Gene Therapy

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I think the way you deal with genetic diseases that are not treatable is by eliminating, is preventing the features being implanted. Well, no, I mean, something like personalized medicine. So now I have my genome, you sequence it, I get a brain tumor and they go, okay, so this is the exact thing we're going to inject in there. Like what Jimmy Carter had, right? They injected the virus into a tumor. And somehow the virus knows how to turn the cancer cells off. Yeah. Okay, but I mean, there's not much plot there, Karl. No, that's right. Yes. Come the revolution, we'll all get strawberries and cream.

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.