What's Next for Crick and Watson?

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WHO has just approved a vaccine against malaria, which has 80% efficacy. If there's no malaria parasites in people, the mosquitoes can't transmit it because they emerge without the parasite. So if you've lowered the amount of malaria through vaccination, this looks like we can do. We can play gods in the right way. Michael Bociurki: I'm writing a biography of Francis Crick and... You are? Oh my God. He went from physics to biology to consciousness. That's why I wanted to write the book.

Shermer and Cobb discuss: objections to genetic engineering (political, religious, cultural) • selective breeding • recombinant DNA • the ethics of genetics • patenting life • gene therapy • gene editing • CRISPR • literature and films on the dangers of genetic engineering • bioweapons • 3 Laws of Behavior Genetics and what people fear about it.

Matthew Cobb is a professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Manchester. He is the author of six books: The Idea of the Brain: A History; Life’s Greatest Secret: The Race to Crack the Genetic Code; Generation; The Resistance: The French Fight Against the Nazis; Eleven Days in August: The Liberation of Paris in 1944; and Smell: A Very Short Introduction. He lives in England.