Nate Rott

Yes, controversial because it gets at an almost like philosophical question, Emily, about what our role should be in the natural world.

And I'm a pretty poor excuse for a philosopher.

But, you know, I think the easiest way to explain this technology that we're going to be talking about is to start with an effort that's going on to save something we all know and love.

Frogs.

This is Anthony Waddell, a researcher at Macquarie University in Australia.

It's just chytrid is too good.

Chytrid fungus, which is like this horrendous and deadly skin disease affecting amphibians that, you know, the antibiotics they have often can't fix.

And this disease is now found on every continent except Antarctica.

Anthony has been focused on protecting frog populations from chytrid pretty much his entire scientific career.

And he started with the type of desert frog that lived near his hometown, Las Vegas.

And Anthony says it worked for that population of frogs.

But the further he got into the frog world.

It became clear to him what they really need, he says, is like some kind of permanent solution that makes the species more resilient into the future.

And he thinks one of those solutions could be something called synthetic biology, which in this case basically means genetic modification.

Anthony wants to use genetic tools, new technologies to essentially splice that chytrid resistant DNA into frogs that do not have it.

Yes, that's kind of like the pie in the sky aim.

But here's where I think this whole thing gets super interesting.

Because, as you might imagine, Emily, the idea of genetically modifying things and then putting them out in the natural world worries a lot of people.

Okay, so probably the best answer I heard when I asked this question to many people was from Guy Reeves, a scientist who's now working with a German nonprofit.

It's just like it's kind of this catch-all term, right, for a suite of technologies like genetic modification, genetic engineering that basically allow scientists to modify or engineer living cells.