Linking Thinking

A DNA Driven World

Geneti­cist Craig Ven­ter: the future of life depends not only in our abil­ity to under­stand and use DNA, but also, per­haps in cre­at­ing new syn­thetic life forms, that is, life which is forged not by Dar­win­ian evo­lu­tion but cre­ated by human intel­li­gence. Whether or not designer microbes that replace coal and oil are part of the solu­tion, such dis­rup­tive ideas and tech­nolo­gies that let us adapt to and mit­i­gate cli­mate change are. We need a sci­en­tif­i­cally lit­er­ate soci­ety will­ing to embrace change. But here’s the prob­lem: Sci­ence is a topic which can cause peo­ple to turn off their brains. I con­tend that sci­ence has failed to excite more peo­ple for at least two rea­sons: it is fre­quently taught poorly, often as rote mem­o­riza­tion of com­plex facts and data, and it is anti­thet­i­cal to our visceral-driven way we live and inter­act with our world. Our planet is fac­ing almost insur­mount­able prob­lems, prob­lems that gov­ern­ments on their own clearly can’t fix.

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