In a world first an AI just made it’s own synthetic human genome
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF What happens when AI can design its own humans? And then breed them ex vivo? The future is weirder than you could ever imagine … Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Have...
Artificial human wombs get closer after Dutch university scoops grant
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In the short term this technology will help save premature babies lives, and in the long term it could hasten the end of mom and dad, and accelerate the development of the first truly synthetic humans. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book,...
DARPA wants to genetically engineer soldiers to protect them from biological and chemical weapons
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As our understanding of how to manipulate the genetic code improves we’re slowing unlocking a whole new world of possible use cases. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. The US Pentagon’s bleeding edge research arm DARPA, whose crazy...
Scientists built an 8 base pair DNA double helix with potential to create new lifeforms
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF DNA is the universes’ most advanced programming language, and we might have just given it a boost of infinite proportions. DNA is wonderful. And powerful. After all, it gave us everything from the dinosaurs and dolphins, to us, and, of course, the world’s first...
Experts believe Chinese scientist who Gene-Hacked twins “likely boosted their brainpower”
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Genetic enhancement has a variety of unknown impacts on human biology and cognition, and we are no where near to understanding them. When now infamous Chinese scientists He Jiankui edited the genes of human twin babies last year, he was reportedly trying to make them immune...
World first as scientists get the “Extinction Gene” to work in mammals
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Gene drives over rule the laws of genetic inheritance, which means you can cure inherited genetic diseases forever, wipe out the entire human population, and everything in between. The phrase Gene Drive often sends a shudder down a scientist’s spine, one of awe and...
Birth of genetically engineered twins resistant to HIV causes global outrage
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Imagine growing old and never experiencing what it’s like to be ill because you were genetically engineered in the womb to be resistant to all known pathogens and viruses, technology is starting to make that a reality. A little while ago I wrote about...
Soldiers digital twins let US Army 3D print replacement body parts in battle
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Thousands of soldiers are injured in battle every year, now the US Army is scanning, digitising and creating digital twins of its soldiers that will let field medics 3D print new body parts in the field that could save their lives. The US military...
UK approves designer babies and the first will be born in 2017
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF By authorising the creation of so called designer babies UK regulators are permitting doctors to use new gene therapy treatments to save, and change, lives, but without proper oversight we could quickly enter the wild west. Last year the UK changed its laws in order...
Scientists lay out plans to build an artificial human genome by 2036
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF When scientists can create artificial genomes they will be able to create new designer organisms, and humans, with entirely new, engineered properties and abilities. Scientists have put forward plans for a follow up to the Human Genome Project (HGP) with a proposal to create...
Worlds first designer baby is born in Mexico and has three parents
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Now that we have access to advanced gene editing techniques, such as CRISPR, it is inevitable that we will progressively use these technologies to edit the human genome and create genetically altered human beings. The world’s first baby to be born from a new...
