a time bomb.

1213
01:11:19,362 --> 01:11:21,668
It would really eliminate
a scourge in the world,

1214
01:11:21,712 --> 01:11:23,496
so I would say go for it.

1215
01:11:23,540 --> 01:11:25,629
-At the big
National Academy meeting,

1216
01:11:25,672 --> 01:11:28,588
there was not a good
representation of patients,

1217
01:11:28,632 --> 01:11:31,896
but the few who did speak
were definitely in favor.

1218
01:11:31,939 --> 01:11:33,680
I say, yes,
it is worth pursuing

1219
01:11:33,724 --> 01:11:34,986
in a safe and rational manner.

1220
01:11:35,029 --> 01:11:36,466
Definitely. Let's go.

1221
01:11:36,509 --> 01:11:40,818
Anything that will stop
my child from suffering,

1222
01:11:40,861 --> 01:11:42,602
I'm for.

1223
01:11:42,646 --> 01:11:44,387
You know, draw this
ethical line wherever you want,

1224
01:11:44,430 --> 01:11:47,041
but don't draw it
in front of my disease.

1225
01:11:47,085 --> 01:11:49,087
He was six days old.

1226
01:11:49,130 --> 01:11:51,437
-I remember one woman
told a story about a child

1227
01:11:51,481 --> 01:11:54,353
that she had and died
of an inheritable disease.

1228
01:11:54,397 --> 01:11:57,051
He had seizures every day.

1229
01:11:57,095 --> 01:11:59,967
We donated his body
for research.

1230
01:12:00,011 --> 01:12:02,622
If we have...
[sniffles]

1231
01:12:02,666 --> 01:12:05,669
The skills and the knowledge

1232
01:12:05,712 --> 01:12:09,063
to fix these diseases,
then freaking do it.

1233
01:12:12,458 --> 01:12:16,419
The statement of task
demanded that we try to follow

1234
01:12:16,462 --> 01:12:18,377
the evidence
and follow the logic,

1235
01:12:18,421 --> 01:12:21,075
not that
we follow the politics.

1236
01:12:21,119 --> 01:12:25,166
We said, "We conclude it is not intrinsically evil."

1237
01:12:25,210 --> 01:12:28,953
It is, what we called
"ethically defensible,"

1238
01:12:28,996 --> 01:12:32,173
but we understood that this
was now a break from the past

1239
01:12:32,217 --> 01:12:35,568
in the thinking
on this topic, yes.

1240
01:12:35,612 --> 01:12:37,831
In Genesis 1,

1241
01:12:37,875 --> 01:12:41,008
we discovered the concept
of the Imago Dei,

1242
01:12:41,052 --> 01:12:45,709
being in the image
and likeness of God.

1243
01:12:45,752 --> 01:12:47,841
What does that mean
for this science

1244
01:12:47,885 --> 01:12:51,802
where we have the capacity
to edit in some things,

1245
01:12:51,845 --> 01:12:54,805
perhaps,
that we think are important?

1246
01:12:54,848 --> 01:12:56,676
Are we playing God?

1247
01:12:56,720 --> 01:12:59,636
[ethereal orchestral music]

1248
01:12:59,679 --> 01:13:05,859
♪

1249
01:13:05,903 --> 01:13:08,862
[birds cawing]

1250
01:13:10,995 --> 01:13:13,954
[birds chirping]

1251
01:13:21,919 --> 01:13:24,922
-The balance of nature
is built of a series

1252
01:13:24,965 --> 01:13:28,229
of interrelationships
between living things

1253
01:13:28,273 --> 01:13:31,711
and between living things
and their environment.

1254
01:13:31,755 --> 01:13:34,758
[insects chirping]

1255
01:13:40,938 --> 01:13:43,680
Now, to these people,
apparently,

1256
01:13:43,723 --> 01:13:47,074
the balance of nature
was something that was

1257
01:13:47,118 --> 01:13:50,469
repealed as soon as
man came on the scene.

1258
01:13:50,513 --> 01:13:53,429
[indistinct chatter]

1259
01:14:18,715 --> 01:14:20,847
The babies that came out
of that are now adults,

1260
01:14:20,891 --> 01:14:22,936
and the adults are having
their own babies,

1261
01:14:22,980 --> 01:14:25,678
so it seems like
making that many edits

1262
01:14:25,722 --> 01:14:28,594
is completely compatible

1263
01:14:28,638 --> 01:14:31,075
with a happy, healthy pig.

1264
01:14:31,118 --> 01:14:34,034
[machines whirring]

1265
01:14:36,341 --> 01:14:37,690
I tell people they'll be

1266
01:14:37,734 --> 01:14:39,997
visually underwhelmed
by my lab.

1267
01:14:41,912 --> 01:14:43,261
It's just a bunch
of small rooms

1268
01:14:43,304 --> 01:14:45,742
with usually
very few people in them.

1269
01:14:48,092 --> 01:14:50,964
But in terms of what I see,

1270
01:14:51,008 --> 01:14:53,750
it's very exciting...
[laughs softly]

1271
01:14:53,793 --> 01:14:56,709
[peaceful harp music]

1272
01:14:56,753 --> 01:14:59,059
♪

1273
01:14:59,103 --> 01:15:02,585
I've never really felt
that "mad scientist"

1274
01:15:02,628 --> 01:15:05,805
was realistic for
anybody that I knew,

1275
01:15:05,849 --> 01:15:08,634
including myself.

1276
01:15:08,678 --> 01:15:11,332
My lab has been accused
of taking science fiction

1277
01:15:11,376 --> 01:15:12,812
and turning it
into science fact.

1278
01:15:12,856 --> 01:15:15,946
I consider that
very high praise.

1279
01:15:15,989 --> 01:15:19,950
But turning science fiction
into science fact is not mad.

1280
01:15:19,993 --> 01:15:23,040
It actually can be
quite useful.

1281
01:15:23,083 --> 01:15:25,912
♪

1282
01:15:25,956 --> 01:15:29,089
Aging reversal is
the term that I prefer.

1283
01:15:29,133 --> 01:15:30,917
You know, I'm 63 years old.

1284
01:15:30,961 --> 01:15:34,965
I feel like I just barely got
trained to do my job last year,

1285
01:15:35,008 --> 01:15:37,054
and so now you're gonna
pull the plug and recycle me?

1286
01:15:37,097 --> 01:15:39,665
That doesn't make sense.

1287
01:15:43,190 --> 01:15:45,279
We need to be cautious
in that, you know,

1288
01:15:45,323 --> 01:15:48,674
there's a--there's this
whole population problem,

1289
01:15:48,718 --> 01:15:51,547
so we could do that if we have
a place to put all those people.

1290
01:15:58,858 --> 01:16:00,643
Almost everything we do,

1291
01:16:00,686 --> 01:16:02,645
people just think
this is goofy,

1292
01:16:02,688 --> 01:16:07,084
this is not feasible,
it's science fiction.

1293
01:16:09,695 --> 01:16:12,132
But I think, originally,
people thought that

1294
01:16:12,176 --> 01:16:16,006
sequencing human genomes
inexpensively was a pipe dream.

1295
01:16:20,967 --> 01:16:23,056
-I can't not ask you
about mammoths

1296
01:16:23,100 --> 01:16:24,884
because there's a bunch
of them behind you.

1297
01:16:24,928 --> 01:16:26,930
Yeah, that should be up at
the top of the list of things

1298
01:16:26,973 --> 01:16:31,282
that seem quixotic
or misguided.

1299
01:16:33,937 --> 01:16:35,721
So in the Mammoth Project,

1300
01:16:35,765 --> 01:16:39,072
we read the ancient DNA,

1301
01:16:39,116 --> 01:16:43,903
decide which genes
we're going to resurrect,

1302
01:16:43,947 --> 01:16:47,298
put those into
the Asian elephant's cells,

1303
01:16:47,341 --> 01:16:49,648
and then we're
developing technology

1304
01:16:49,692 --> 01:16:52,346
that is not yet working
to make--

1305
01:16:52,390 --> 01:16:54,087
take those embryos
all the way to term.

1306
01:16:54,131 --> 01:16:57,090
Then we scale that up to
make a herd of these things,

1307
01:16:57,134 --> 01:17:00,137
maybe 80,000 of them,
to repopulate the tundra.

1308
01:17:02,269 --> 01:17:04,663
-Don't you see the danger,

1309
01:17:04,707 --> 01:17:07,318
John, inherent in what
you're doing here?

1310
01:17:07,361 --> 01:17:08,972
Genetic power is the
most awesome force

1311
01:17:09,015 --> 01:17:10,451
the planet's ever seen,
but you wield it

1312
01:17:10,495 --> 01:17:12,410
like a kid that's
found his dad's gun.

1313
01:17:12,453 --> 01:17:15,108
I don't think you're
giving us our due credit.

1314
01:17:15,152 --> 01:17:16,762
Our scientists have done things

1315
01:17:16,806 --> 01:17:18,416
which nobody's
ever done before.

1316
01:17:18,459 --> 01:17:20,113
Yeah, yeah,
but your scientists

1317
01:17:20,157 --> 01:17:21,680
were so preoccupied with
whether or not they could

1318
01:17:21,724 --> 01:17:23,203
they didn't stop to think
if they should.

1319
01:17:23,247 --> 01:17:25,075
[laughs softly]
Well,

1320
01:17:25,118 --> 01:17:27,773
I often try to avoid
talking about "Jurassic Park,"

1321
01:17:27,817 --> 01:17:29,427
but I'll--I'll give you this.

1322
01:17:29,470 --> 01:17:31,081
[creature squeaking]

1323
01:17:31,124 --> 01:17:33,300
You know, "Jurassic Park"
was about hubris.

1324
01:17:33,344 --> 01:17:36,173
What species is this?

1325
01:17:36,216 --> 01:17:40,177
Uh, it's a velociraptor.

1326
01:17:40,220 --> 01:17:41,700
It's just the opposite

1327
01:17:41,744 --> 01:17:44,442
of what scientists
like George Church

1328
01:17:44,485 --> 01:17:47,445
and others that we work
with are thinking about.

1329
01:17:47,488 --> 01:17:50,317
When people say,
"Aren't you playing God?"

1330
01:17:50,361 --> 01:17:53,364
my real reaction is,

1331
01:17:53,407 --> 01:17:55,409
nobody is playing
in this field.

1332
01:17:55,453 --> 01:17:58,325
Nobody is toying with it

1333
01:17:58,369 --> 01:18:00,414
just to see if it can happen.

1334
01:18:03,026 --> 01:18:05,115
You know,
in order to even fathom

1335
01:18:05,158 --> 01:18:07,334
bringing back
an extinct species,

1336
01:18:07,378 --> 01:18:11,295
there's no end of engineering
that has to happen,

1337
01:18:11,338 --> 01:18:15,299
and it is all novel,
important, new science

1338
01:18:15,342 --> 01:18:18,171
that can be used
to protect any species,

1339
01:18:18,215 --> 01:18:21,522
endangered as well as extinct.

1340
01:18:21,566 --> 01:18:24,482
[dreamy music]

1341
01:18:24,525 --> 01:18:26,397
♪

1342
01:18:26,440 --> 01:18:29,182
Once you realize the magnitude

1343
01:18:29,226 --> 01:18:33,012
of humans' impact
on the environment,

1344
01:18:33,056 --> 01:18:35,536
you know,
it's hard for me to say

1345
01:18:35,580 --> 01:18:37,451
that we can't
try to correct it.

1346
01:18:44,241 --> 01:18:48,027
We can't have
our head in the sand.

1347
01:18:48,071 --> 01:18:51,378
We have a responsibility
to use our human ingenuity

1348
01:18:51,422 --> 01:18:55,208
and our human skills
and our wherewithal.

1349
01:18:55,252 --> 01:18:58,124
Sometimes it's
leaving nature alone,

1350
01:18:58,168 --> 01:19:00,561
and sometimes it might be
intervening.

1351
01:19:00,605 --> 01:19:05,131
♪

1352
01:19:05,175 --> 01:19:07,568
So the gene
we've edited controls

1353
01:19:07,612 --> 01:19:11,442
how the pores on the underside
of the leaves open and close.

1354
01:19:11,485 --> 01:19:14,227
In the nonedited plant,
these stomata or pores

1355
01:19:14,271 --> 01:19:17,404
will stay open during
the hot, dry conditions.

1356
01:19:17,448 --> 01:19:21,887
Water is lost, and then
these leaves lose water.

1357
01:19:21,931 --> 01:19:23,584
They wilt, and they roll.

1358
01:19:23,628 --> 01:19:26,370
In the edited plant,
those stomata pores

1359
01:19:26,413 --> 01:19:28,807
close sooner
under dry conditions

1360
01:19:28,851 --> 01:19:31,592
and the water is retained
inside the plant.

1361
01:19:31,636 --> 01:19:34,552
[ethereal music]

1362
01:19:34,595 --> 01:19:41,559
♪

1363
01:19:43,953 --> 01:19:46,085
-We have been messing
with nature

1364
01:19:46,129 --> 01:19:48,348
ever since we came out
of the trees.

1365
01:19:51,134 --> 01:19:54,877
Most of the lifeforms we eat
are things we've made.

1366
01:19:57,096 --> 01:19:59,838
Corn used to be a grass.

1367
01:19:59,882 --> 01:20:01,100
Tomatoes used to be

1368
01:20:01,144 --> 01:20:03,842
tiny little berries
that were bitter.

1369
01:20:03,886 --> 01:20:05,278
Geneticists changed that.

1370
01:20:05,322 --> 01:20:06,540
Now, we didn't call them
geneticists.

1371
01:20:06,584 --> 01:20:08,412
We called them farmers.

1372
01:20:26,256 --> 01:20:29,041
-Do you think among these
people there was anyone

1373
01:20:29,085 --> 01:20:32,436
that would be fair to call
a scientist?

1374
01:20:32,479 --> 01:20:34,655
-Well, that's a really
interesting question.

1375
01:20:34,699 --> 01:20:37,615
I think there's lots
of different types

1376
01:20:37,658 --> 01:20:39,312
of scientists
that were involved.

1377
01:20:39,356 --> 01:20:41,575
The first people
who invented pottery

1378
01:20:41,619 --> 01:20:46,493
were really chemists,
in a way.

1379
01:20:46,537 --> 01:20:52,021
And certainly the people who
were inventing agriculture

1380
01:20:52,064 --> 01:20:55,372
and controlling plants
and animals,

1381
01:20:55,415 --> 01:20:58,418
they were biologists, you know,
botanists and biologists,

1382
01:20:58,462 --> 01:20:59,855
in our sense.

1383
01:21:06,557 --> 01:21:10,300
You know, you can see people
trying things out.

1384
01:21:10,343 --> 01:21:12,519
What is the best way
to grind grain

1385
01:21:12,563 --> 01:21:14,608
and how do you make bread?

1386
01:21:14,652 --> 01:21:17,524
You know,
that was invented here.

1387
01:21:17,568 --> 01:21:22,051
To work that out is really not
straightforward.

1388
01:21:25,402 --> 01:21:28,013
In this period of time,
something more modern-like

1389
01:21:28,057 --> 01:21:30,537
in terms of our relationship
with nature

1390
01:21:30,581 --> 01:21:32,975
was beginning to emerge.

1391
01:21:40,547 --> 01:21:43,376
As far as we understand it,
hunter-gatherers

1392
01:21:43,420 --> 01:21:47,163
had a relationship
of equality with nature

1393
01:21:47,206 --> 01:21:50,557
and had to look after nature,
and if you hunted an animal,

1394
01:21:50,601 --> 01:21:53,560
you would have to
give a gift to nature

1395
01:21:53,604 --> 01:21:57,042
to thank it for the animal
that you'd been given.

1396
01:21:57,086 --> 01:21:59,044
And then as people started

1397
01:21:59,088 --> 01:22:01,003
domesticating
plants and animals,

1398
01:22:01,046 --> 01:22:02,613
they started having
a new relationship

1399
01:22:02,656 --> 01:22:04,571
where they were dominating

1400
01:22:04,615 --> 01:22:06,486
and controlling
the natural world...

1401
01:22:06,530 --> 01:22:08,967
[bells clinking]

1402
01:22:09,011 --> 01:22:12,188
That made it something
that you could transform.

1403
01:22:12,231 --> 01:22:15,191
[ethereal music]

1404
01:22:15,234 --> 01:22:22,198
♪

1405
01:22:32,034 --> 01:22:34,123
We definitely see

1406
01:22:34,166 --> 01:22:38,083
great advantages
in genetic engineering,

1407
01:22:38,127 --> 01:22:43,436
as agriculture, you know,
was a great advance.

1408
01:22:43,480 --> 01:22:46,091
Certainly it's the building
block of civilization

1409
01:22:46,135 --> 01:22:48,267
as we understand it.

1410
01:22:48,311 --> 01:22:51,140
But it definitely comes
with its negatives.

1411
01:22:51,183 --> 01:22:54,752
♪

1412
01:22:54,795 --> 01:22:58,364
You could say that
the long-term consequences

1413
01:22:58,408 --> 01:23:01,237
were pollution
and environment degradation

1414
01:23:01,280 --> 01:23:02,629
and so on and so forth,

1415
01:23:02,673 --> 01:23:05,719
but you would have had
to be very farseeing,

1416
01:23:05,763 --> 01:23:08,635
you know,
9,000 years ago to realize that

1417
01:23:08,679 --> 01:23:11,247
that was what was gonna happen.

1418
01:23:17,079 --> 01:23:19,211
-These things
creep in slowly.

1419
01:23:21,866 --> 01:23:24,477
It's not like everybody
was hunting and gathering

1420
01:23:24,521 --> 01:23:25,696
and then next year,
somebody said,

1421
01:23:25,739 --> 01:23:27,654
"Oh, let's farm," right?

1422
01:23:27,698 --> 01:23:30,309
It happened slowly
and so it is disruptive

1423
01:23:30,353 --> 01:23:32,050
but it creeps up on people.

1424
01:23:32,094 --> 01:23:33,312
You don't realize
it's disruptive

1425
01:23:33,356 --> 01:23:35,053
until you look backward.

1426
01:23:35,097 --> 01:23:37,055
Often you don't realize

1427
01:23:37,099 --> 01:23:38,796
that you're in the middle
of a revolution until

1428
01:23:38,839 --> 01:23:41,538
after the revolution
has occurred.

1429
01:23:41,581 --> 01:23:44,671
All right, so I don't know
where we are right now.

1430
01:23:44,715 --> 01:23:46,499
It'll be interesting to see.

1431
01:23:46,543 --> 01:23:49,459
I hope I live long enough
to see it.

1432
01:23:49,502 --> 01:23:51,591
Do you think you want
to have kids?

1433
01:23:53,550 --> 01:23:55,639
I have too many siblings
for that.

1434
01:23:55,682 --> 01:23:57,815
The answer's probably
gonna change,

1435
01:23:57,858 --> 01:24:00,339
but for now, probably not, no.

1436
01:24:00,383 --> 01:24:02,124
-[laughs]
-I'm not crazy.

1437
01:24:02,167 --> 01:24:04,691
They're saying
maybe one day with CRISPR,

1438
01:24:04,735 --> 01:24:07,303
they could go in and change

1439
01:24:07,346 --> 01:24:10,393
the gene in the embryo

1440
01:24:10,436 --> 01:24:13,439
so that the kid,
when it's born,

1441
01:24:13,483 --> 01:24:16,138
doesn't have sickle cell.

1442
01:24:16,181 --> 01:24:18,140
Hmm.

1443
01:24:22,753 --> 01:24:25,669
I guess that's kind of cool,
that they're thinking

1444
01:24:25,712 --> 01:24:27,714
that it can do
that in the future,

1445
01:24:27,758 --> 01:24:29,847
but I think that would be

1446
01:24:29,890 --> 01:24:33,459
up to the kid later.

1447
01:24:33,503 --> 01:24:35,200
What do you mean?

1448
01:24:35,244 --> 01:24:38,899
There's a lot of things that
I learned having sickle cell

1449
01:24:38,943 --> 01:24:40,510
just because I had it.

1450
01:24:40,553 --> 01:24:44,209
I learned patience
with everyone.

1451
01:24:44,253 --> 01:24:46,385
I learned, uh,

1452
01:24:46,429 --> 01:24:48,605
just to be positive.

1453
01:24:48,648 --> 01:24:51,390
So you don't wish that
you never had it?

1454
01:24:51,434 --> 01:24:53,349
I don't wish that
I never had it, no.

1455
01:24:53,392 --> 01:24:56,352
I don't think I'd be me
if I didn't have sickle cell.

1456
01:24:56,395 --> 01:25:00,399
[gentle music]

1457
01:25:00,443 --> 01:25:02,358
-Sickle cell's
a really interesting,

1458
01:25:02,401 --> 01:25:04,882
unusual genetic disease.

1459
01:25:04,925 --> 01:25:07,580
If you've got two copies
of the sickle gene,

1460
01:25:07,624 --> 01:25:09,452
you're really sick,
and without modern medicine,

1461
01:25:09,495 --> 01:25:10,931
you die young.

1462
01:25:10,975 --> 01:25:13,891
If you've got two copies
of the normal gene,

1463
01:25:13,934 --> 01:25:16,763
you don't get
sickle cell at all.

1464
01:25:16,807 --> 01:25:19,288
It turns out, though,
that if you've got

1465
01:25:19,331 --> 01:25:22,378
one sickle gene
and one nonsickle gene,

1466
01:25:22,421 --> 01:25:27,426
you make cells
that are somewhat sickle?

1467
01:25:27,470 --> 01:25:29,602
You're not sick,

1468
01:25:29,646 --> 01:25:33,171
but the organism
that causes malaria

1469
01:25:33,215 --> 01:25:35,391
doesn't like
those red blood cells.

1470
01:25:35,434 --> 01:25:37,871
Having a sickle gene
is protective against

1471
01:25:37,915 --> 01:25:39,699
getting severe malaria,

1472
01:25:39,743 --> 01:25:43,181
so in the environment
where there's lots of malaria,

1473
01:25:43,225 --> 01:25:44,878
it's better to be
sickle cell trait

1474
01:25:44,922 --> 01:25:47,620
than not to be
sickle cell trait.

1475
01:25:47,664 --> 01:25:49,883
-And that's why you see
sickle cell anemia

1476
01:25:49,927 --> 01:25:52,451
in sub-Saharan Africa,

1477
01:25:52,495 --> 01:25:55,280
but you also see it
in the Mediterranean,

1478
01:25:55,324 --> 01:25:57,978
in Greece, and in Sardinia.

1479
01:25:58,022 --> 01:26:00,851
It's because they had
mosquitoes and malaria.

1480
01:26:02,853 --> 01:26:06,596
The relationship between
our genes and our environment

1481
01:26:06,639 --> 01:26:08,424
is incredibly complex.

1482
01:26:08,467 --> 01:26:10,774
"Thanks, little brothers..."

1483
01:26:10,817 --> 01:26:12,515
-And we don't
understand that.

1484
01:26:21,741 --> 01:26:24,962
-I think we have
to have humility.

1485
01:26:25,005 --> 01:26:28,313
Nature is one of the greatest
inventors of all time.

1486
01:26:30,054 --> 01:26:33,753
What we can do is a very, very

1487
01:26:33,797 --> 01:26:36,365
insignificant fraction of what
nature has already done.

1488
01:26:39,759 --> 01:26:41,674
Nature invented CRISPR.

1489
01:26:48,028 --> 01:26:50,640
-So now we're mixing
the cells with the CRISPR.

1490
01:26:50,683 --> 01:26:53,033
That's beautiful.

1491
01:26:53,077 --> 01:26:54,687
Once it's into the cell,

1492
01:26:54,731 --> 01:26:57,255
that starts
the editing process.

1493
01:26:57,299 --> 01:26:59,736
We can't see that.
We just know it happens.

1494
01:27:02,304 --> 01:27:05,524
-I don't know how, out of all
the genes that you have,

1495
01:27:05,568 --> 01:27:08,310
that it targets the one
that's doing sickle cell

1496
01:27:08,353 --> 01:27:10,486
and not the thing
that's making you grow hair.

1497
01:27:10,529 --> 01:27:12,270
Oh.

1498
01:27:12,314 --> 01:27:15,926
But it does, apparently.

1499
01:27:15,969 --> 01:27:18,320
Like, that's cool...
[laughs]

1500
01:27:18,363 --> 01:27:21,279
[peaceful music]

1501
01:27:21,323 --> 01:27:28,286
♪

1502
01:27:32,812 --> 01:27:35,424
You have to appreciate
that this is a technology

1503
01:27:35,467 --> 01:27:37,469
that's only about
five years old,

1504
01:27:37,513 --> 01:27:40,429
but it's been deployed
incredibly rapidly.

1505
01:27:40,472 --> 01:27:44,389
We've never had
the ability to change

1506
01:27:44,433 --> 01:27:46,826
the fundamental
chemical nature

1507
01:27:46,870 --> 01:27:49,351
of who we are
in this way, right?

1508
01:27:49,394 --> 01:27:51,614
And now we do,
and what do we do with that?

1509
01:27:51,657 --> 01:27:54,617
It does make us
really think deeply

1510
01:27:54,660 --> 01:27:56,575
about what it means
to be human.

1511
01:27:56,619 --> 01:27:58,838
What do we value
about human society?

1512
01:27:58,882 --> 01:28:00,318
And I know for myself...

1513
01:28:00,362 --> 01:28:02,102
-The things that
make us most human

1514
01:28:02,146 --> 01:28:04,844
are some of the most
genetically complex,

1515
01:28:04,888 --> 01:28:08,326
which is kind of a relief.

1516
01:28:08,370 --> 01:28:09,980
Creativity...

1517
01:28:10,023 --> 01:28:13,505
-[laughs softly]
-Emotionality.

1518
01:28:13,549 --> 01:28:16,465
Love.

1519
01:28:16,508 --> 01:28:17,944
Now, I want to be clear:

1520
01:28:17,988 --> 01:28:20,730
they all have
a biological basis.

1521
01:28:20,773 --> 01:28:23,298
They are all
written in our DNA.

1522
01:28:25,996 --> 01:28:30,566
But we are a very, very,
very long way away

1523
01:28:30,609 --> 01:28:33,482
from being able
to edit the person.

1524
01:28:36,441 --> 01:28:37,964
-You think that day
will come?

1525
01:28:38,008 --> 01:28:39,705
-I do,

1526
01:28:39,749 --> 01:28:42,665
but I'm hopeful that
we will mature as a species

1527
01:28:42,708 --> 01:28:44,928
before we get this incredible
technology to play with

1528
01:28:44,971 --> 01:28:47,365
for our own detriment.

1529
01:28:47,409 --> 01:28:51,369
I am hopeful for that, yes.

1530
01:28:51,413 --> 01:28:54,894
Is that hope based in fact?

1531
01:28:54,938 --> 01:28:57,375
We'll see.

1532
01:28:57,419 --> 01:29:00,117
How might we like
to change our genes?

1533
01:29:00,160 --> 01:29:01,814
Perhaps we would like to alter

1534
01:29:01,858 --> 01:29:05,078
the uneasy balance
of our emotions.

1535
01:29:05,122 --> 01:29:07,646
Could we be less warlike,

1536
01:29:07,690 --> 01:29:10,693
more self-confident,
more serene?

1537
01:29:10,736 --> 01:29:12,695
Perhaps.

1538
01:29:14,653 --> 01:29:17,569
[growling softly]

1539
01:29:19,571 --> 01:29:24,489
-Ours is,
whether we like it or not,

1540
01:29:24,533 --> 01:29:28,101
an age of transition.

1541
01:29:28,145 --> 01:29:30,060
After 2 billion years,

1542
01:29:30,103 --> 01:29:33,411
this is, in a sense,
the end of the beginning.

1543
01:29:33,455 --> 01:29:36,196
[gentle piano music]

1544
01:29:36,240 --> 01:29:43,378
♪