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Hey, Wowzer fans, Mindy here.
And before we start the show, I got to let you know that this November, with a special new episode featuring our friends at Circle Round and Terrestrials on Radiolab for Kids,
And don't miss when Elmo from Sesame Street stops by Wow in the World to make us all belly laugh on November 24th.
Oh, but that's not all, Reg.
On December 1st, we are sharing our 250th episode of Wow in the World with all of you.
We think this one is going to be music to your ears.
Literally.
Did I mention it's a musical?
And if you're a member of the World Organization of Wowzers...
Oh boy, do I have a surprise for you.
You can listen to our 250th episode early with me and other members from around the world on Saturday, November 22nd, at 7 pm.
Eastern.
That's right, we are throwing another listening party.
Join us as we dance along to our new songs.
React to the episode with other members in the chat and more.
Grownups.
If you want your wowzer to join this members-only listening party, you can sign up to become a member today at Tinkercastcom.
Slash wow.
Already a member?
Well, you can find the link and password to join the event when you sign in at Tinkercastcom.
Slash wow.
That's it.
It's going to be a November to remember.
But for now, let's get on with the show.
Woo!
Okay, Reggie.
Wrench me.
I'm going to need the hammer, table gun, and some hot glue.
Ouch!
Good morning, Guy Raz.
Mindy, I came over as soon as I heard about your new invention.
I'm so excited to see it.
Thanks for your enthusiasm, Guy Raz.
Put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into this baby, but it's going to be worth it.
I know I talk about it a lot, but I really think gene editing technology is one of the most exciting and fascinating things happening in science right now.
Well, I hope you brought your brain pump, Guy Raz, because this invention is going to blow your mind.
Now sit back and relax as I present to you the latest and greatest in gene editing technology.
Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to the Party Pants Pocket Pizzazzer!
Huh?
Wait, what is that, Mindy?
It looks like a cross between a stapler and a sewing machine.
Let me ask you a question, Guy Raz.
How many times have you looked at yourself in the mirror and thought hmm, if only there was a way for me to?
Bicep, these old wool trousers.
Like maybe you wanted to attach some little bells to the bottoms but couldn't find the time.
Well, I don't.
Well, those problems are a thing of the past with the Party Pants Pocket Pizzazzer.
Just going to rev this baby up.
Mindy, when you invited me over to share your latest invention in gene editing technology, I thought you were talking about genes, not jeans.
Oh.
Clearly we're not on the same page here.
Yeah, you're talking about genes in our bodies, and I'm talking about the genes that you wear on your body.
Well, this is embarrassing.
Yes, genes as in genomes, as in the DNA, as in the code of life, as in the stuff that makes you you and me, me.
I know what genes as in genomes are, Guy Raz.
They're like the instruction manuals for our bodies.
Genes decide what our eyes are, how tall we are.
Or whether or not we have to wear glasses, like you.
Exactly.
Your genes decide whether you have allergies or red hair or, in some cases, if you're born with a certain type of condition called a genetic disorder.
So like when a person has something like celiac disease, for example, and their bodies don't like gluten, and then they get really sick if they eat it.
That kind of thing?
Yep.
And every time I hear people talk about the genes in your body, they always seem to talk about genes.
DNA as well.
Exactly.
So if genes are kind of like the instruction manual for the body, then DNA are the letters and words on the page of that instruction manual.
And if I remember correctly, Guy Raz, the letters that make up the DNA code are A G, C and T right.
Well, that's right.
Every single species on Earth is made up of these four letters A G, C and T And each letter represents a different chemical.
That is a little like a building block that makes us
Well, us.
So kind of like if we humans were buildings, then each letter would be a different brick.
And Mindy, if you printed out every single letter that makes up one human being's genetic code, it would be 32 billion letters of DNA.
Wait a minute.
3.2 billion letters?
Skyra, that's like 800 dictionaries worth of letters.
Yes, and those 800 dictionaries, well, together...
It's like the recipe book for one human being.
And Mindy, the cool thing is that, depending on the order you put those four letters in well, that determines so much about our physical characteristics.
OK, I think I got it.
So let's say, for example, I was born with a unicorn horn.
That might mean that my DNA letters were all scrambled up, right?
Well, yeah, even though that would be very, very rare and possibly unlikely.
So then why were you so excited when you heard that I was inventing a gene editing machine?
Well, because it would mean that we could reorder or change or edit those DNA letters and possibly help to heal people who are sick.
So it's kind of like editing a book or a newspaper or even an email to your grandma on the computer.
You could just swap out an A and a C and replace it with a T.
Or if there was DNA code that actually makes you sick?
Well, in theory, with a gene editing machine, we could just Edit those out or cut out those pesky DNA letters that are causing trouble in our bodies.
Well, I guess that means it's adios to the party pants pocket pizzazzer.
No, don't.
Don't throw it away, Mindy.
I mean, you could still use it on, you know, on the jeans you're wearing.
Yeah, that's a good point.
I guess I could just edit my Levi's into me-vi's.
Me-vi's?
Yeah.
Mevi... Mevi... Oh, now I get it.
Levi's into Mevi's.
Mindy, where'd you go?
Hang on a second, Guy Raz.
I just had to grab a book from my library.
Wait.
Okay, I'm back.
All right, let's see here.
I got my trusty genetic dictionary.
Now, let's see.
Chromosomes.
No.
Codominance.
No, copy number variation.
Nope, that's not.
Oh, here it is.
CRISPR.
Look, Mindy, we've had fried chicken for lunch every day and I'm getting sick.
I'm not talking about crispy fried chicken, Guy Raz.
I'm talking about gene editing.
Oh, of course.
Right.
CRISPR.
You're talking about the groundbreaking CRISPR.
When you were talking about gene editing, I remembered that I read something about this new way to heal humans who are sick, and it's with this technology called
Also known as Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, or CRISPR.
And this amazing scientific technology was developed by biologists working for Professor Jennifer Doudna at UC Berkeley in California.
And biologists are scientists who study life.
Life, like humans and animals and plants, and even microscopic or teeny tiny organisms like the bacteria on your hand.
I have bacteria on my hands?
I just washed them like two weeks ago.
Why do I have hand bacteria?
Well, we all do.
Lots and lots of it.
I gotta go wash them again.
Be right back.
Okay, I'm back.
Where were we?
We were talking about CRISPR technology.
Oh, yeah.
The easiest way to explain it is that CRISPR makes it easy to move genes around in any living thing.
So living things like bacteria and, of course, humans.
And with CRISPR technology you could go into the human body, find the chain of letters that causes a disease or a genetic disorder, and then just Cut out those letters or replace them with the right letters.
Well, it hasn't been done in an actual living, breathing human just yet.
But scientists have successfully used this technology in human embryos in a laboratory.
So they know that it could eventually work in us.
Wow, a human embryo.
That's the stage when we grow inside our mom's bellies before we are born.
Yep.
And there's a lot of excitement around the possibility of being able to change some genes inside the human embryo.
Genes that if they weren't changed could cause the embryo to become a human with a disease.
Wow, what kinds of diseases or genetic disorders?
Well, for starters, things like cystic fibrosis or muscular dystrophy or Huntington's disease.
That's amazing, Mindy.
I know that kids and grown-ups with cystic fibrosis have a really hard time breathing and they can get sick a lot.
Yep, and muscular dystrophy is also a condition that some people are born with.
And over time, their muscles break down, which means they have a difficult time walking.
So in theory, if CRISPR technology works, scientists could fix these genetic disorders even before the baby was born, while it was still growing inside her mommy's belly.
Guy Raz, scientists have already shown that it can be done in the lab, working on human cells.
So it's just a matter of time before this technology is built, going to be used on real live human beings.
Yeah, and in fact, there are already some clinical trials happening right now.
And clinical trials are when doctors ask people who are sick to volunteer to take certain medicine or try out a new medical operation.
You got it.
Well, that all sounds really cool, but you know what I'm super excited about?
Oh no, Guy Raz, please don't tell me you're genetically engineering Slurpees to taste like kale salad.
What?
No, no, Mindy, I'm talking about...
Bringing the past right here to the present.
Wait a minute.
Say that again?
Bringing the past right here to the present.
You mean yesterday to today?
Well, sort of, yeah.
What does that have to do with gene editing?
Well, actually, Mindy, I'll show you.
Here.
Did that just fall through my gingerbread ceiling?
Hop into the time machine.
Well, okay, but I'm driving this time.
Wait.
Saddle up and hold on to your hot tamales, Guy Raz.
Wait, no.
No, Mindy, you drive.
Mindy?
Well, I'm glad I glued all my old stuffed animals to the walls of this thing.
Really made for a softer landing.
Oh, yeah.
I thought they were for insulation.
Oh, well.
Hey, let's open this hatch up.
Let's do it.
Whoa!
Guys, Roz!
Are we back in the Pleistocene era?
Because it's freezing!
I know.
We're just here for a brief moment because I want you to see those over there.
Holy mammoths!
Oh, they're so cute!
Mindy, where...
What do those mammoths remind you of?
Uh, Snuffleupagus?
No, no, no, I mean a real animal.
Oh, oh yeah, well, I guess an elephant.
Exactly right.
Elephants are distant relatives of the woolly mammoth.
Kind of like how we humans are distant cousins of chimpanzees.
Yes, exactly.
Okay, so why are we looking at woolly mammoths again?
Because, believe it or not Mindy, There are scientists who believe that we could take some of the DNA from these woolly mammoths and combine it with DNA from modern elephants and possibly bring these gentle giants back to life.
Gentle?
Guy Raz, isn't that a stampede of woolly mammoths heading our way right now?
We better get out of here, Mindy.
Run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run.
Okay, up inside, Guy Raz. in the coordinates.
Hurry up, Mindy.
They're getting closer.
I'm going as fast as I can.
Quick.
I don't think our time machine is going to survive this mammoth stampede.
Almost there.
Hurry.
Here we go.
Whew.
I must admit, Mindy, those stuffed animals really do make the landing a lot more comfortable.
See?
Told you we needed them all.
Fair point.
So you started to tell me about these scientists who want to bring back the woolly mammoth using gene editing technology.
Yes, it's amazing.
There are scientists at Harvard University in Cambridge Massachusetts, who say that we might be able to crack this nut within two years.
Two years?
Wooly mammoths in two years?
Well, maybe not real live woolly mammoths, but we might be on the path to truly discovering how we could do this.
So how will they do this?
Well, the cool thing about DNA is that it stays around even after humans and animals die.
In fact, it can stay around for thousands of years in our bones.
So we can actually get woolly mammoth DNA even though they're extinct?
Yep.
That's.
And even more amazing Mindy, is that scientists believe that by using gene editing technology, they could in theory cut out the letters of an elephant's DNA code and then replace those letters with DNA from a big hairy, woolly mammoth.
That's amazing.
Amazing.
But let me just get one thing straight.
So if that happened, it wouldn't become a real woolly mammoth because it would be part elephant.
So it might be more like a woolly elephant?
Actually, that's right.
It's sort of like when you cross two different types of dogs.
The baby dog that's born looks a little like both.
So how could these mammophants help us?
Well, the researchers at Harvard have suggested that these woolly heroes could help us fight climate change.
You know the temperature of the Earth getting hotter by reducing the amount of permafrost melting in frozen areas of Earth.
Oh yeah, permafrost.
So permafrost is that land up around the Arctic Circle, closer to the North Pole that's, And when it melts it releases huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, right?
That's right.
And these big woolly mammoths could, in theory, help slow down the permafrost melting by using their huge legs to push down on the snow and compact it and keep it frozen.
That's so cool!
And even cooler than that, Mindy is researchers at Imperial College in London because they've experimented with gene editing technology that could make mosquitoes that don't have a virus called malaria.
Wait a minute.
Isn't malaria like a super dangerous virus that can make us really sick?
Yes, yes.
And while it can be cured, it can... can still make you really sick.
And it's usually only found in mosquitoes in very, very warm places.
So countries that are around the equator or the center of our planet.
And just to be clear, you can protect yourself by being really, really careful to use a lot of mosquito repellent right.
That's right.
But the best part of this new mosquito gene editing is that the mosquitoes that were born with the ability to fight off or resist the malaria virus also passed along that genetic trait or characteristic to their babies.
So you're saying that the mosquitoes' babies were also malaria resistant, even though they never had their genomes edited?
Yes, exactly.
Hey, Roz, do you know what this means?
What?
We could see the end of malaria, one of the deadliest diseases on our planet, and it could happen within our lifetime.
Indeed we could.
Well, I know my original gene editing machine was a little bit different, but I could still edit your woolly trousers together with these skinny hipster jeans I just picked up at the store.
Uh, no thanks, Mindy.
I think I'll stick with my wool trousers.
But I could edit on some bell.
And some sequins.
I'm not sure.
Some rhinestones, some glitter, some patches, beads, pearls.
And then some flowers.
Wow in the World will be right back.
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It's Mindy and Guy Raz here from Wow in the World.
Mindy and I have some problems. from our 100 experiments that wow kit to the telescope and astronomy kit Our Wow in the World toys help your wowzer learn about their world through play.
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Hello, my name is Avi and I'm 10 years old.
I come from Anaheim, California.
My Wow in the World is that more people are killed by vending machines than sharks each year.
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My wow in my world is that I am starting a podcast just like you guys.
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I live in Terry, Montana.
My wow in the world is Pandas.
It's very interesting how they can bite through bamboo.
If we tried to eat bamboo, we would break our teeth off because it is hard as wood.
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I'm seven years old.
I live in Rockville, Maryland.
My moment in the world is that anglerfish use their bioluminescence to attract their prey.
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I'm from Virginia.
I'm a teacher.
My wow in the world is how we can change the length of a vibrating string to make beautiful notes on guitars and violins and other stringed instruments.
That's my wow in the world.
I may be too old for this, but thanks anyway.
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