Evolving Ourselves | Juan Enriquez & Steve Gullans | Talks at Google
270Juan Enriquez and Steve Guillans stopped by Google's Cambridge, MA office to discuss their book "Evolving Ourselves: How Unnatural Selection and Nonrandom Mutation are Changing Life on Earth".
The book's premise is that new advances in biotechnology help us mitigate the cruel forces of natural selection, from saving prematurely born babies to gene therapies for sickle cell anemia and other conditions. As technology enables us to take control of our genes, we will be able to alter our own species and many others. Future humans could become great caretakers of the planet, as well as a more diverse, more resilient, gentler, and more intelligent species —but only if we make the right choices now.
Juan Enriquez and Steve Gullans are cofounders of Excel Venture Management, which builds startups in synthetic biology, big data, and new genetic technologies. Enriquez is a bestselling author and a global authority on the economic and political impacts of the life sciences. He is a TED “all-star,” lectures around the world, chairs the Genetics Advisory Council at Harvard Medical School, and was the founding director of Harvard Business School’s Life Science Project. Gullans was a professor at Harvard Medical School for eighteen years, applying breakthrough technologies to diseases such as cancer, ALS, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s. He has published more than 130 scientific papers in leading journals. He was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 1998.