New Scientist - USA (2019-11-30)

32 | New Scientist | 30 November 2019

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MATURE and intelligent, Human

Nature shows us how gene editing

works, explores its implications

and – in a field awash with alarmist

rhetoric and cheap dystopianism –

explains which concerns are

worth losing sleep over.

This gripping documentary

covers a lot of ground, but also

works as a primer on CRISPR,

the spectacular technology that

enables us to cut and paste genetic

information with something like

the ease with which we manipulate

text on a computer. Human

Nature introduces us to key start-

ups and projects that promise to

predict, correct and maybe

enhance the genetic destinies

of individuals. It explores the

fears this inspires, and asks

whether they are reasonable.

Its conclusions are cautious,

well-argued and largely optimistic.

Writers Regina Sobel and Adam

Bolt (who also directs) manage to

tell this story through interviews.

Key players in the field, put at their

ease during hours of film-making,

speak cogently to camera. There is

no narration.

Ned Piyadarakorn’s graphics are

ravishing and yet absurdly simple

to grasp. They need to be, because

this is an account hardly less

complex than those in the best

popular science books. As the film

progressed, I began to suspect that

the film-makers assume we aren’t

idiots. This is so rare an experience

that it took a while to sink in.

There are certain problems the

film can’t get round, though. There

are too many people in white coats

moving specks from one Petri

dish to another. It couldn’t be

otherwise, given the technology

involves coats, specks, Petri dishes

and little else by way of props the

general viewer can understand.

That this is a source of cool

amusement rather than irritation

is largely due to the charisma of

the film’s cast of researchers,

ethicists, entrepreneurs,

diagnosticians, their clients

The other cutting room How much do you really know about the revolutionary

gene-editing technology called CRISPR? A sharp independent film will have you up

to speed in no time at all, says Simon Ings

“ A mutation in a gene

called ADRB1 allows

us to get by on 4 hours’

sleep. I would leap at

such a therapy”

Film

Human Nature

Directed by Adam Bolt

UK cinemas, 6 December

Simon also

recommends...

Films

Gattaca

Directed by Andrew Niccol

The most intelligent sci-fi

movie ever made about

genetic engineering – and a

cracking whodunnit to boot.

The Fly

Directed by

David Cronenberg

A daft tale of scientific

hubris or one of the most

heart-rending love stories

ever committed to celluloid?

You decide.

and people with conditions that

could be helped by the technique,

such as schoolboy David Sanchez,

who has sickle-cell anaemia. We

learn that researchers are running

clinical trials using CRISPR to test

a therapy for his condition.

Foundational researchers like

Jennifer Doudna and Jill Banfield,

Emmanuelle Charpentier and

Fyodor Urnov provide star quality.

Provocateurs like Stephen Hsu,

a cheerful promoter of designer

babies, and the longevity guru

George Church are given room to

explain why they aren’t nearly as

wrong as some people assume.

Then the bioethicist Alta Charo

makes the obvious but frequently

ignored point that the Brave New

World nightmare CRISPR is said

to usher in is a very old and well-

worn future indeed. Sterilisations,

genocide and mass enslavement

have been around a lot longer than

CRISPR, she says, and if the new

tech is politically abused, we will

only have our ourselves to blame.

There is, of course, the

possibility that CRISPR will let

loose some irresistibly bad ideas.

Consider the mutation in a gene

called ADRB1, which allows us

to get by on just 4 hours’ sleep a

night. I would leap at the chance of

a therapy that freed up my nights –

but I wonder what would happen

if everyone else followed suit.

Would we all live richer, more

fulfilled lives? Or would I need

a letter from my doctor when I

applied for a 16-hour factory shift?

The point, as Human Nature

makes all too clear, is that the

questions we should be asking

about gene editing are only

superficially about the technology.

At heart, they are questions about

ourselves and our values. ❚

David Sanchez eyes a

CRISPR future for his

sickle-cell anaemia

The film column

Simon Ings is a novelist and

science writer and a culture

editor at New Scientist.

Follow him on Instagram

@simon_ings