Ideas worth spreading

TEDxCERN

November 2018

|2.1M views

The age of genetic wonder

Gene-editing tools like CRISPR enable us to program life at its most fundamental level. But this raises some pressing questions: If we can generate new species from scratch, what should we build? Should we redesign humanity as we know it? Juan Enriquez forecasts the possible futures of genetic editing, exploring the immense uncertainty and opportunity of this next frontier.

Become a TED Member

Want to hear more great ideas like this one? Sign up for TED Membership to get exclusive access to captivating conversations, engaging events, and more!

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxCERN, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about TEDx.

Gene-editing tools like CRISPR enable us to program life at its most fundamental level. But this raises some pressing questions: If we can generate new species from scratch, what should we build? Should we redesign humanity as we know it? Juan Enriquez forecasts the possible futures of genetic editing, exploring the immense uncertainty and opportunity of this next frontier.

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxCERN, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about TEDx.

About the speaker

Author, academic, futurist

See speaker profile

Juan Enriquez thinks and writes about the profound changes that genomics and brain research will bring about in business, technology, politics and society.

Juan Enriquez and Steve Gullans | Portfolio, 2016 | Book

Evolving Ourselves: Redesigning the Future of Humanity -- One Gene at a Time

A non-technical overview of the issues and potential of modifying humanity, and all other life, through gene research.

George Church and Ed Regis | Basic Books, 2014 | Book

Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves

Siddhartha Mukherjee | Scribner, 2011 | Book

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

Jonathan Weiner | Vintage, 1995 | Book

The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time

Harrison Echols | University of California Press, 2001 | Book

Operators and Promoters: The Story of Molecular Biology and Its Creators

Zak Kohane | Harvard Medical School | Explore

"Zak Kohane's research"

Want more on medicine becoming a data-driven science? Look at Zak Kohane's work.

| Explore

Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Need new organs? Anthony Atala may be your man.

| Explore

The Szostak Lab

On the origins of life, peruse the work of Jack Szostak's lab.

| Explore

"Origins of Life Initiative"

Want the latest news aimed at revealing if life is abundant in the universe? Find it here.

| Explore

Synthetic Neurobiology Group

Some of the most interesting brain research is going on in Ed Boyden's lab.

George M. Church | Explore

"George M. Church's research"

George Church’s lab always has an insane number of breakthrough projects going on.

| Explore

Koch Institute For Integrative Cancer Research at MIT

MIT's Koch Institute is bringing together biology and engineering to go after cancer in unexpected ways.

Learn more

About TEDx

TEDx was created in the spirit of TED's mission, "ideas worth spreading." It supports independent organizers who want to create a TED-like event in their own community.

Find a TEDx event near you