Staying Human in an Engineered Age

Is science bringing us dangerously close to changing what it means to be human? Could we be developing technologies that will genetically design us out of our own humanity?

Genetic engineering and nanotechnology are awesome new technologies but they may threaten our species, argues author Bill McKibben in his new book, "Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age."

Professor Henry Smith, Director of the Nanostructures Laboratory at MIT, argues that deconstructing, reassembling and manipulating individual atoms is unrealistic and unattainable and not the goal of the people who deal with nanotechnology.

Click the "Listen" link above to hear more about whether new scientific technologies are threatening what it means to be human.

Guests:

Bill McKibben, author, "Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age"

Professor Henry Smith, Director of the Nanostructures Laboratory at MIT.