Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20170105

Deep level because its a part of history that has been overlooked, you know . This is more important than anything ive done in my career. Stewart all that and more on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by lincoln financial is committed to helping you take charge of your future. And by the alfred p. Sloan foundation. Supporting science, technology, and improved Economic Performance and Financial Literacy in the 21st century. Supported by the rockefeller foundation. Promoting the wellbeing of humanity around the world by building resilience and inclusive economies. More at rockefellerfoundation. Org Carnegie Corporation of new york. Supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of International Peace and security. At carnegie. Org. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Stewart the director of National Intelligence says he has very high confidence that russia hacked Democratic Party computers in a bid to interfere with the u. S. Election. James clapper spoke at a Senate Hearing today, with admiral mike rogers, of the National Security agency. He also addressed president elect trumps criticism of u. S. Intelligence agencies. Who actually is the benefactor of someone who is about to become the commander in chief trashing the Intelligence Community . I think there is an important distinction here between healthy skepticism, which policy makers to include policy maker number one should always have for intelligence, but i think theres a difference between skepticism and disparagement. Stewart clapper confirmed that president obama has now received a final report on the issue. Meanwhile, it was widely reported that former indiana senator dan coats is the president elects choice for the next director of National Intelligence. Mr. Trump also walked back from his criticism of intelligence agencies. He tweeted woodruff in turkey a senior official says police are closing in on the gunman who killed 39 people at an istanbul nightclub on new years eve. The deputy Prime Minister said today hes likely a member of the muslim uighur minority in china, and part of a specialized terror cell. Meanwhile, in iraq new bombings killed at least 27 people today in baghdad. Stewart the Obama Administration released four more prisoners from guantanamo today. Thats despite president elect trumps vow to keep the military prison open. Those released were from yemen, and had been held more than 14 years, but never charged. They were sent to saudi arabia. 35 inmates remain at guantanamo. Woodruff the battle over the fate of obamacares had president elect trump firing barbs today at Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer. In a series of tweets, mr. Trump criticized democrats in general, and branded schumer, the head clown. The new york senator answered, during a morning news conference. Id say to the president elect and the republicans, that this is not a time for calling names, its time for them to step up to the plate if they want to repeal and show us what theyd replace it with. Woodruff Vice President biden also commented, youll see that shortly in our interview. Meanwhile, House Speaker paul ryan said today that republicans plan to act this year on both repealing and replacing the president S Health Care law. Stewart an assault in chicago that was live streamed on facebook drew National Attention today. Police charged four black suspects with hate crimes against the mentally challenged white male. The video showed the victim being threatened with a knife and shoved down. He was later beaten and forced to drink from a toilet. As the attack progressed, the assailants yelled obscenities about whites and president elect trump. Woodruff president obama is touting progress on criminal Justice Reform during his tenure and urging more. He wrote about it today in the harvard law review, and said mr. Obama served as the law reviews first black president , in 1990. Stewart on wall street today big banks and Department Stores struggled, but online retailer amazon surged. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost nearly 43 points to close at 19,899. The nasdaq rose almost 11 points to a new record close, and the s p 500 slipped a point. Woodruff and, theres word that living near a lot of traffic could make you more prone to dementia. A canadian study found the risk is 7 greater for People Living within 55 yards of hightraffic roads. Researchers say it could come from breathing the pollution in car exhaust fumes. The findings appear in the medical journal the lancet. Stewart still to come on the newshour judys interview with Vice President joe biden, the secret to boosting workers productivity, and much more. Woodruff now to my conversation with Vice President joe biden. We sat down at the white house earlier today and began by discussing the future of the obma administrations signature legislative achievement the Affordable Care act. I dont know whats going the happen. I think as i said last night, it was reported in the press speaking to newly elected members of the house, theyre going to inherit the wind. All the things they say they dislike about the Affordable Care act, theyre all able to be adjusted. We knew when we passed the act that wed have to constantly see how it worked and improve it. For example, making sure that there were more subsidies for young people to be able to get into the Affordable Care act, bringing down overall costs. But anyway, i think theyre going to find when they repeal it, youre going to be reporting on your program on night on pbs about so and so died because they got their insurance cut off it would no longer cover them. Women are paying more than men again for the same insurance. Youre going to find out that preexisting conditions are able to disqualify you or make the cost of insurance prohibitiv, and so theyre going to have. Thats why theyre having a problem now. That have no replacement. Woodruff do you think democrats should work with them . I think democrats should say, look, lets take a look at what you have right now. What dont you like about it . Lets see if we can fix it. Talk to us. Tell us what your ideas are. But this wholesale, the numb disagreement most republicans have is they dont think health care is a right. They think it is a privilege, not a right. We believe health care is a basic right. If youre entitled to an education, why wouldnt you be entitled to Adequate Health care . Period. Woodruff but based on conversations, we know the president , we spoke the president elect trump about this, based on that, what parts do you think may survive . One of the good parts can survive without the funding pieces of it. The part they say they dont like is the funding. There is a reason why. Theres a reason why its constructed the way it is. You cant go to Insurance Companies and say, you know what, were not going to change anything having to do with the pool from which you draw you people. Were not going to do anything, but guess what, you can no longer allow for preexisting conditions and disqualify somebody. They go, oh, okay, how do i pay for that . So, you know, they talk. Its obvious they dont know much about it. Mr. Trumps a good man, but he doesnt know much about the health care system. Woodruff but theyre very serious about undoing it. Oh, theyre very serious about undoing it. So lots of luck. Undo it. See what happens. Woodruff more broadly, the republicans are saying they want to dismantle much of the entire obamabiden legacy, legislation, regulation. What are you most worried they may do . I think theyre kidding themselves if they think they can do away with legislation leading to the progressive values weve built into the law. The public has proved beyond politicians. Im not worried about them repealing protections for the l. G. B. T. Community. The public is beyond that. Im not worried about them being able to change the way in which we have reached out to and provided many more opportunities for women. But heres what does concern me it concerns me that they will make some judgments in the form of policy area without having thought it through that may cause a lot of problems. For example, ukraine of the northern triangle here in the hemisphere or dealing with colombia, unless you are very sophisticated about what your actions or. Let me say it another way. I was asked to go down to australia several months ago to meet with the same Prime Minister but with a no coalition and to make sure that we had close relationship. While i was there i got a call from the president of latvia saying, you have to come to the baltic states, because mr. Trump during the Campaign Said that, you know, they may not protect us against the russians. So words matter. Im not suggesting thats his position, but you have a lot of folks around the world that have relationships with us now that based on some of the rhetoric thats occurred, if they follow through with the rhetoric by nonaction, it could cause serious diplomatic and physical consequences. Thats what worries me. Woodruff youre worried more about Foreign Policy . I am. Woodruff the environment and the rest of it . Look, they will probably do some very rash things relative to the environment, but they again will reap the wrath. The public has proved beyond the position that these fellas have taken. So in the near term, that may happen, but theyll pay a heavy price if they do that. For example, they could come along and decide that theyre not going to have to enforce the clean air standards. They could do that, but there will be a backlash. Woodruff let me ask about the Supreme Court. You chaired the Senate Judiciary committee for eight years. You know very well what it means when the Republicancontrolled Senate sat on the nomination of Merrick Garland to fill that ninth seat. The court sat on it for almost ten months. First time ever. Woodruff thenpresident trump, once he chooses someone, should the democrats do the same thing and oppose and refuse to go along . No. Woodruff or should they think, you need to fill that vacancy on the court . I think. Look, the constitution says the President Shall nominate, not maybe could maybe can. He shall nominate. Implicit in the constitution is that the senate will act on its constitutional responsibility, will give his advice and consent. No one has required to vote for the nominee, but they, in my view, are required to give the nominee a hearing and a vote. Its been my policy since ive been in the United States senate. I have presided over more Supreme Court nominees over anyone living, never once, even the ones ive disagreed with, have they been denied a hearing. So i think the democrats should not take up what i think is a fundamentally unconstitutional notion that the republicans initiated ten months ago. I think they should see who they nominate and vote on them. Woodruff youve seen the list of names that the president elect trump has put out there. Are any of them to you acceptable and are any unacceptable . Im not going to comment. To be honest, i dont know all that hes put out there. Ive been having trouble enough following some other things. So im in the prepared to comment on any one of his nominees. Woodruff come back the Foreign Policy. Have you seen now the report by the Intelligence Community on russian hacking . Yes, i have. Yes, ive read it. Woodruff and . There is overwhelming consensus in the community and overwhelming evidence is up Police Department by the community that russia did engage in an effort to impact on thes. There is no evidence that they atually tampered with voting booths or tampered with voting roles, but there is clear evidence that they, in fact, there were engaged in activities designed to try to impact the outcome of the election. Woodruff evidence of any american cooperation with the russians in doing that . Im not going to comment on that, you easy. I dont want to comment on any of the details. There will be an unclass void version released very shortly, and it will lay out in bold print what they know. Woodruff will the American People learn something new from this . I think it will probably confirm what a lot of the American People think. But it will state clearly that the russians did as a matter of policy attempt to affect and three things, one, it attempted to discredit the u. S. Electoral process by implying that or laying the foundation for it is not on the level. Two, there is evidence that there was an attempt to hurt mrs. Clinton, but there is also evidence that there was wider hacking than some people thought. So the idea that the russians were not involved in an effort to engage in our electoral process is simply not able to be sustained. They were. Woodruff excuse me, in connection with that, the criticism by the president elect of the Intelligence Community in this country, belittling of the Intelligence Community do, you think thats just politics, or do you think its dangerous . Sreenivasan i think its. I hope. Some very smart people like general mattis and others, for a president not to have confidence in, not to be prepared to listen to the intelligence agencies from Defense Intelligence to the c. I. A. , et cetera, is absolutely mindless. Its just mindless. How would you. Now, can you disagree . Can you ask for more detail . Can you question whether or not there is a disagreement among the various intelligence agencies . Thats all legitimate. But the idea that you know more than the Intelligence Community knows, its like saying i know more about physics than my professor. I didnt read the book, i just know i know more. Its not a. Its worrisome. Im assuming it will change. Woodruff if what the russians did is is serious, should there be me retaliation than what the administration has Just Announced . When the question was would we respond to the hacking, over a month ago i said our time and choosing we would. Some of what we did you will know and some you will not know. And weve done both. Things you do not know, and things that are known, like expelling people. Woodruff will we know those things . I hope not. Woodruff syria. Will that go down as one of the administrations great failures do you think . And is the u. S. Now impotent to affect the outcome there . No and in. No and no. It is not a failure. To be failure, you would assume there was an alternative that could have been offered that would have benefited or been in the greater interest of the security of the United States. If you notice, there wasnt anybody in either Political Party everring too about putting troops on the ground. If you notice, there wasnt anybody talking about. There was in plan put forward by anyone that demonstrated that there was a sufficient, coherent, nucleus of democrats with a small d who were in opposition to the assad regime who would, given the requisite training and capability, have the ability to be able to take on both extreme elements of the sunnis meaning al qaeda as well as isis as well as alnusra and take on the assad regime at the same time. So our focus has been the dismantling of the socalled caliphate, the dismantling of isis being able to occupy territory and govern like they were nation state, like they were a government. They have lost enormous amounts of ground, and i predict there will be no such place where they occupy anywhere in syria as well as iraq. The cal fight will have been dismapsled. It will still be a problem, but that has been our focus because that is the greatest exestem cell existential threat. Woodruff assad will still be in power . That remains to be seen. I say that because this needs to be a negotiated sem. Therussians appear to be, in Congress Junction with the turks as well as the iranians, appear to be at a point where they are realizing for their interest, as well, say sad assad being in power indefinitely is not in their interest. Weve been trying the put together the ability to bring a negotiated settlement to think. Its still a reach, but well see. Woodruff looking back to the election, why did Hillary Clinton lose in middle class, working class places like wilkesbarre, pennsylvania, close to where you grew up, and what economic message could have changed the outcome . Well, first of all, im not. Theres false choice being put forward by some democrats now. Either we double down on our progressive values or we go out there and talk about the middle class and the working class. I have never found them inconsistent. They go together. The reason im a democrat is because the essence of the Democratic Party is an abhorns for the abuse of power on the one hand and the notion that everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity. That message never got through. I remember going, i was flying the cleveland. I did 83 events. I was wondering why i was so upset about the way the campaign was going. This was about three weeks out. And it hit me that because of the outrageous nature of the way in which the things that trump was saying, you never got to substance. You cant find me any viewer that can define for you what hillarys free tuition plan was about. You never got to it. Woodruff whose fault was that . Well, it was multiple faults. I dont think the campaign was clear enough. I dont think you guys were ready to cover it. You know, look at the anenberg school and others have shown, theres hardly any coverage of a single issue of a substantive issue. Woodruff you also said the campaign wasnt clear enough . Ive been the odd man out here. I didnt hear anybody talk about the plight of that guy who works in in the assembly and his wife is a hostess, they make 90,000, have two kids and theyre hurting, theyre scared. We dont show enough respect. We dont show. We dont speak enough to. My dad used to have an expression. I dont expect the government to solve my problems, but i expect them to understand it. W were not making clear enough we understood the pressure they were under and we had concrete solutions to it. We never got to them. Woodruff could you have beaten donald trump . Oh, i have no idea. Its easy to say. People say that. But who knows. Who knows whether i could have beaten donald trump. No but youre sounding very clear on what the message should be. I have been clear on that message for a long time. This handle ive been given, middle class joe, its not meant to be a compliment in washington, it means youre not sophisticated, but the middle class is the glue that holds this country together. We dont speak enough to their legitimate concerns. Woodruff the future of the Democratic Party, youre talking about it right now, but its now less seats in state capitols. Lost the congress and the white house. What is the party . What needs to happen . I think we have to remember who the heck we are and speak to who we are and what we believe. The American Public agrees with us on almost every basic issue. Heres whats going to happen in my future. The vary issues you have been covered are going to be covered extremely thoroughly now. You know why . Its going to be nose Contentious Congress youve seen since you and i have been doing this business. And so whats going to happen . Just like their initial effort to do away with an oversight, you know, committee on ethics. Well, guess what . If they talked about that during the campaign, they pay no price for it, but now theyre going to implement it. When they go and take on health care, when they take on medicare, when they take on education, when they take on college tuition. Were going to cover it. Were going to be. Im going to say maybe we have an old timer like me talking about it on your program. People go, oh, thats what these guys want to do . Thats what the democrats are . Woodruff but you referred to this a minute ago. Democrats are dealing with a new reality in how this new president will communicate, the tweets. Just today he tweeted. He called the Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer the head clown. Last week he said, doing my best to disregard the many inflammatory president o statements and roadblocks. Thought it would be a smooth transition. Not, in all caps. Grow up, donald. Grow up. Time to be an adult. Youre president. You got to do something. Show us what you have. Youre going to propose administration. Were going to debate it. Let the public decide. Let them vote in congress. Lets see what happens. Its going to be much clearer what hes for and against and what were for and against now that its going to get down to actually discussing in detail these issues that affect peoples lives. Woodruff two quick things, the cancer moon shot. Yes. Woodruff you started that in memory of your son beau. Youre now going to be launching a nonprofit to, muck other things, look at the cost of cancer drugs. What would you consider success when it comes to the price of cancer medicine . Thats a small price of this. The overwhelming part of this is the overwhelming sense of urgency in cooperating in terms of breaking down silos, in terms of, look, the medical. When nixon declared the war on cancer, he had no army, he had no tools, he had no anything. Except good intentions. There was one model, institutional model. Jonas salk in the laboratory, finding the silver bullet. We now found out 45 years later that his enormous collaboration is required, the institutional instruments have not changessed. Judy, if i could not get every single cancer genome sequence, if i could havana it put in one repository, with have the capacity to this a million billion calculations per second. Well be able to find out more in ten minutes more than it takes ten Nobel Laureates to find out in ten years about the patterns and the cures for cancer. These are the things im working out most. Drug prices are a problem. Access is a problem. But because it is so celebrated that issue, i want to put mitt perspective. If i could solve everything but that, i would everything but that. Were going to work on that, as well. Woodruff cancer moon shot, affiliating with two universities. Right. Woodruff youll be lunch pail joe is going to become Ivy League Professor biden. Im going back to my alma mater where my heart is, university of delaware. And theyve been good to me. Im going to do all domestic policy out of there and diplomatic and Foreign Policy out of penn. Woodruff less time for politics . Well, that is politics. Those are the issues. Look, every single morning since ive been 27 years old i got up and someone handed me a card like the one i have in my pocket that has a schedule on it of all the things im going to do. I dont want i dont know what to do if i didnt have that card. These are the things i care about. My dad said, a lucky person gets up and puts both feet on the floor, knows what theyre about to do and think it still matters. I think this stuff matters. Im going to be able to take some of the interlech actual horsepower out of the Vice President s office, and im going to have two platforms in which i can hire those people at delaware and at penn and work on issues that are of concern to me still. Woodruff leaving government after almost half a century. How does that. I, i, i, i, i dont know. I must tell you, like i said, since ive been a 27yearold kid, ive. This has been the essence of my life. I just know that i want to stay engaged, and i think that i will have a platform to do that. That will also affect public policy. Thats what i. Thats why i got involved in government in the first place. Woodruff wow yoan be shy about speaking out . No, i wont be shy for speaking out. I never got involved for the money, as my net worth will show you. I till dont have that interest. I have an interest in doing the things ive been doing. Woodruff Vice President joe biden, thank you very much. Thank you, judy. I appreciate it. Stewart stay with us. Coming up on the newshour the great risks and rewards of editing human d. N. A. , and the unsung black women behind nasas first manned orbit around earth. But first with a new year comes new resolutions both at home and at work. But many of us arent motivated enough to get through our todo lists. In fact, more than half of American Workers feel disengaged at their jobs. Our economics correspondent paul solman looks at what could motivate us into action. Its part of his weekly Series Making sense, which airs thursdays on the newshour. I think we could get people to both be more productive and happier. Reporter behavioral economist dan ariely, whos joined a chorus of economists bemoaning americas productivity slowdown. Less productive as individuals, less productive as companies, and were more miserable reporter but ariely thinks theres something Corporate America can do to boost productivity better understand human motivation. Motivation, basically getting people to be happy at work, everybody benefits. Reporter thus his new book, payoff. But before the specifics, a bit of back story. As a teen, ariely spent three years in the hospital, horribly burned. But it was just recently, when a stranger called him after her son suffered a similar fate, that he realized why people make an effort. She asked me to send her son an optimistic note about life. I didnt know what to say. You know, i, he was so badly burnt and. Reporter as badly burnt as you had been . Worse. Even worse. Worse than i was. And i wasnt sure that staying alive is better for him than not. Pain is just terrible. Pain and desperation and hopelessness. If it happened again today, i wouldnt want to continue. Reporter recalling his own cruel trial, ariely broke down out of the patients sight. And eventually i said life is going to be difficult and complex and youll never have a normal life. But i also told him that technology is on the side of the disabled, because we can do things that we wouldnt be able to do without it. Even though it was a very difficult time with this kid, it gave me a sense of giving back, im helping somebody else and im connecting with this kid and im doing something that im supposed to do in some ways. Reporter the lesson for ariely our behavior is driven by emotion, not the conventional rewards like money. Have i got your attention now . Reporter and he thinks Corporate America would do well to take note. Were adding something to this months sales contest. As you all know, first place is a cadillac el dorado. Anybody want to see second prize . The second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is youre fired. Reporter money. Threats of no money. Ariely has found they dont inspire hard work. As in an experiment he ran at a computer chip production line in israel. If workers made their quotas they got either 30 or a voucher for pizza to take home to the family or a well done text from the boss. We asked new yorkers to guess the experiments results. Which do you think would be most motivating . The voucher for the pizza. Cash in the wallet. It always works. Take the text from the boss. That would motivate me more. The bonus. Well done more often is definitely more motivational. Reporter in the actual experiment, workers who made the quota and received the 30, and those that got a pizza voucher, and the group that got a compliment were all more productive than workers who received nothing. Money was slightly worse than the other two, but they were all much better. Reporter but on the second day, when the workers whod gotten the 30 were not paid a bonus, regardless of how many chips they turned out, their productivity actually dropped below those whod gotten zilch. In total, by giving people 30 bonus, intel lost almost 5 of productivity. Thats a lot, by the way. Think about it. You give money because you think this would increase motivation. It actually decreases motivation. The real issue is how much goodwill do you invest in the work. And goodwill is not something that we can buy. Its very hard to buy goodwill with money. Reporter ariely highlights another payoff using origami. Its already a little sloppy. Indeed. Youre doing it sloppy for me. Reporter theres pride in your own hard work, regardless of outcome. All right thats good enough. You have put some effort into it, it doesnt look like the one in the book, but its uniquely yours, and the effort thats gone into folding it and crumpling it is uniquely a combination of this magical moment between you and this piece of paper. Now in the experiment we came to people, we said look, this origami actually belongs to us, but if youre interested, well sell it to you. So, for example, if it was 10 cents would you buy it or not . Reporter yeah, yeah. 90 cents . Reporter a buck. Its got character, its got a little runny nose, its definitely unique id say. There you go, and then if i came from the outside and i look at it, i would look at the same unique features in a different way, and i would basically say im willing to pay maybe ten cents for it. What we found is that people who build it were willing to pay five times more than the people who didnt. Reporter ariely dubs this attachment to things weve made ourselves the ikea effect, and he says it can be harnessed by employers. If you get people to feel that they are putting something, that they are creating it, and so on, their love for the project would increase, and therefore the more youre willing to invest in it. So these are bionicles, little lego robots. Reporter but its then more demotivating when others devalue that hard work, as in this experiment in which ariely paid participants to build these concoctions. What ages is this for, by the way . 714. Reporter 714, so im out of the age range, so. Yep, after 14 it becomes increasingly harder. Lets say you finish the bionicle, i have it, and as you Start Building the second one i break this into pieces. Im just doing it here next to you and then i say would you like to build another one, the third one . And if you say yes i dont bring a third box in, i give you the one that you just built, and i disassembled. Reporter oh, thats cruel. In your face bionicle dismemberment sure demotivated me, and, it turns out, the studys participants. Very quickly they said no more, this is not worth my time. This is what happens when we destroy the peoples work in front of their eyes, or when we dont let their work reach any fruition. So imagine that youre working on some Powerpoint Presentation and i say were not going to present it. Reporter too often, says ariely, firms kill motivation by failing to notice what workers really care about. And yet its so obvious. The things that motivate us are to help other people, to feel that were useful, to feel that were getting better, to feel that we are kind of living to our potential, to get a sense of meaning. All of those things are positive. Reporter and above all, connection to others. Just ask people what most gratifies them, ariely suggested. Watching my wife do things that are completely outrageous. Taking care of my family. My children. Watching my son dance. Reporter and in my own case, what keeps me doing this job connecting with folks like dan ariely. Thats cute right, how come the japanese did not think about this . Reporter this is economics correspondent paul solman, trying to connect with you from new york. Its a swan displaying, ive got a whole story in my mind now stewart online, we have more from dan ariely. Read an excerpt from his book where he recalls helping a burn victim by sharing his experience. Thats at pbs. Org newshour. Woodruff as Vice President biden said earlier, innovations in genetics could be crucial to finding cures for diseases like cancer. One of the most Significant Developments in this field is the newly discovered ability to modify the very genes in our d. N. A. The technique is known by the acronym crispr. William brangham has our conversation. Brangham crispr is a technique that allows scientists to go into the didnt of a plant or an animal or even a human being and remove or replace a small part of that organisms genetic code. This technique, which could be used to improve crops, eliminate genetic diseases, or specifically target the viruses and pathogens that have killed billion, could be a revolutionary advancement. The potential for crispr is described in the recent issue of the new yorker. The story is called rewriting the code of life. Im joined by its author, new yorker staff writer michael specter. He joins me from california. Michael specter, welcome. In your story you profile a young scientist. I want to quote a line from your story. You say he directs the sculpting Evolution Group at m. I. T. Where he and his colleagues are attempting to design Molecular Tools capable of fundamentally altering the natural world. Thats a pretty extraordinary set of ambitions. What are they trying to do . You know, theyre trying to look out for problems we have in health and crops, in a variety of ways. And we write d. N. A. , which is the basic code of life, so that it can make us healthier, safer, protect crops, protect trees, protect endangered species. Its a tremendously energetic and ambitious idea. And it had, like all wonderfully ambitious ideas, it has great risks, too. Brangham you report on a particular report in nantucket where theyre targeting lyme disease. Mostly people think about lyme disease in deer, and there is a relationship, but the real reservoir is the white foot. At m. I. T. , they thought, lets rewrite the d. N. A. Of the mouse so that it is resistant to the lime tick, so when a lyme tick bites it, it doesnt matter. When you do that, you break this transmission between mice and deer and humans. If you did that enough and if you really rewrote the d. N. A. , mice are not that rapid, but theyre relatively rapid at reproducing, you can quitedly see a way in which you would get rid of that disease. Brangham as you describe it in this piece, crispr is really putting us in the drivers seat for evolution, and not only to control and n some ways evolution, but to accelerate evolution. Am i understanding that this just seems to be a tremendously tremendous potential for this. I think particularly evolution, its a come by nation of editing like a program on your compute theyre allows you to cut and paste words, combining that with a phenomenal called gene drive. Brangham gene drive . Yes, gene drive is something scientists have known about for a long time. Were all supposed to get one copy of a gene from each of our parents. Thats usually what happens. Thats genetics, but every once in a while theres something called a selfless gene, a gene figures out a way to be tricky, to be counterfeit to, cram itself in where it ought not be. And a teacher at Imperial College in london figured this out some time ago. He basically said, if we could use those selfish elements the way we wanted, we could interrupt some things. We could make ma lairal mosquitoes unable to carry malaria and a bunch of things like that could be ended. It was theoretical. Now you have the tool and you have this phenomenon. You put them together, you can really envision doing this. In fact, its being done in labs. Brangham as you write in the piece, you say crispr could enormously improve the world, but it could also endanger the world. How could gene editing endanger the world . Well, i am not an alarmist, but if you can reedit the genes of a mosquito so it cant carry ma lairback you can also reedit the jeans of a mosquito so that it carries something really bad. Brangham use it as a weapon. Sure. You dont have to be a sains fiction writer to believe it would be possible to engineer a species. The mosquito is an, let example, to transmit something bad with a focus on being able to break the transmission of this terrible thing, malaria, and also zika and dengue and many other things. The truth is that could happen. At thing that could happen is mistakes get made. When youre talking about editing d. N. A. , youre talking about changing a species. Thats not a minor thing. Thats a fundamental, powerful choice, and it will require some tremendous forefought. Forethought. Brangham so how are policymakers, researchers thinking about this, talking about this . How do they propose we manage this Awesome Technology . I think theyre doing a very good job of trying the think this out. What that mostly means is theyre working in the labs, but theyre very aggressively reaching out the communities. I dont think policymakers so far have a clue. I mean, they dont know whats coming. Theyre so far behind in regulation its even difficult to understand how you would even talk about regulating this technology. But with the malaria, as i mentioned, theres something called target malaria. A large group of people are working on editing mosquitoes so they wont be able to transmit malaria. In africa already years before you would ever send a mosquito there, talking to people, teaching people on the ground what the choices are so they themselveses can make this choice. This isnt a case where a bunch of western scientists are going to fly in with 400 million mosquitoes and release them and say, congratulations, but there is the possibility of getting people to understand this and make their own decisions. If it works, getting rid of malaria is a big deal. It would also actually be cheap, because theres no vaccines, theres no drugs, theres in cutting back. Were in the there yet. But its certainly possible. Brangham the article is rewriting the code of life. Michael specter, thank you so much. My pleasure. Stewart finally tonight, a movie opening widely this weekend tells a little known piece of history about the history of the early days of space flight and the crucial role played behind the scenes by africanamerican women who were mathematicians and engineers. The film is called Hidden Figures. Its up for a number of honors during this awards season, including two Golden Globes on sunday night. Jeffrey brown has a look at the film and that history. Were just on our way to work, at nasa, sir. I had no idea they hired there are quite a few women working in the Space Program. Brown its a story about an agency that reached for the stars, but was mired in racial and gender barriers still prevalent on the ground. Hidden figures is based on the reallife stories of three black woman who worked in mostly segregated quarters at Nasas Langley center in virginia in the 1950s and 60s. Aiding the efforts to launch the first american, the late john glenn, into orbit. Janelle monae, the singer turned actress, plays mary jackson, struggling to get her license as an engineer. Like the others involved, this history was new to monae. I was excited. I said, wow, were gonna finally be celebrating women not just for their beauty but for their brilliance. And i got excited and then once i found out that they indeed were part of the Space Program at nasa it became a personal responsibility to me to make sure that no young girl, or no human being, no american, you know, went through life not knowing of these true american heroes. Brown mary jackson would spend 34 years at nasa and help many who followed. She found out that the women and minority were being paid significantly less than their male white counterparts. And she along with a couple of other colleagues, took this to nasa and you know, nasa being the progressive place and the place that listened. She helped advance more womens careers, more minorities careers in stem at nasa during that time. So i thought that was just so remarkable and im so honored to play such a woman. This one is important. This one is important on a deep level because its a part of history that has been overlooked, you know . This is more important than anything ive done in my career. Brown taraji p. Henson plays Katherine Johnson, a math prodigy who worked as a so called computer this was just as Machine Computers were arriving, executing by hand the difficult and tedious equations needed to make the science of space flight work. When she first read the script, henson saw the story in very personal terms. I was upset because a dream had been stolen from me. Had i known these women existed maybe i wouldve dreamed to be a rocket scientist. But growing up there was a universal understanding that math and science wasnt for girls. It was for boys. I felt a great responsibility for all the little girls who thought math, or had been told, raise a baby. Get in the kitchen and cook. Or, dont dream to be a rocket scientist. Brown the real Katherine Johnson is still alive, and in 2015 received the medal of freedom from president obama. In the film, Katherine Johnson is assigned to an allwhite department run by Kevin Costners character, a composite of three nasa administrators. Can she handle geometry . Absolutely. And i speak. Think you can find me this data . When youre done watching it you can realize that while the best idea got to the top, how many ideas arent getting there . What do we keep down . My job was to keep nasa going and i naively was thinking that the best idea was getting to me. That we were somehow above this but certainly we werent so but, you can look at our movie, see where were at, and you can come out of the movie and you can turn the mirror around and ask yourself where you think we are . Whats unfair is having the responsibility of a supervisor, but not the title or pay. Brown Octavia Spencer received a golden globe nomination for her supporting role playing dorothy vaughan, a mathematician who became an expert in an early Electronic Computing language. In the film shes effectively managing the department of African American women without being recognized for it. Did that feel like ancient history . I sound like a supervisor, dont i . It still resonates. Theres Unfinished Business in our society. We can talk about gender parity all day. Women in positions that arent really being recognized financially and, so no, it did not feel like it was an idea whose time had passed. Brown its a human story, revolving around complicated math and aeronautics. Director Theodore Melfi said he took some dramatic liberties, but worked hard to get the science right. We took great pride in how much nasa was involved and how much we paid attention to what they had to say. They read script draft after script draft, poured through every single line in the movie, im very proud of the fact that nasa says, theyre very proud. How legitimate it is and how brown music, too, references the era, but its all new, written by superstar musician and producer pharrell williams, who grew up in this part of virginia and felt a personal connection to the subject. Space and nasa, two subjects that i have been obsessed with since i was a child. I used to stare out of the window pane at the stars every night. Every night. Brown thinking . I didnt know what it was, i didnt understand it. I used to ask my mom all the time, you know, what are the stars . How many are there . How far does the black part go . Brown pharrell is also one of the films producers. And its an important one to him. Aw man, the success in this film is when young girls, no matter what color, can receive this message beyond the suppression that they endure everyday. To see that they can do anything that they want, including science, including technology, engineering and math. Thats like, thats the success. Brown the new film comes in the year following the oscars sowhite controversy at the academy awards, in which no people of color were nominated in leading or supporting roles. Does one film make a big difference . Or what do you think has to happen within the world you work in . Just gotta keep working. Yeah and i think that the emphasis is placed in the wrong spot. The academy is at the very end of the whole cycle of the year and how movies get made. I think what people fail to understand is its not the oscars, its the decisionmakers who greenlight movies. Thats what needs to change. So it just goes to show, we still have work to do. Im not gonna complain about it. I see the issue. What am i gonna keep doing . Leading movies. Youre not gonna ignore me. Im not going anywhere. Right, kevin . Kevins putting me in his next movie. Brown Hidden Figures opens nationwide this weekend. For the pbs newshour, im jeffrey brown. Woodruff not one to miss. Learn more about the nasa heroes of Hidden Figures and the discrimination they faced on our website pbs. Org newshour. Stewart and a clarification to our story about the administrations release of four additional inmates from the detention facility at guantanamo bay, cuba. Due to an editing error, we reported that 35 inmates remain at guantanamo. The correct number is 55. We regret the error. And thats the newshour for tonight. Im alison stewart. Woodruff and im judy woodruff. Join us online and again here tomorrow evening for my conversation with secretary of state john kerry. Plus, the analysis of mark shields and david brooks. For all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by lincoln financial is committed to helping you take charge of your future. And with the ongoing support of these institutions this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org this is bbc world news america. Funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation. Newmans own foundation, giving all profits from newmans own to charity and pursuing the common good. 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