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

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

Soil Bacteria May Provide Clues to Curbing Antibiotic Resistance

Soil Bacteria May Provide Clues to Curbing Antibiotic Resistance

Newswise — Drug-resistant bacteria annually sicken 2 million Americans and kill at least 23,000. A driving force behind this growing public health threat is the ability of bacteria to share genes that provide antibiotic resistance.

Bacteria that naturally live in the soil have a vast collection of genes to fight off antibiotics, but they are much less likely to share these genes, a new study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has revealed. The findings suggest that most genes from soil bacteria are not poised to contribute to antibiotic resistance in infectious bacteria.