Matthew Cobb, in conversation with Kevin Davies, "As Gods: A Moral History of the Genetic Age"

HARVARD SCIENCE BOOK TALK
In 2018, scientists manipulated the DNA of human babies for the first time. As biologist and historian Matthew Cobb shows in As Gods, this achievement was one many scientists have feared from the start of the genetic age. Four times in the last fifty years, geneticists, frightened by their own technology, have called a temporary halt to their experiments. They ought to be frightened: Now we have powers that can target the extinction of pests, change our own genes, or create dangerous new versions of diseases in an attempt to prevent future pandemics. Both awe-inspiring and chilling, As Gods traces the history of genetic engineering, showing that this revolutionary technology is far too important to be left to the scientists. They have the power to change life itself, but should we trust them to keep their ingenuity from producing a hellish reality?
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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, Life’s Greatest Secret, Generation, The Resistance, Eleven Days in August, and Smell: A Very Short Introduction. He lives in England.
Kevin Davies is a British science journalist and journal editor. He is the founding editor of Nature Genetics and currently the Executive Editor of The CRISPR Journal as well as a new multidisciplinary journal launched in 2022, GEN Biotechnology. His most recent book is Editing Humanity: The CRISPR Revolution and the New Era of Genome Editing. Kevin studied at Oxford University and moved to the U.S. in 1987 after earning his PhD in genetics. He is currently working on a new book about sickle-cell disease for Harvard University Press.
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