everyone and everything dies eventually
until they don’t
in the book of disquiet Fernando Pessoa
has said my soul is a hidden Orchestra I
know not what instruments what fill
strings and harps drums interval I sound
inside myself I here is a symphony what
if I told you someone out there
deciphered your symphony no not just
that they’ve mastered it it’s techniques
the beauty and flourish of the piece yet
to be perfected and still the making but
nonetheless existing this was in 1982
was it seemingly limitless possibilities
to even immortality the notion of
genetic manipulation artificial cell
replication the DNA revolution still
unknown and quite on from there to the
few whose curiosities were claimed
claimed by the study of just how much we
could push the boundaries of nature as
we know it well some still seek the
secrets this world so hold others others
fear for the unforeseen future if your
unknown but what is held in the power of
the words we speak and if the control of
life and death is too much for us to
handle according to the World Health
Organization 725 thousand individuals
are killed each year by the so-called
monster that is mosquito seven hundred
twenty five thousand that’s more than
the total population of Seattle
Washington that’s approximately two
hundred and forty-two times our school
population of 3,000 students and for
something that has been a problem for so
long and it’s pretty much a perennial
problem efforts have come a long way
since the first preventive and treatment
Aastha Tech is a biotechnology company
working with what they believe to be the
solution to this issue by inserting a
self-editing self-limiting gene that is
altered to work only in insect cells the
male Aedes aegypti mosquito now have the
ability to pass on this change was
offspring when releasing the wild so
their heritage of this strain would in
turn caused them to die before reaching
adulthood therefore limiting the local
mosquito population in the face of major
outbreaks like Zika which was estimated
to result in the financial burden of 3.5
billion in 2016 this method will be
brought to use and as according to
Oxitec the facility trials they have
performed have demonstrated the
reduction of the wild population to up
to 90% but some sympathy that that’s not
enough that’s when the method of CRISPR
cast nine comes in not only our
scientists testing the waters of this
new form technology our mosquitoes but
other experiments have also been
conducted to correct major genetic flaws
in animal models including mutations
responsible for muscular dystrophy and
cystic fibrosis CRISPR casts nine when
it comes to the ability to successfully
and efficiently remove replace rearrange
and ultra the DNA of as according to the
National Geographic any living organism
even us as can be interpreted by its
name this genome editing tool composes
of two main molecules the first caste 9
an enzyme acting as a cellular scalpel
or scissor and the other acting as a
navigation tool deriving from the unique
sequence found in bacteria and other
organisms that essentially target and
destroy the genome of invading viruses
this is a form of power we’ve only ever
dreamed of
and as it turns out the fountain of
eternal youth and immortality might not
she wants me or gifted he wants to be
and feel more beautiful they want to be
more intelligent we want to be more
athletic we don’t want to get sick we
don’t want to die young we don’t want to
go through the suffering as our bodies
tear it into nothingness until it can no
longer support itself until we have no
time left maybe we don’t want to die at
all as recent editing of human genome
has reached headlines so has the
controversy and troubling into
implications it brings with it what will
happen in a world where the wealthy get
their hands on the newest genetic
enhancements for their children from
designer bags to designer babies many
believe that this will be the source of
greater inequality to the point of
genetic discrimination as stated by the
fish incorporation eventually with the
rest of the world in tow the potentially
misuse of this technology for eugenics
the Han sment of certain human
characteristics as also herring thought
most how would our society function was
our perception of identity obscured how
would we compare instead of helping us
build a well-balanced and more open
minded society it might bring upon the
downfall of our economy and society as
we know it in the 10 years moving
forward regardless of objection and
disapproval or support and encouragement
the scientific world will keep on
changing and evolving as some things are
just inevitable but the ethical concerns
in mind is also important to note the
Starling and the saree innovations that
this technology has and will be
making that arguably outweigh the
potential risk of misuse that can be
avoided with adequate control and
regulation we like to say our heart
skips a beat at you when a pretty person
walks by or simply we were under a lot
of pressure for tests we didn’t
particularly sunny for but we don’t
truly understand how Sears who came
we’re making at that exact moment on
August 2nd
merely more than a month ago American
scientists successfully edited a human
embryo to remove to remove the Harriton
form of a heart disease HCM or a
hypertrophic cardiomyopathy affecting
one in 500 individuals this thickening
of your heart muscles makes it stiff and
unable to pump blood through your heart
and around your body which further
raises the question of whether
implementing this genetic tool is more
beneficial than not and what our future
will be like with it as this method is
used to eliminate sources of disease
will scientists continue until it
eliminates all causes of death this is
just the beginning living forever
something we dreamed of for since the
beginning of time eliminating genes that
contribute to higher risk of
cardiovascular diseases genetic
mutations hiv/aids enabling the transfer
of pig organs to humans suddenly all
this seems just within our fingertips
ready for us to grasp an Darkness the
power of DNA is like a computer program
but far far more advanced than any
software ever created Bill Gates said
this in his book the road ahead the
question is and forever will be
if we’re able to recreate something of
such proportion should we thank you for
listening [Applause]