Designer Babies, Reviving the Neanderthals and Funding Fundamental Science

Prosanta Chakrabarty is a systematist and an ichthyologist studying the evolution and biogeography of both freshwater and marine fishes. His work includes studies of Neotropical (Central and South America, Caribbean) and Indo-West Pacific (Indian and Western Pacific Ocean) fishes. Prosanta is an Associate Professor and Curator of Fishes at the Museum of Natural Science and Department of Biological Science at Louisiana State University and is also a Research Associate at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. He has gone on research trips to Japan, Australia, Taiwan, Madagascar, Panama, Kuwait, and many other countries and discovered over a dozen new species including new anglerfishes and cavefishes in the process. His latest books include A Guide to Academia: Getting into and surviving grad school, postdocs and a research job and Making a Big Splash with Louisiana Fishes. He is also a former Program Director at the National Science Foundation and was named a TED Fellow in 2016, and a TED Senior Fellow in 2018.

Listen and Learn:

How the attitude towards science and scientific research has changed in DC since Trump
What happens when science discover completely new species
Why Prosanta is optimistic about the direction the world is headed
What happens if and when we revive the Neanderthals
How a fisherman found humanity’s closing living fish relative thought extinction 65 million years ago
Why biology is shifting away from the organismal view and towards biotech
The reason Prosanta is pretty terrified about CRISPR
How soon until we start to see newly engineered species of human
The problems with containing CRISPR and gene editing
Ways to redesign education for a more well-rounded individual
What we can learn from fundamental scientific research why it needs more money
When should we consider genetically editing humans and why it’s probably inevitable
Why evolution might be more complex than we think