Name: Gene editing: should you be worried? | The Economist
Uploaded: 2022-03-20T12:20:12.000Z
Duration: 24 min 35 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

The gene-editing revolution has arrived...

...we've made more progress than in the previous 50

And new approaches to fighting climate change

We have the opportunity to fundamentally...

But new genetic technologies bring with them...

Some of it could be terrifyingly threatening like biowarfare

What is our responsibility as scientists and doctors?

That's really starting to bring out ideas around...

So, how should the promise of genetic technologies...

...be balanced against the potential dangers?

And who decides what risks are worth taking?

...to save the world's most popular banana from extinction

I reckon these Williams are the ones that were most spectacular...

There are thousands of types of banana in the world...

...but all the fruit being grown and processed here...

...and almost every banana exported around the world...

It's got quite a tough skin so it travels well...

...but also it's got a really acceptable taste and texture

The problem is, the Cavendish is under threat...

...a disease known as Tropical Race 4 or TR4...

...has spread across the world, killing Cavendish bananas

TR4, one of the deadliest plant diseases out there

You start to get that sort of motley colouration there...

And what we're looking for is the brown...

And then you see, bingo, that was one that had the yellow leaves...

It's feared that in time, it could wipe out the Cavendish completely...

...or stop it being such an economically valuable crop

...for Cavendish bananas for the export market

He has spent ten years engineering a genetically modified banana...

Because James's bananas are genetically modified...

...lots of consumers won't go anywhere near them

GM still has a lot of perceived negativity in the world

Europe, for instance, is one of those areas that they import...

...huge amounts of bananas but getting a GM crop...

...through the regulatory process in Europe is virtually impossible

...could block the development of beneficial new crops

I think it's a real problem, we're moving into a period of real flux...

...a real unknown period with climate change and we're going to need...

...to develop crops that have very high tolerance to drought

I'm not sure that we have all of the tools at our fingertips...

...without the use of GM and gene editing

So, I think there is a real ethical dilemma in the world now...

...of rejecting technologies that may become incredibly important...

Some believe GM technology can be used to do lots of good

So, is it right to put barriers in the way...

...because others oppose the technology on principle?

In an EU-wide poll, 70% said they felt GM foods were unnatural...

The things that people actually grow in gardens...

...and in fields are really not particularly natural

Many of them have genomes that have been extensively changed...

If you look at what a modern ear of maize looks like...

...compared to its ancestral form, you'll see something very different

Yet there is still a fear that these technologies could go astray...

...and expose people to risks they have not agreed to

This is Islamorada, a tropical paradise...

...that's on the front line of the debate about genetic engineering

Here, genetically modified mosquitoes are being released....

...in the United States for the first time

It's part of an experiment to try to reduce...

But some of the locals have been very vocal about their opposition...

...to this kind of intervention into the natural world

Our economy here is tourist-based and a lot of tourists are laypeople...

...and if they come down here and they hear that we're turning loose...

...some kind of weird critter, I think that there could be...

As a result, the mosquitoes have to be released...

...in top secret locations, away from protesters and vandals

We just add regular tap water, the eggs hatch in about 24 hours

...and you can see these little holes on both sides...

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Gene editing: should you be worried? | The Economist

specific

essentially

potential

incredible