MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 2019 The Boston Globe Metro B
research],that’s cool,” Church
said.“Or if it’s a politicianor a
movie star, [scientists] would
be flatteredif they tooktime
out of their ownactivities to
learn something about quasars
or recombinant DNA.”
As for whetherEpstein’s
2008 conviction gave Church (a
father and grandfather)pause,
he said, “I did reada coupleof
news articles”a decadeago, he
said, “but they weren’t clear
enough for me to knowthere
was a serious problem.
“Butthat is still no excuse
for me not beingabreast of the
news.”
Churchsaid he is usedto fi-
nanciers,technologists, and ce-
lebrities seekinghim out, and
has become a quasi-celebrity
himself. But Churchalso has
unquestionedscientificgravi-
tas, having helpeddevelopge-
nomesequencing as well as
CRISPRgenomeediting, and
founded or advised dozens of
biotech companies.
Now, Churchis the only sci-
ence luminary to publiclyapol-
ogizefor interactionswithEp-
stein.
Many influential scientists
met Epstein throughNew York
literary agent John Brockman,
who,starting in 1999,hosted
an annual “billionairesdinner”
wheresomeof his authors min-
gled withmoguls. Epstein at-
tendedseveral of the dinners
from 2000 to 2011,and Brock-
mandescribed him on his on-
line salonEdge.orgas a “sci-
ence philanthropist.”
Church,whose 2012 book
“Regenesis”was shepherdedby
Brockman, said he met Epstein
in 2006, either through Brock-
man or throughthe then-chair-
man of the Harvard psychology
department, StephenKosslyn,
a member of Edge.org.
He confirmed NBC’s recent
report that he had six phone
calls and meetings with Epstein
in 2014, as shown in Church’s
uCHURCH
ContinuedfromPageB
online calendar (he has posted
one every yearsince 1999).
Sample entry: “Jun 21, 2014
Lunch w/ Jeffrey Epstein,
12-1:30, Martin Nowak’s Insti-
tute.” (Nowak, a Harvard biolo-
gist/mathematician,is also a
Brockman client and Edge par-ticipant. He also met withEp-
stein “several times”eachyear
since,Churchsaid.(Brockman
andNowakcould notbe
reached for comment over the
weekend.)
Asked what interested Ep-
stein about Church’s work,
Church paused before saying,
“I don’t think he picked me. So
in that sense he may not have
beenthat interested.”
Instead, many of his meet-
ingswithEpstein werewith
Nowak, to whose then-fledgling
Program for Evolutionary Dy-
namics Epsteincontributed
$6.5 millionin 2003,five years
before his guilty plea.Church
and Nowakhave worked to-
gether on, among other things,
the evolution of CRISPR-based
gene drives. At the get-togeth-
ers with Nowak,Church said,
Epstein seemed interested in
the scienceof life’s origins and
mathematically modeling the
evolutionof viruses,cancer
cells, and life itself.
Church knew nothing about
Epstein’s interest in eugenics in
the early 2000 s, he said. Ac-
cordingto The New York
Times,Epstein hoped that mul-
tiple women would be insemi-
nated with his sperm. Church
has doneboundary-pushingre-
search on “recodinglife” (to,among other things, make cells
resistant to viruses)and argued
that making heritable changes
in the genomes of embryos
should not be off the table,
which might have madehim a
soundingboardfor eugenic
fantasies.But “I never heard anything
about it,” Church said.“I’d have
thoughtthat I would have been
involved in that kind of conver-
sation, but it didn’t tendto go
in that direction. But also,I
think people tend to behave
themselves around me.”
A longtime associate of
Churchseemed surprised that
he became involved withEp-
stein, sinceChurch has priori-
tized ethics. (The associate de-
clinedto be named in a story
aboutEpstein.) Churchinvited
a philosopher to work in his lab
to flag bioethics issues in exper-
iments,andfor yearshas
taught a research ethics course,
whichis unusual for someone
of his prominence.
Universitiesare supposedto
vet potential donors who ask to
meet withfaculty members.
But Epsteindid not offer to
fund Church’s research, so Har-
vard did not get involved. “In-
stead, a lot of [Epstein’s interac-
tions] withme happened
through Martin [Nowak]’s in-
stitute,and the university was
well aware of that connection”
becauseof Epstein’s $6.5 mil-
lion donation, Church said.
“My understandingis this
[vetting] is the responsibility of
the development office, which
is yet another reasonwhy scien-tists are a little bit more re-
laxed.They feel they have ad-
ministrators, who in theory do
the difficult job of figuringout
who’s legit, who’s actually going
to writea check, if you’re going
to spendhours talking to some-
body.”
But that happensonly if the
request “is anything financial
or contractual,” Churchsaid,
not if it’s lunchor a phonecall.
That was up to Church.
Scientists, “myself included,
are not very good” at screening
out people, he said.“I think
many of themalso feel an ex-
ceptionalism,” meaningthey
should be allowedto associate
with anyoneif it is for a greater
good. He recalledhowin the
1990s, renowned molecular bi-
ologist and Nobel laureate Syd-
ney Brenner, who died in April
at age 92, defended the $
millionhe acceptedfromciga-
rette giant Philip Morris for a
biology institute in California
that he had founded, arguing
that basic science was a better
causethanotheruses the com-
pany mighthave for its mil-
lions.
Did Churchbelieve Epstein
had “paidhis debt to society” in
2008 and deserved another
chance? “As far as I knowpeo-
ple just didn’t have that conver-
sation,” Churchsaid.“Butit
should have.’’
Scientists’ feelingthat they
cannot be morally tainted by
theirassociations “may not be
rational, or helpful, or correct,”
Church allowed. Still, he added,
“I wouldlike to thinkthat peo-
ple’s reputation is multidimen-
sional and multiyear— that it
takes a long time to build up
but also to tear down.” He was
speaking both generally and
abouthimself.Sharon Begleycan be reached
at
[email protected].
Followheron Twitter @sxbegle.
FollowStaton Twitter:
@statnews.Harvard biologist regrets Epstein ties
OUTREACHFROMJEFFREYEPSTEINGeorge Church saidheisused to financiers andcelebrities seeking him out,and has become a quasi-celebrity himself.own backyardherein Boston:
Families, children see that it is
not safe to be Latino,” he said in
a phone interview Sunday.
Amid renewedcalls for
toughergun controllaws, local
advocates criticizedPresident
Trumpfor failing to bring the
nation together and instead us-
ing racist rhetoric they said
could foster the violence target-
ing immigrants and people of
colorthat has happenedsince
he took office.
“The inflammatory rhetoric
that has beenused by the presi-
dent has really fueledthe hate
for immigrants and refugees,”
said Eva Millona,executivedi-
rector of the Massachusetts Im-
migrant and Refugee Advocacy
Coalition,in a phoneinterview.
“And it remainsa concern,
because inflammatory remarks
[that] portray immigrants as a
problem,or separate them,or
just talk aboutthemas a sepa-
rate interest group who have
nothing to do withthe nation,
is extremelydangerous,” she
said.
SinceTrumptook office, in-
cidentsofhateandracialvio-
lencehave devastated commu-
nitiesacross the country, in-
cluding Charlottesville, Va.,
where a youngwomanwas
killedduringa whitesuprema-
cist rally in 2017;Pittsburgh,
where11 people weregunned
down at the Tree of Life syna-
gogue last year, and Gilroy, Ca-
lif., wherethreepeople were fa-
tally shot duringa festival just
last week.
The shooter, identified by
police as Santino William
Legan, 19, posted content from
a book often cited by neo-Nazis
and whitesupremacists, ac-
cording to investigators. Legan
killed himself after he was shot
several timesby policeon July
28, according to officials.
On Saturday morningin El
Paso, a gunmanopenedfire in
a shoppingarea,killing 20 peo-
ple.
Police said the accused
shooter, Patrick Crusius, 21,
whowas taken into custody,
had posted pro-Trumpmessag-
es to socialmedia and wrotea
documentpublishedonline
just minutes before the shoot-
uREACTION
ContinuedfromPageB
ing that described a “Hispanic
invasionof Texas”and said
whites were being replacedby
people fromothercountries.
The shootingis beinginvesti-
gated as a case of domestic ter-
rorism.
Just hours after the El Paso
shooting, police said that Con-
nor Betts, 24, killed nine people
in DaytonearlySunday morn-
ing before officersshotand
killedhim.
On Sunday, many locallead-
ers slammed Trumpfor com-
ments he has madeaboutim-
migrants and people of color
that they said may encourage
such acts.
US Representative Stephen
Lynch, speaking to reporters in
SouthBoston Sunday, criticized
Trumpfor a “general pattern of
demonization” of immigrants,
includereferencesto thembe-
ing all rapists and murderers.
“They are not,” said Lynch,
who last weektouredEl Paso as
part of a congressional delega-
tion and visitedimmigration
facilities along the border.“That type of rhetoric ...
probablydoes feed a certain at-
titude out there,” Lynch said.
“We don’t needthat now. We
need to cometogether and find
a solution here.”
Robert Trestan, the Anti-
DefamationLeagueof New
England’s executivedirector,
said people are increasinglyus-
ing weapons and violenceto
make political statements.
“The combinationof lan-
guage that targets people and
dehumanizesthemalongwith
readilyaccessiblefirearmsis
dangerous,” Trestan said in a
phone interview. “It’s a remind-
er whengroups of peopleare
targeted by words, those words
are sometimes a call to action
to peoplewho wantto commit
violence.”
The Rev. Laura Everett, the
executivedirector of the Massa-
chusetts Council of Churches,
said:“We are at a critical mo-
mentin the life of this country,
wherethe anti-immigrant, an-
ti-black words of our president
are giving permission to vio-lence: Words have power, and
violent words lead to violence.”
Espinoza-Madrigal,with
Lawyers for Civil Rights, said
that sincethe deadlywhitesu-
premacist rally in Charlottes-
ville, Va., racists have beenem-
boldened to attack synagogues,
black churches, and mosques.
“This is linked by the racist,
anti-immigrant, and xenopho-
bic rhetoric coming from the
White House,” he said. “It is es-
sentially sending the message
that whitesupremacists can
take action without repercus-
sion,and that is reprehensible.”
Before the Sunday morning
Mass at at Most Holy Redeem-
er, parishionersstood for the
US national anthem,followed
by the anthemfor El Salvador.
After the Mass, they celebrated
that country’s patron saint, Di-
vino Salvador del Mundo,dur-
ing a festival.
The predominantlyLatino
church has deep roots in El Sal-
vador, Colombia, the Domini-
can Republic, Puerto Rico, and
Mexico.Santos, deliveringhishomilyin Spanish,asked for
prayers for peace,love,and for
God.
Amongthe worshipers was
Ivelisse Aguilar, who was with
her 17-year-oldson and held a
her rosary in her hand.
FollowingMass, she said she
wished more people wouldn’t
judge othersbasedon their
race.
“It’ssadthathedidn’tgeta
chance to know more,” Aguilar,
46, said of the El Paso shooter.“It’s sad, he didn’t get to know
where we come from. ... You
have to listen, to be able to have
an open ear, to be able to have
an openmind.”
Another worshiper, Lizbeth
Salazar, who was withher boy-
friend, Josue Ramos, said she
grieved for the innocent lives
lost.
She comparedthe shootings
to the 2013Boston Marathon
bombings, when people
thoughtaboutthe possibility of
being killed as they wentabout
theirdailylives.
“It actuallytearedme up,”
Salazar said, “how people can
do so muchdamage.”
Jonathan Parra, 34, who
was crossingthe street from
Lombardi Memorial Park in
East Boston Sunday afternoon,
said he has beenpayingmore
attention to politics in anticipa-
tion of the 2020 election.
Next year’s election will be
the first timeParra, whowas
bornin Colombia,will be able
to cast a vote sincebecoming a
US citizen, he said.
He saidhe thinks guns
should mainly be in the hands
of trainedpolice officers.
“I’m afraid to go to the mov-
ie theater just because someone
might stand up and start shoot-
ing,” he said.MaterialfromtheAssociated
Press wasusedin this report.
Globe correspondentDiamond
Naga Siucontributedto this
report.GalTziperman Lotan
canbe reachedat
[email protected]
heron Twitter @tzigal.John
Hilliard canbe reached at
[email protected].In aftermath of mass shootings, fear hits home
PATGREENHOUSE/GLOBESTAFF
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The BostonGlobeMovie Directoryis apaid
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discretionof eachcinema.Townsmay
appearout of alphabeticalorder so that
listingswill remainunbroken from column
to columnBargainshowtimesareshown in
()parentheses
G Restrictionsapply/No Passes
5 Handicappedaccessible
8 StadiumSeating
6 HearingImpairedIRear WindowCaptioning
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DIG DigitalSound
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K DescriptiveVideoServiceADAudioDescription