full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Paul Knoepfler: The ethical dilemma of designer babies

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Marianne's best friend Jenna, who lives right next door, is a very different story. She was born a glnatilceey modified designer baby with normeuus upgrades. Yeah. ugrdepas. And these enhancements were introduced using a new genetic modification technology that goes by the funny name CRISPR, you know, like something's crisp, this is CRISPR. The scientist that Jenna's parents hired to do this for several million dollars introduced CRISPR into a whole panel of human embryos. And then they used genetic tesintg, and they predicted that that little tiny embryo, Jenna's embryo, would be the best of the bnuch. And now, Jenna is an actual, real person. She's sitting on the cperat in your living room piaynlg with your daughter Marianne. And your families have known each other for years now, and it's become very clear to you that jnena is extraordinary. She's incredibly intelligent. If you're honest with yourself, she's smarter than you, and she's five years old. She's beautiful, tall, athletic, and the list goes on and on. And in fact, there's a whole new generation of these GM kids like Jenna. And so far it looks like they're healthier than their parents' generation, than your greoeniatn. And they have lower health care ctoss. They're immune to a host of health conditions, ilncdunig HIV/AIDS and genetic diseases.

Open Cloze


Marianne's best friend Jenna, who lives right next door, is a very different story. She was born a ___________ modified designer baby with ________ upgrades. Yeah. ________. And these enhancements were introduced using a new genetic modification technology that goes by the funny name CRISPR, you know, like something's crisp, this is CRISPR. The scientist that Jenna's parents hired to do this for several million dollars introduced CRISPR into a whole panel of human embryos. And then they used genetic _______, and they predicted that that little tiny embryo, Jenna's embryo, would be the best of the _____. And now, Jenna is an actual, real person. She's sitting on the ______ in your living room _______ with your daughter Marianne. And your families have known each other for years now, and it's become very clear to you that _____ is extraordinary. She's incredibly intelligent. If you're honest with yourself, she's smarter than you, and she's five years old. She's beautiful, tall, athletic, and the list goes on and on. And in fact, there's a whole new generation of these GM kids like Jenna. And so far it looks like they're healthier than their parents' generation, than your __________. And they have lower health care _____. They're immune to a host of health conditions, _________ HIV/AIDS and genetic diseases.

Solution


  1. numerous
  2. including
  3. generation
  4. jenna
  5. playing
  6. testing
  7. carpet
  8. bunch
  9. costs
  10. genetically
  11. upgrades

Original Text


Marianne's best friend Jenna, who lives right next door, is a very different story. She was born a genetically modified designer baby with numerous upgrades. Yeah. Upgrades. And these enhancements were introduced using a new genetic modification technology that goes by the funny name CRISPR, you know, like something's crisp, this is CRISPR. The scientist that Jenna's parents hired to do this for several million dollars introduced CRISPR into a whole panel of human embryos. And then they used genetic testing, and they predicted that that little tiny embryo, Jenna's embryo, would be the best of the bunch. And now, Jenna is an actual, real person. She's sitting on the carpet in your living room playing with your daughter Marianne. And your families have known each other for years now, and it's become very clear to you that Jenna is extraordinary. She's incredibly intelligent. If you're honest with yourself, she's smarter than you, and she's five years old. She's beautiful, tall, athletic, and the list goes on and on. And in fact, there's a whole new generation of these GM kids like Jenna. And so far it looks like they're healthier than their parents' generation, than your generation. And they have lower health care costs. They're immune to a host of health conditions, including HIV/AIDS and genetic diseases.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
designer babies 10
genetic modification 8
genetically modified 5
crispr technology 4
human genetic 4
designer baby 3
genetic modifications 2
human embryos 2
gm kids 2
health care 2
modified humans 2
swiss army 2
army knife 2
baby number 2
stuffy nose 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
human genetic modification 3
genetically modified humans 2
swiss army knife 2

Important Words


  1. actual
  2. athletic
  3. baby
  4. beautiful
  5. born
  6. bunch
  7. care
  8. carpet
  9. clear
  10. conditions
  11. costs
  12. crisp
  13. crispr
  14. daughter
  15. designer
  16. diseases
  17. dollars
  18. door
  19. embryo
  20. embryos
  21. enhancements
  22. extraordinary
  23. fact
  24. families
  25. friend
  26. funny
  27. generation
  28. genetic
  29. genetically
  30. gm
  31. health
  32. healthier
  33. hired
  34. honest
  35. host
  36. human
  37. immune
  38. including
  39. incredibly
  40. intelligent
  41. introduced
  42. jenna
  43. kids
  44. list
  45. lives
  46. living
  47. marianne
  48. million
  49. modification
  50. modified
  51. numerous
  52. panel
  53. parents
  54. person
  55. playing
  56. predicted
  57. real
  58. room
  59. scientist
  60. sitting
  61. smarter
  62. story
  63. tall
  64. technology
  65. testing
  66. tiny
  67. upgrades
  68. yeah
  69. years