CRISPR pioneer: "Science is on the ballot" in 2020
27 October 2020
In her three decades in science, Jennifer Doudna said she has seen a gradual erosion of trust in the profession, but the recent Nobel Prize winner told "Axios on HBO" that the institution itself has been under assault from the current administration.
- "I think science is on the ballot," Doudna said in the interview.
Why it matters: That has manifested itself in everything from how the federal government approaches climate change to the pandemic.
"I have now been doing science for three decades as a professional scientist. And I can say that over that period of time, I've seen an increasing distrust of science and scientists, to the point where I think now we're seeing kind of an extreme case where we have a president who is telling his followers that ... if they vote for his opponent, that ... his opponent will ... listen to scientists, as though that is a terrible thing."
The big picture: Doudna acknowledges that the scientific community probably hurt itself. The effort to stay above the political fray may well have led to too little dialogue between those making discoveries and the leaders responsible for funding those efforts.
- Doudna said she is a little too busy to run for office, but she would like to see others take that path. "Any scientist who wants to go in that direction, I do think that is really, really important. They will get my vote."
Driving the news: Doudna and French colleague Emmanuelle Charpentier were earlier this month awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work on CRISPR, a gene-editing technique that can be likened to a pair of molecular scissors that can change DNA.
- Doudna talked about the challenges she faced as a woman pursuing a career in a male-dominated field. She recalled a high school guidance counselor who asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up.
"I said, 'Well, I want to be a scientist.' And he said, 'Oh, girls don't do that.' But, you know, I'm a pretty stubborn person. And when he said that to me, I thought, 'Well, this girl is gonna do science.'"
The bottom line: While Dudna was part of the first all-female team to win the Nobel Prize in chemistry, she said her goal is for that to eventually be unremarkable.
- "I would hope for a future where ... it's no surprise that two women win a prize like this in chemistry."
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.