How to Define Life and Then What Is Life?

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"We still don't know how to do that," he says of creating life in the lab. "It's going to be a long time before we can if it comes from us then that's fair enough right okay so but um... let's see what was i gonna ask about oh yeah so how would you then define life or a living organism and then the godsite well in the context of then define first what a gene what a gene is because a gene is not about either no seriously i'm not joking about being a true so this is fascinating i talked to my students about this so if you talk to philosophers uh... they're really interested in definitions of life if you'd

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.