CODE BREAKER: Why Walter Isaacson Thinks CRISPR Will Change Life As We Know It

The Next Big Idea

Next Big Idea Club

Self-improvement, Arts, Books, Society & Culture, Education

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2021

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Almost a decade ago, the biochemist Jennifer Doudna and her team at Berkeley figured out how to rewrite our genetic code using a system called CRISPR. Thanks to this miraculous discovery, we now have the power to hunt down cancer cells, deflect oncoming viruses, and cure genetic diseases. But CRISPR has a dark side, morally speaking. In a world where we’ll soon have the power to endow our kids with superior strength and intelligence, how far is too far? Doudna’s groundbreaking discovery and the moral dilemmas that followed are the subject of a new book by best-selling biographer Walter Isaacson. In this expansive conversation, he tells Rufus why the CRISPR era will be far more consequential than the digital revolution. Plus, they discuss the mechanics of creativity, the delicate balance between competition and collaboration, and the personality traits that Isaacson’s subjects — Doudna, da Vinci, Ben Franklin, Einstein, and Steve Jobs — all have in common.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I love the digital revolution, but I tell you, as wonderful as my iPhone is, that's nothing
0:12.6	compared to the ability to edit the genes of our children.
0:18.4	Hi, Rufus Grisco, and this is the next big idea.
0:23.5	Today, Walter Isaacson tells me why CRISPR is more important than the microchip.
0:48.5	On a cold December night in 2012, in a rented house in Carmel, California, Jennifer Daugner
0:55.2	sat in bed, typing furiously, only stopping to pinch herself to stay awake.
1:02.5	Jennifer had rented the house in Carmel, intending to work on revisions for a molecular
1:07.1	biology textbook.
1:08.7	But now she was consumed by another project.
1:11.1	She was racing to finish a paper.
1:13.5	If you could do it fast enough, she knew she might guarantee herself a spot in the history
1:18.0	books.
1:20.0	A few months back, Jennifer and her team at Berkeley had made an oh my god discovery.
1:25.7	It had to do with something called CRISPR.
1:28.2	Here she is describing it in a TED talk.
1:30.4	So many bacteria have in their cells an adaptive immune system called CRISPR that allows them
1:36.4	to detect viral DNA and destroy it.
1:40.3	Part of the CRISPR system is a protein called Cas9 that's able to seek out and cut and
1:47.4	eventually degrade viral DNA in a specific way.
1:52.2	Bacteria have been around for 3.5 billion years.
1:56.2	They are everywhere in our soil, in our bodies, in volcanic vents in the ocean floor.
2:01.3	We depend on them to synthesize vitamin B12 to help us digest food, and now in Jennifer's
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Next Big Idea Club, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Next Big Idea Club and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.