NPR's Dr. Moira Gunn Welcomes You to BioTechNation

As host of two popular radio shows on NPR, Tech Nation and BioTech Nation, Dr. Moira Gunn has conducted over 2,000 in-depth interviews with technology luminaries such as Google's Larry Page and politician John McCain. This time the spotlight was on Dr. Gunn as we talked about her new book Welcome to Biotech Nation, a vibrant guide to understanding the rapid ways biotechnology is changing the way we live, for better and for worse. Here's an edited version of our conversation.

What's the historical timeline of biotechnology and where are we right now?

The "Big Bang" happened in the 1950s with Crick and Watson. In the early 90s came the technology that enabled Herbert Boyer at UCSF and Stanley Cohen at Stanford to start pulling out pieces of one gene and putting it onto another. That ability to genetically engineer things was the building tools--the Stone Age. The next really big thing that happened was the Human Genome Project, which was finished in 2003. We've now decoded the genomes of lots of things, cows, cats, dogs, horses, and fruit flies. A lot of people are fishing around and pretty soon it's all going to come together, fast. I would say that we're right now pre-Renaissance.

What's been the most interesting discovery in traveling the country talking about biotech?

Different places are interested in different things. Everybody in the Midwest is very interested in bioethanol and in California, everybody is buying up the bioethanol. Stem cell research is a big controversy in the Midwest but not in California.

What's one of the hottest issues in biotech right now?

Genetically Modified Food. With everything that we have in our food labels, why isn't 'genetically modified' on there? And my book explains why. It all stems back to the first Bush administration and a special economic counsel headed by Vice President Dan Quayle. In 1997, suddenly we have genetically modified food out there. Why? How? Every other ear of corn has been genetically modified. Eighty-five percent of our soybean crop is genetically modified. A lot of it isn't tested and that's where I come down on it.

How much of the produce in our supermarkets have been genetically modified?

There's a European joke: What do you call an American supermarket without genetically modified food? The answer is: empty! Fifty to seventy percent of our produce is genetically modified. If they started labeling it, within 2 months half the fruits and vegetables sections would be organic.

That's the US, what about the rest of the world?

The genetically modified foods in certain parts of the world have really taken off. South Africa with the genetically modified corn (they call it maize), they're finally feeding themselves, the poor people are able to get 3,4, 5 times more produce. So they see it as the real future, they're finally able to feed themselves and produce extra to sell.

But there are 6 African countries that do not permit any genetically modified food. Angola is a great example. The United States sent an entire shipload of relief corn that had been genetically modified and they turned it away. Two million starving Angolans and they said no thank you. And this is the stuff we get in the supermarket. Feelings run high.

How have you personally applied what you've learned about biotech to your own life?

Flying out here I asked for a sparkling water with a twist of lime. And I'm looking at the lime wondering, how far did it take for this little piece of lime to get here. And I stopped asking for ice. How much energy does it take to keep this ice from melting? I'll just have the sparkling water. I better not have any discoveries about sparkling water or else I'll have nothing left to drink on the plane! They're thinking of putting on the label how far the food traveled to get to the supermarket.

In your journey through the rabbit hole of biotechnology, did you see any Frankenstein monsters lurking in the shadows? What is the potential for abuse in biotech?

Whether it's biotech or any tech the creators can never predict how it will ultimately be used. Every time you put technology in the hands of people human innovation is inevitable. I think the greatest example of a problem we can see coming is this: BioSidus, an Argentinean firm, has cloned eight cows that produce human growth hormone in their milk. This milk can help children who need the growth hormone. But you can imagine rolling up to the 'big boys on 'roids' fitness center and hearing, "bring on the cow!" And there's your downside. All these things have potential downsides, but we can't always predict it.

And what are some positives we should expect soon?

Take our DNA, for instance. We have 3 billion letters in our human genome, that would be like 3 gigabytes on your disc drive. Imagine three of those tracking whether you have cancer or not or what treatments you're receptive to. We're talking gigabits and gigabits of data just of who we are, more data than all the videos on YouTube that could help us in a medical situation.

What else is hot in technology right now?

We got a data explosion going on. It's like never before. Your grandparents had only a couple pictures and before that your great-grandparents didn't even have a camera. Now you've got parents with thousands of pictures and videos just of their newborn baby rolling over. How are they going to store it all? The Big Bang of Information is happening right now. The Google Age. Think of what the Google boys did when they did Google Earth? The number of applications spawned from that. As long as there are humans, innovation happens and the more humans the more innovation. We simply invent things. But if I were to choose a discipline, it would definitely be information systems.

--Andrea Chalupa