8 | Carl Zimmer on Heredity, DNA, and Editing Genes

8 | Carl Zimmer on Heredity, DNA, and Editing Genes

Our understanding of heredity and genetics is improving at blinding speed. It was only in the year 2000 that scientists obtained the first rough map of the human genome: 3 billion base pairs of DNA with about 20,000 functional genes. Today, you can send a bit of your DNA to companies such as 23andMe and get a report on your personal genome (ancestry, health risks) for about $200. Technologies like CRISPR are allowing scientists to edit genes, not just map them. Science writer Carl Zimmer has been following these advances for years, and has recently written a comprehensive book about heredity: She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity. We talk about how our understanding of heredity has changed over the years, how there is much more to inheritance than simply listing all the information we pass down in our DNA, and what the future might hold in a world where genetic manipulation becomes widespread. [smart_track_player url="http://traffic.libsyn.com/seancarroll/carl-zimmer.mp3" social_gplus="false" social_linkedin="true" social_email="true" hashtag="mindscapepodcast" ] Carl Zimmer is a leading science writer whose work regularly appears in The New York Times, National Geographic, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. He is the author of thirteen books, including a university-level textbook on evolutionary biology. He has been awarded prizes and fellowships by the National Academy of Science, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Guggenheim Foundation, among others. He teaches as an adjunct professor at Yale University. Home page Matter column in The New York Times Yale home page Wikipedia page Amazon author page Talk on Science, Journalism, and Democracy Twitter Download Episode

Episoder(423)

45 | Leonard Susskind on Quantum Information, Quantum Gravity, and Holography

45 | Leonard Susskind on Quantum Information, Quantum Gravity, and Holography

For decades now physicists have been struggling to reconcile two great ideas from a century ago: general relativity and quantum mechanics. We don't yet know the final answer, but the journey has taken...

6 Mai 20191h 13min

44 | Antonio Damasio on Feelings, Thoughts, and the Evolution of Humanity

44 | Antonio Damasio on Feelings, Thoughts, and the Evolution of Humanity

When we talk about the mind, we are constantly talking about consciousness and cognition. Antonio Damasio wants us to talk about our feelings. But it's not in an effort to be more touchy-feely; Damasi...

29 Apr 20191h 12min

43 | Matthew Luczy on the Pleasures of Wine

43 | Matthew Luczy on the Pleasures of Wine

Some people never drink wine; for others, it's an indispensable part of an enjoyable meal. Whatever your personal feelings might be, wine seems to exhibit a degree of complexity and nuance that can be...

22 Apr 20191h 46min

42 | Natalya Bailey on Navigating Earth Orbit and Beyond

42 | Natalya Bailey on Navigating Earth Orbit and Beyond

The space age officially began in 1957 with the launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite. But recent years have seen the beginning of a boom in the number of objects orbiting Earth, as satellite tracking and...

15 Apr 201959min

41 | Steven Strogatz on Synchronization, Networks, and the Emergence of Complex Behavior

41 | Steven Strogatz on Synchronization, Networks, and the Emergence of Complex Behavior

One of the most important insights in the history of science is the fact that complex behavior can arise from the undirected movements of small, simple systems. Despite the fact that we know this, we'...

8 Apr 20191h 14min

40 | Adrienne Mayor on Gods and Robots in Ancient Mythology

40 | Adrienne Mayor on Gods and Robots in Ancient Mythology

The modern world is full of technology, and also with anxiety about technology. We worry about robot uprisings and artificial intelligence taking over, and we contemplate what it would mean for a comp...

1 Apr 20191h 3min

39 | Malcolm MacIver on Sensing, Consciousness, and Imagination

39 | Malcolm MacIver on Sensing, Consciousness, and Imagination

Consciousness has many aspects, from experience to wakefulness to self-awareness. One aspect is imagination: our minds can conjure up multiple hypothetical futures to help us decide which choices we s...

25 Mar 20191h 19min

38 | Alan Lightman on Transcendence, Science, and a Naturalist's Sense of Meaning

38 | Alan Lightman on Transcendence, Science, and a Naturalist's Sense of Meaning

Let's say, for sake of argument, that you don't believe in God or the supernatural. Is there still a place for talking about transcendence, the sacred, and meaning in life? Some of the above, but not ...

18 Mar 20191h 16min

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