All language subtitles for Through the Wormhole S04E05 Will Sex Become Extinct [pseudo]

Freeman: Every single person
who has ever lived

was created from the genes
of one man and one woman.

But technology is on the brink

of rewriting the rules
of procreation.

We could soon make children from
two fathers or from two mothers.

Babies could grow
outside the womb.

We might even create
hybrid people --

part human, part animal.

Human reproduction,
unchanged for millions of years,

is about to undergo
a revolution.

Will sex become extinct?

Space, time, life itself.

The secrets of the cosmos
lie through the wormhole.

Subtital By RA_One

Sex is amazing.

Why?

Well, because without sex,
none of us would be here.

We are all descendants

of the very first human male
and female,

the people the Bible calls
Adam and Eve.

And for almost all
of human history,

the way we have made babies
has not changed at all.

But a brave new world
of human reproduction

is just around the corner.

New technology
and our evolving biology

are about to rewrite
the future of sex

and change the age-old roles
of men and women.

When I was in school, I wanted
to try out for the track team,

so I thought I'd practice
with a guaranteed win --

against a girl.

On your mark.
Get set.

Go!

Go, go, go, go, go!

Well, to my surprise, she won --
by a lot.

In fact, she went on
to become a olympic champion.

Whoo!
Whoo-hoo!

Men and women
have always competed

in the age-old
battle of the sexes.

What will happen to humanity
if nature picks a winner?

For the past half billion years,
nearly all complex life

has reproduced through sexual
recombination of their genes.

Birds do it.

Bees do it.

Even kangaroos do it.

But geneticist Jenny graves
thinks the days

of humans doing it
to make offspring

could be numbered.

She's peering into our future
by looking at the sex genes

of these distant cousins.

Dear little thing.

Absolutely gorgeous.

And you can see
it's a little boy.

Yes,
I certainly can.

Because he's well-endowed.

Well-endowed indeed.

Kangaroos don't look
much like humans, but in fact,

they have pretty much
the same set of genes --

about, you know,
20,000 or so genes --

doing the same jobs.

Freeman: All living things
are built from genes

that are made up of DNA.

Those genes are coiled up into
clusters called chromosomes.

We have 23 pairs of chromosomes.

Gender of both humans
and kangaroos

depends on just one pair.

Girls have two "X" Chromosomes.

Boys have one "X" And one "Y."

we inherited this scheme
from a common ancestor.

Kangaroos are much more like
the ancestral mammal,

and they haven't changed
nearly as much,

so they give us a window
on the past,

and they really tell us a lot
about our own genome.

Freeman: By looking at the
sex chromosomes of kangaroos,

Jenny can see
how much our own have changed.

She can also plot the future
of our sex chromosomes.

And according to Jenny,
it's bad news.

Human males,
like her grandson Felix,

are on the road to extinction.

[ Laughs ]

All right.

Well, I'm gonna build
a chromosome

out of blocks
of genes.

Felix, maybe you can hand me
some more blue blocks.

Both men and women
carry an "X" Chromosome.

In the microscopic world of DNA,
it's a skyscraper,

a tower of around 1,000 genes.

But the "Y" Chromosome,
exclusive to men,

is more of a run-down shack.

So, this is a female
with two "X" Chromosomes,

one from the mother,
one from the father,

and then
this is a male.

He's only got
one "X" Chromosome,

and he's got a much smaller
"Y" Chromosome.

It's got
hardly any genes on it.

All female eggs
contain a single "X" Chromosome.

Of the billions of sperm cells a
man sends towards a woman's egg,

half contain an "X," The other
half a single, puny "Y."

when a sperm cell
with an "X" Chromosome

gets to the egg first,
the result is a baby girl

with one "X" From mom
and one "X" From dad.

What happens is

these two "X" Chromosomes get
together, and they swap bits.

For instance, that bit there
swaps with that bit there,

and then maybe
this bit swaps with that bit,

and you end up with something
that looks like that.

And this
is really important

because it means
that the "X" Chromosomes

can repair themselves.

In women, any harmful genetic
mutations on the "X" Chromosome

can be swapped out
with healthy genes

before it gets passed
to the next generation.

But men have no way
to repair their "Y" Chromosome.

There's no second copy
to fall back on.

This "Y" Chromosome
doesn't swap pieces at all,

so it just stays
in a little bundle,

and this is a bad thing
for the "Y" Chromosome

because if there are mistakes
and errors and mutations,

that's too bad.

There's no way
of fixing them up.

And eventually what happens
is you actually lose genes.

And then
this little teeny-weeny "Y"

is at great risk
of being lost altogether.

And so, in maybe four
or five million years,

there'll be nothing left.

Freeman:
Without a "Y" Chromosome,

men would become infertile.

Would the extinction
of humanity follow?

Evolutionary biologist
levi morran wants to know

what happens when a species can
no longer sexually reproduce.

He's working out the details
by working out.

There are times when I'm
working on a specific project

or something that's really
driving me forward,

and running allows me
to really focus in

on everything that
I need to be thinking about.

Freeman:
Levi is chasing an answer

to the most fundamental mystery
of sex --

why do we
and so many other species do it?

He thinks he can find the answer

by closely observing sexual
activity under a microscope.

These microscopic worms,
or nematodes,

are known as c. Elegans.

Their sex life
is incredibly simple.

It's actually pretty sad.

Sometimes the males
will basically take their tail,

attach it to their head,
think that they are a female,

and mate with themselves
for hours on end

without realizing it.

Freeman:
Males are simple,

but their female counterparts
have more complex needs.

Female c. Elegans
are not exactly female.

They're hermaphrodites.

They can reproduce
by coupling with a male,

just like human females do,

or they can reproduce
by impregnating their own eggs

with their own sperm.

Levi can control the sex drive
of nematode females

by flicking a few switches
in their DNA.

He can make them
always opt for sex

or always reproduce
without males.

To see
what a difference sex makes,

levi subjects
these hermaphrodites

to the hard forces
of natural selection

by making them cross
an ocean...Of disease.

Morran: If you look
at this petri dish here,

what you can see is that
this red bacteria up here --

it's highly virulent
to the nematodes.

It's very likely to kill them.

And they have to swim
through this bacteria

to get
to their normal food source,

which is at the bottom here.

Freeman: Nematodes
that reproduce without sex

endure the plague
for 30 generations

but are not able
to develop a defense

against their toxic invaders.

Their ranks are decimated.

Now, levi sends
another colony of worms

across the valley of death.

This time,
he's genetically engineered them

to reproduce only through sex.

Morran: We again
put them on this plate

that has the bacterial parasite
and had them crawl across.

See if they could survive
exposure to the parasite

and then reproduce
in their normal environment.

And if you look
at the screen here,

what you see is a lot of them
survived that exposure.

Freeman:
Levi's experiment shows

that the sex allows a population

to evolve better defenses
against diseases.

He believes that over millions
of years of our evolution,

sex is what has kept us
from being wiped out by disease.

As levi knows
from his sport of running,

it's all about staying ahead.

Imagine that I'm a population,
and each step I take forward

is a generation
in evolutionary time.

Freeman:
Reproduction without sex

is a lot like
running in a straight line.

A species can get from "A"
To "B" Quickly and efficiently,

but if you run
in a straight line,

a predatory parasite can easily
pick up on your path.

Sexual reproduction is like
following a zigzag path.

It's slower,
but the mixing of genes

constantly shifts
the species' evolutionary path,

making it hard for a parasite
to latch on

and giving a species
its best chance to survive.

There are all kinds
of pathogen parasites out there

that could potentially
track our populations,

and so if we have
genetic diversity,

then it allows a population the
potential to adapt and change

with those parasites.

Freeman: Sex has been vital
to our survival.

But sex is bound to change.

It can happen in a million years

if the "Y" Chromosome
disappears,

or it could happen
within the next decade.

This stem-cell researcher
may have a way

to let any two people,
regardless of their gender,

make a baby.

How do you make a baby?

Well,
you need to fertilize an egg,

a process that always used to
start with boy meets girl.

But for the last 30 years,

doctors have also been able to
fertilize an egg in a test tube.

But science is about to offer
a radically new way

to make people.

You start with an egg from a man
or a sperm cell from a woman.

This cell may change
the future of human sex.

It's a cell
from ordinary human skin.

But fertility expert
Renee reijo pera

of Stanford university

is trying to transform it
into a cell

that could create a new human.

For most of human history,
we've thought

that as we develop,
we have the cells that we have.

If we have skin cells, they're
going to make more skin cells.

In 2007,
there was a major breakthrough.

We can take skin cells,

and we can move them back
to the beginning of life --

the embryonic state.

Freeman: These skin cells
are bioengineered

to become embryonic stem cells,

cells that exist naturally
in a human embryo.

They have the power
to turn into any type of cell

in the human body --

heart muscle, neurons,
even lung cells.

Other researchers
are trying to use them

to repair damaged organs.

But Renee
has a different plan --

to sculpt cell types
our bodies normally could not.

So, stem cells
are a lot like Clay.

They need
to be given instructions

in what cell type
they will differentiate to.

They can become any
of 216 different cell types.

Clay is similar in that
if a sculptor takes the Clay,

they can actually
direct the Clay

into any structure
that you want.

A stem cell takes directions

to become a cell
with a unique job

from a myriad of proteins
and other organic chemicals.

Renee and her team wanted
to make sperm and egg cells,

so they set to find the specific
chemical instructions

that would make stem cells
develop down that route.

Pera: To make a sperm cell
from stem cells,

what we've done is
we've taken skin cells from men,

and we've reprogrammed them
to embryonic cells

and then used bone proteins
to direct the stem cells

down the sperm-cell lineage,

kind of like
starting with a ball of Clay.

We start
with a small ball of Clay,

and we try to get the cells to
differentiate along a lineage.

Freeman: Renee is halfway
through the process

of activating the instructions
inside the "Y" Chromosome

of an infertile man's stem cell

so that she can craft from it
a healthy, potent sperm cell.

But since males
have an "X" Chromosome,

Renee believes
a similar procedure

could take
a male patient's stem cell

and turn it into an egg.

Pera:
It is possible that someday,

same-sex couples
could have their own children,

especially if the couple
is comprised of two men

because then one of the men
could provide the egg

and the other the sperm.

Freeman:
Renee believes that eventually,

she could make sperm cells
from a woman's stem cell.

But it's a challenge

because it requires importing
sperm-making instructions

from the "Y" Chromosome
of a man.

It's a little harder
to imagine same-sex couples

that are comprised of two women

being able to have
their own children at this time

just because
of the number of genes

that are on the "Y" Chromosome
that are required to make sperm,

probably around 50 or 100.

It's not impossible,

but it's just much less likely
in the next 10 years or so.

Freeman: Thanks to the work
of Renee and her colleagues,

the age-old biology
of sexual reproduction

is about to undergo
a momentous change.

With stem-cell reproduction,

any two human beings
could conceive a child

regardless of their gender
or age.

But not everyone
thinks it's a good idea.

I'm always surprised
how many people --

I mean,
I get bad calls about that.

People -- they're so worried
about the world being taken over

by people that are now
reproducing in a dish.

I think that our technology
will be wonderful

for infertile couples,

but I think couples
that are well-able

to have children naturally
will continue to do so.

Freeman:
Let's say a female sperm

and a male egg
could be created in a lab.

Couples in any combination of
genders could conceive a child.

But the fetus would still need
to spend nine months

inside a woman --

unless we could grow our young
in an artificial womb.

We all began our lives in the
same place -- a woman's womb.

It was nine months of blissful
ignorance for most of us

but not for our mothers.

What if women didn't have to
carry the burden of pregnancy?

A radical shift in reproduction
is already happening.

Marine biologist Nick otway
has just brought

living creatures into the world
in an completely new way.

We've done something
that was rather strange,

rather abnormal,
and challenging, too,

to think about what are
the implications in the future.

Freeman:
Nick has built a machine

that gives birth
to living sharks.

Otway:
We're looking at a gray box,

which is actually
an artificial uterus.

We shorten it to an a.U.,

and we developed this --
designed it --

to actually take embryos out
of a particular species of shark

and see if we can
continue their development

in an artificial environment.

Freeman: Nick built his a.U. --
His mechanical womb --

to restore the population

of the critically endangered
grey nurse shark.

It was a mission that came
straight from the top levels

of the Australian government.

Otway: One minister
actually challenged me

to come up
with a breeding program.

He said,
"Okay, come back in six weeks,

and don't tell me
you can't do it."

Freeman: Human beings
have just about mastered

keeping adult fish alive
outside of their natural habitat

by engineering aquariums.

Chemicals are balanced,
ph levels kept in check,

waste products cleaned out, and
nutrients delivered on schedule.

But keeping fish alive
that haven't been born yet

is a whole new challenge.

Otway: The a.U. Is a small aquarium,

and so you got to create
the environment for the embryos.

They're delicate.

They have specific requirements,

and the mother is not
providing that -- you are.

Freeman:
Unlike an adult fish,

the needs
of delicate shark embryos

drastically change as they grow.

Otway: Sharks use
a complex uterine fluid

early on in development
and subsequent --

three months into development,

they switch
to a seawater environment,

which mum
pumps in the seawater.

So we really do need to
understand that complex fluid --

the composition
and how we need to maintain it

in an artificial environment,

and that's something
that's not been done before.

Freeman: Nick programmed
his artificial uterus

to change its chemistry
from bodily fluid to seawater

in line with a mother shark's
natural rhythm.

Experimenting with the severely
endangered grey nurse shark

was too risky,

so Nick calibrated the first run
of his artificial womb

for a more common species --
the wobbegong shark.

Otway: Wobbegong sharks
are easily handled in captivity

and easily maintained
in captivity.

We already knew that they had
actually bred in captivity.

All those things meant

that we could actually have
a smaller animal

that we could use
as a model species,

and, of course,
it wasn't critically endangered.

Freeman:
To grow baby wobbegongs,

Nick harvested the growing
embryos from a pregnant female

and transferred them
to his artificial womb.

He kept constant watch
over the tiny unborn pups,

precisely managing the
conditions to keep them alive.

Otway: I think you become
attached to these guys.

They're sort of animals
that you've taken away from mum,

and you hope
that nothing detrimental occurs.

Freeman: The procedure
was a resounding success.

After 9 weeks,

Nick's lab gave birth to
14 perfectly formed shark pups.

Nick believes that what
is possible for sharks today

is possible for humans tomorrow.

It's all a matter of knowing
how and when a mother's womb

changes
its chemical composition.

[ Crying ]

Otway: I think technology
has come leaps and bounds

in just a few years,
and around the corner,

we could be looking
at some major changes.

I could potentially see
preterm infants

possibly going back further
in the preterm,

but even then, I think
there's still ethical questions

one has to ask about it.

Freeman: Would a baby
grown in a laboratory

be the same as an infant
nurtured inside a woman?

Would society accept
these children as equals

to those born
from a natural womb?

Only time will answer
the many questions

of growing our young
outside a woman's uterus.

We may choose to face these
questions sooner than you think.

An artificial human uterus
could make miscarriages,

prenatal complications,

and death in childbirth
horrors of the past.

[ Baby coos ]

When babies aren't
just conceived in a test tube

but born in one,

and when any combination
of people can create a child,

what will be the meaning
of the word "Family?"

the family
is the backbone of our society.

But what is a family?

Does it start
with a man and a woman,

or, as some cultures say, a man
and many women, or two women?

When technology transforms
how children are born

and who their parents can be,
what will our society look like?

Perhaps we can find a clue

in the societies
of our closest animal relatives.

Frans de waal
has dedicated his career

to studying the societies
of the great apes.

[ Monkey screeches ]

In the wild, they must fight
to survive and often die trying.

Chimpanzees kill each other
over territory.

Wild chimpanzees
are very competitive,

especially over rank
among males --

who's gonna be
the dominant male.

Freeman: What is true for chimps
is often true for us.

Oh, no.

[ Sighs ] Shoot.

Freeman:
Frans is trying to understand

what shapes the social roles
of male and female primates.

De waal: Chimpanzee society
is quite different

in that they have no
family structure like humans do,

like male, female offspring.

It's usually just the females

who have the offspring
and care for them.

Freeman: We share 98.5%
of our genome with chimps.

But frans knows that chimps are
not our only close relatives.

De waal:
I was interested in chimpanzees,

and I worked with them over many
years, and then I saw bonobos.

And people called them
pygmy chimps at the time,

and they just considered them
a small kind of chimps,

and I saw immediately that
they were totally different --

in their behavior,
in their appearance.

And so I couldn't believe

that people had sort of
lumped them together,

and I wanted to know more
about them.

Freeman:
Just like chimps,

bonobos share 98.5%
of their genes with humans.

But as frans observed them,

he discovered their society was
utterly different from chimps.

Female bonobos are collectively
dominant over males.

They're not
individually dominant

because they are smaller,
but as a group,

the females dominate the males.

[ Monkeys screeching ]

Freeman:
Even though bonobo males

are physically larger
and stronger than females,

the females form alliances
that keep the peace.

Violence is rare,
killing even more rare.

Females eat first
and share food with the males.

And if any social crisis erupts,

the bonobos have a special way
of relieving the stress.

De waal: Bonobos have sex
almost all the time.

Females have sex with females.

Males have sex with males.

There is, of course, a lot
of female-male sex going on.

And so, there's a lot more sex
going on

in the bonobo society
than in the chimpanzee society.

Sex serves as bonding
between females,

preventing conflict,
reconciling after conflicts.

And so, as a result,
the bonobos are known

as sort of the hippies
of the primate world,

like "Make love, not war"
Kind of primates.

Freeman: Sex is the female
bonobos' tool of choice

for building alliances.

De waal: The females
will have some sexual relations

and do some bonding,

and they will become dominant
over the male.

Freeman: Bonobos and chimps are
genetically almost identical,

and yet their societies
are completely different.

Frans believes that is because
the role of males and females

are dictated not by genes but by
a species' native environment.

De waal:
Bonobos live in a richer forest

where there's more resources
around.

In addition, they don't have
competition from gorillas

who eat
a lot of ground vegetation,

and so bonobos seem to have
an easier time in their ecology

than the chimpanzees,

and that permits females
to have

these effective coalitions

because a chimpanzee female
is basically on her own

if she meets a male
most of the time.

And so the bonobos
are a more cohesive society.

Freeman: So, what can bonobos
and chimps tell us

about the roles of men and women

and how they might change
in the future?

In the past few centuries,

human ecology
has dramatically changed.

Most people
now have food and shelter,

like the bonobos do
in their natural habitat,

and most of us have easy access
to sex when we choose to.

Hmm.

Are we headed for a society

that's less like the warring
and male-dominated chimps

and more like the free-loving
and egalitarian bonobos...

[ Growling ]

...a society where children
are raised by communities,

and when conflicts occur,

they are resolved
with free-spirited sex?

De waal: Well, I think
the abundance of food supply

makes things easier,

but it doesn't change,
necessarily,

how we respond to each other

and how adults
respond to children

or how adults
respond to each other.

Freeman:
Frans believes that,

although our environment
does shape our behavior,

it takes many,
many generations to do so.

The behavior
of men and women today

harks back
to the environment we lived in

tens of thousands of years ago,
when our species first evolved.

De waal: Whereas chimpanzees
and bonobos live in the forest,

humans left the forest
and entered the Savannah.

The Savannah
is a very dangerous place

because you cannot
easily escape.

There's big lions there
and hyenas,

and in the old days, they were
even bigger than they are now,

and so humans needed to have
a different kind of society.

The males got involved
in protecting offspring.

As a result, you get pair
bonding between male and female,

so you get a nuclear family,

and that's very different
from the chimpanzee

or the bonobo, where the males
are barely involved.

Freeman:
Unlike the great apes,

who assigned all child-rearing
to females,

human beings usually pair up
to raise young.

This behavior is deeply rooted
in our brain chemistry.

[ Growling ]

Neuroscientists have discovered
that hormones, like oxytocin,

are released inside the brain
when humans interact

with their bonded partner.

These hormones urge us
to trust each other and bond.

And so, I think
this pair-bonding framework

of the human species
is very important,

and it's basically
what sets us apart.

Frans believes that this drive
to form our families

around a strong bond
between two individuals

will not be altered
for thousands of years to come.

Technology may change
our food supply,

who's capable of reproduction,
and how their young are born,

but frans predicts most of us
will choose to reproduce

not through a community
but rather with a partner.

After all,
old habits are hard to break.

But sexual reproduction
between only two people

may eventually
be deemed inferior.

This doctor has found a way
to make children healthier

by giving them
three genetic parents.

Sex is the greatest
creative force on the planet.

It mixes the DNA of two people

into novel and sometimes
quite remarkable combinations.

Without sex, there would be no
Michelangelo, no Michael Jordan.

The more you jumble up DNA,

the more creative possibilities
there are.

So wouldn't it be better

if we could have
more than two parents?

Doug turnbull of newcastle
university is a medical rebel.

His team
has invented a procedure

that can only be performed
by breaking the law.

Turnbull:
I think what we're doing --

and I think we've got to
keep this into perspective --

is that we're trying
to prevent serious disease.

I don't believe
that it's right and proper

to be doing
these sort of techniques

unless we're trying
to prevent serious disease,

and I think that most scientists
would feel exactly the same way.

Freeman: Doug's radical idea
could cure a number of diseases

that occur when our cells
can't get enough power.

Every cell in our body
contains mitochondria.

They provide power
by taking material

from the foods we eat and
converting it to organic fuel.

But when mitochondria
aren't working properly,

our cells can barely function.

Turnbull:
That leads to the diseases

where it affects the central
nervous system, the heart.

They can produce epilepsy,
strokes, blindness,

deafness, dementia.

Freeman: Mitochondria have
their own separate DNA,

and a child inherits
all his or her mitochondria

from the mother's
fertilized egg.

But Doug has discovered
how to eliminate the disease.

He plans to transplant
the embryo's nucleus,

where the majority
of the child's DNA is stored,

into a new cell
with healthy mitochondria.

While the law prevents him

from performing
the full procedure in humans,

he often does similar work
in his garden.

Turnbull:
If we've got bad soil,

then a plant
just simply won't grow.

If you've got an egg which has
got unhealthy mitochondria,

then what it means is then that
won't grow into a normal child.

It won't grow
into a normal adult.

But if you've managed
to transfer the material

from an egg which has got
unhealthy mitochondria

into one which has got
healthy mitochondria,

then that should allow a child
to flourish,

and that's the principle.

We really want to move
the nuclear genetic material

from something
which is unhealthy

into a situation
where it's healthy.

Freeman: Transplanting a seed
from a pot of bad soil

to a pot of healthy soil
is one thing.

Transferring the nucleus
of a human embryo cell

into a donor cell requires
the utmost care and precision.

If anything goes wrong,
the infant that develops

from that embryo
could have severe birth defects.

But Doug and his colleagues at
the newcastle fertility clinic

are mastering the process

by performing legally permitted
practice runs.

Turnbull: So, the eggs
are collected from women

who are donating their eggs
for research.

These eggs undergo
an I.V.F. Procedure --

in vitro fertilization.

Freeman:
Doug's team takes a donated egg

and removes its nucleus,

creating an empty vessel
with healthy mitochondria.

They then transplant the nucleus
of the defective cell

into the healthy vessel.

The law prevents them

from putting this egg
back inside a mother.

But if they did,

that child would be
unlike any other on earth.

She or he would have
23,000 nuclear genes

from two parents

and 13 mitochondrial genes
from someone else.

Genetically speaking, the child
would have three parents.

Many of Doug's opponents argue

that giving a child
any amount of third-party genes,

on matter
what the medical value,

is crossing a line.

Turnbull:
It's 23,000 versus 13,

so you can see
it is a tiny contribution.

And if it's preventing disease,

surely that's a good thing
rather than a bad thing.

But for some people,
that's unacceptable.

Freeman: Doug and his team
are now involved

in a public consultation

to change
the u.K. Government's law.

If they are permitted
to move forward,

they believe they can eradicate
mitochondrial disease.

It is something
which is controversial,

and it will be against
some people's religious views,

for example.

I think everybody should be
allowed to have their views,

but I personally
have a different view

because I look after
these patients,

and I see
just what a devastating effect

it has on the family.

Freeman: Doug's procedure
could also be the beginning

of a new class of medicine,

one where devastating
genetic diseases are subdued

by giving children genes from
any number of third parties.

Our children may someday
have one or two parents

that raise them and many more
parents that made them.

But why stop there?

Why not make children healthier
and stronger

using the best genes
nature has to offer

regardless of which species
they come from?

The sphinx,
the mermaid, spider-man.

Hybrid creatures
are the stuff of legend --

the brainpower of a human

married to the physical prowess
of an animal.

But such creatures may not
remain mythical for much longer.

Randy Lewis is a pioneer.

[ Goat bleats ]

On this remote farm
in upstate Utah,

he's pushing
scientific boundaries

and creating a new form
of agriculture.

But there are those
who say he's playing God.

Well,
I got interested in chemistry

when I was in high school,

when a high school teacher
that I had --

he allowed us to do some
experiments on the side.

So, we were mixing some
different kinds of chemicals

and sort of generated a cloud
of steam and smoke

that went clear to the ceiling.

He just had a very perplexed
look on his face and said,

"We better
get the windows open,"

and really never said
another word about it.

Freeman:
Randy got away with it,

and today, he embraces
the same fearless spirit.

His latest work is boldly mixing
diverse genetic chemicals,

starting with the DNA
of this creature.

Lewis: So, this is
a golden orb-weaving spider.

As you can see,
she's very docile.

The dragline silk,
which is the silk

that you can sort of see
waving up in the air

that she drags along
behind herself as her lifeline,

is actually stronger than kevlar
and more elastic than nylon.

Freeman: The immense strength
and lightweight nature

of spider silk
make it a miracle material.

Its industrial applications
are almost endless.

But to date,
no farmer has ever built a ranch

with millions of spiders
producing lucrative silk.

Lewis:
So, there are two real problems

in trying to farm spiders.

First is they're territorial,

and second,
they're cannibalistic.

So, when you put
a bunch of them together,

what happens is they just start
killing each other.

Freeman:
But ever the chemical tinkerer,

Randy realized he didn't need
spiders to produce spider silk.

All he needed
were the genetic chemicals

that give spiders
their web-making ability.

Lewis: What we've done
is identify the genes

that make up
each of the different proteins

for the six different silks
that the spider makes,

and we've been able
to take those and clone them,

and then we can simply transfer
them to another organism.

[ Goat bleats ]

Freeman: Randy's lab
transfers these spider genes

into the DNA
of fertilized goat eggs.

The goats grow to term

and are born with all the genes
that a goat should have,

plus a little something extra.

We've spliced a spider-silk gene
into the genome of the goat,

and we've put it in
in a situation

where the only time that
that gene is used

to make protein is when
the goat's producing milk.

Freeman:
Randy milks his spider goats

and takes their milk
back to his lab,

where it is processed
and filtered.

And from one milking alone,

Randy yields about 35 Miles
of spider-goat silk.

His work could lead
to a new industrial revolution

where groundbreaking
biological materials

are produced by animals with
genes from different species.

The DNA is the same
in all organisms,

so, if you take a piece of DNA
from any other organism,

in general, if you put it
in the right context,

it's gonna be produced.

Freeman: Randy's work
is also proof of the concept

that animal genes
could be spliced into human DNA.

I think that one
could imagine a situation

where you could take
the spider-silk gene

and put it under
some kind of control

where a human could produce it.

Freeman:
These breakthroughs could lead

to a remarkable new evolution
of humanity.

Today,
we give our offspring the gifts

of our best genetic traits,

and tomorrow,
we could give them the very best

of everything
nature has to offer.

Our grandchildren
could climb like geckos,

run like cheetahs...

[ Gunshot ]

...or see in infrared.

"Sex is part of nature.

I go along with nature."

that's what Marilyn Monroe said.

[ Chuckles ]

Sex may always be
part of nature,

but only for recreation,
not necessarily for procreation.

A world where babies
are chemically crafted

and carefully reared in labs
may sound utterly alien,

but parents will always do
what's best for their children.

That aspect of our nature
will never change.