| | | | | | | Presented By Unfinished Live | | | | Axios Future | | By Bryan Walsh ·Sep 15, 2021 | | Welcome to Axios Future, where I have to admit I'm wondering what a genetically resurrected wooly mammoth steak would taste like. Today's Smart Brevity count: 1,617 words or about 6 minutes. | | | | | | 1 big thing: CRISPR goes Mammoth |  | | | Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios | | | | The gene-editing tool CRISPR is moving toward the market, promising better tests, disease cures — and maybe even a woolly mammoth. The big picture: CRISPR is already a historic scientific achievement, but we're just now entering the moment when it will begin to impact patients and possibly the planet. Driving the news: The San Francisco-based CRISPR startup Mammoth Biosciences — whose co-founder Jennifer Doudna shared a Nobel Prize in chemistry last year for her role in discovering the gene-editing tool — announced $195 million in funding late last week, valuing it at more than $1 billion. - "The fundamental platform we're building at Mammoth is using CRISPR as a toolbox system" for diagnostics and treatments, says Trevor Martin, Mammoth's co-founder and CEO.
How it works: CRISPR — which stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats — are bits of genetic code that bacteria have evolved to locate and destroy viruses. - Mammoth first focused on using the tool to develop diagnostic tests for diseases by programming CRISPR sequences to seek out a particular stretch of RNA or DNA in a virus.
- The relative ease of programming CRISPR opens up the possibility of cheap and accurate tests that could diagnose multiple pathogens simultaneously — one reason why the company received funding from the Defense Department in January to develop a point-of-care test that could detect up to 10 pathogens at once, as well as a larger, lab-based test that could detect up to 1,000.
- Mammoth has also received funding from the NIH to scale up a disposable, handheld COVID-19 test.
Between the lines: The first and most widely known CRISPR enzyme is called Cas9, but Mammoth has also been developing new enzymes like Cas12, Cas13, and Cas14. - These enzymes are as little as a third the size of Cas9, which means they can reduce unwanted off-target effects during treatments and can be more easily delivered to the body via viruses or nanoparticles.
- These new CRISPR enzymes have been patented by Mammoth, which helps them avoid a patent battle like the one the University of California-Berkeley (where Doudna works) and MIT's Broad Institute fought to determine who owns the rights to the original Cas9.
What to watch: Another new company wants to use gene editing for an even more audacious goal: bringing back an extinct animal. - This week, the startup Colossal launched with the plan to use CRISPR to add 60-plus genes from the extinct wooly mammoth into the cells of an embryo of an Asian elephant, the mammoth's closest living relative.
- If Colossal succeeds, it plans to reintroduce the re-engineered mammoths to their original habitat in Siberia, which the company's co-founder, Harvard geneticist and CRISPR pioneer George Church, has argued could help reduce the release of CO2 from the rapidly warming tundra.
The catch: Colossal faces major scientific challenges — including building an artificial womb that can gestate a 200 lb. hybrid mammoth fetus — as well as ethical questions about whether it's humane to bring back and set loose a long-extinct animal. - Yes, but: Gene editing could emerge as a powerful tool for conservation by allowing scientists to edit endangered species to better resist pathogens or adapt to a changing climate.
The bottom line: CRISPR is poised to fundamentally change both humans and other species, which means that "we as a society have to actually choose what we want to do," says Martin. Read the rest |     | | | | | | 2. The global food price crisis isn't going away |  Data: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; Chart: Axios Visuals Global food prices have continued to rise throughout the pandemic, and they're now at close to the highest level they've been in decades. Why it matters: Beyond the hunger and suffering that comes with costlier food, high prices are driving serious political discontent around the world — and there's little relief in sight. - 768 million people — nearly 1 in 10 globally — were undernourished in 2020, up 118 million from 2019.
By the numbers: According to data from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), global food prices in August were up 33% from the year before. - Adjusted for inflation, food is now almost as expensive as it has been since the FAO's Food Price Index began in 1961.
- "Food is more expensive today than it has been for the vast majority of modern recorded history," Alistair Smith, senior teaching fellow in global sustainable development at Warwick University in the U.K., told Bloomberg.
Read the rest | | | | | | | | 3. The danger of "sole authority" on nuclear weapons |  | | | Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios | | | | New reporting around the chaotic final stages of President Trump's tenure underscores essential problems with the U.S. nuclear command-and-control system. Why it matters: One person possesses the authority to launch America's massive nuclear arsenal and quite possibly end the world: the president. And there's no clear, legal way to circumvent that authority if they can't be trusted. Driving the news: In their forthcoming book, the Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Robert Costa report that during the final months of Trump's administration, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley summoned senior officers from the National Military Command Center to go over the procedures for launching a nuclear weapon. - Milley also reportedly told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after the Jan. 6 riot in the Capitol that "the nuclear triggers are secure and we're not going to do — we're not going to allow anything crazy, illegal, immoral or unethical to happen."
The big picture: While the chairman of the Joint Chiefs is the White House's top military adviser and the National Military Command System is charged with actually carrying out a launch order, the president is not required to check with them or get their assent before launching a nuclear strike. - There are rational — at least by the mad logic of nuclear war — reasons for this.
- The sheer speed of nuclear conflict gives the president only minutes to decide where to fire U.S. missiles or risk losing some of them in a first strike.
The catch: That system means the ultimate nuclear failsafe is the president themself — and if that president can't be trusted to act rationally, all bets are off. - During the end of President Richard Nixon's tenure, his behavior was so erratic that Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger asked military officers to check with him first if Nixon gave a nuclear launch order.
Between the lines: There's no clear way to create a nuclear command system that can act almost instantly without giving the president sole authority — which is why advisers like Schlesinger and Milley reportedly had to resort in a crisis to quasi-legal means to circumvent it. - Some experts have suggested the system itself is outdated and the risk of the U.S. facing a Cold War-style intentional first strike that requires an immediate response is far less likely than the chance of an accidental war — which sole authority arguably increases.
- In a report published earlier this month, the Ploughshares Fund's Doreen Horschig calls for ending sole authority and mandating that the military would only follow a presidential launch order if it were approved by Congress.
Share this story | | | | | | | | A message from Unfinished Live | | Join us to explore the future of tech, Sept. 23-24 in NYC | | |  | | | | Join tech, impact and cultural leaders for two days of mainstage talks, live podcasts + an immersive art installation — A Project Liberty Experience — focused on decentralization, ethical tech and a new civic architecture for the digital world. RSVP today. | | | | | | 4. We're buying — and playing — lots of video games |  | | | Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images | | | | U.S. video game sales hit a record $4.4 billion in August, proving the bump in gaming seen during the pandemic last year wasn't a passing trend, Axios Gaming reporter Megan Farokhmanesh writes. Details: It was a huge month for hardware purchases, which the NPD Group reports hit $329 million, the best August sales number since 2008. - The Nintendo Switch continues to outshine competitors Microsoft and Sony. The console was the bestselling hardware in August and for the year to date.
- The PlayStation 5 is leading in terms of actual dollar sales, however, and it remains the company's fastest-selling platform.
By the numbers: Consumer spending for hardware, content and accessories was 7% higher than the same period last year. And the bestselling game in August goes to ... "Madden NFL 22." - Bryan's thought bubble: $59.99 of Madden's total can be chalked up to me, as I'm now spending my off-hours tearing up the league as future MVP Jalen Hurts.
| | | | | | | | 5. Worthy of your time | | The housing theory of everything (Sam Bowman, John Myers and Ben Southwood — Works in Progress) - A cogent argument that virtually every problem the U.S. faces now can be traced back to its terrible housing policies.
A horrifying new AI app swaps women into porn videos at a click (Karen Hao — MIT Tech Review) - For all the fears about deepfakes damaging political trust, the biggest victims of the technology so far — as is often the case — are ordinary women.
The third revolution in warfare (Kai-fu Lee — The Atlantic) - Three words to chill the spine about the effect AI will have on conflict: "autonomous suicide bombers."
Inside the cult of crypto (Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan and Robin Wigglesworth — Financial Times) - A headline that should be taken literally.
| | | | | | | | 6. 1 auto thing: The cars from "Mad Max" could be yours | For sale: One post-apocalyptic war wagon, flame-spouting guitarist not included. Credit: Australia Channel 9Some of the heavily modified cars and trucks from the 2015 post-apocalyptic masterpiece "Mad Max: Fury Road" will be going on auction to the public later this month. Why it matters: This might be your only chance to become the proud owner of the War Rig, the Gigahorse, or the Razor Cola. What's happening: Lloyds Classic Car Auctions will be putting up for sale 13 of the 150 vehicles director George Miller had built for his film. Offers close Sept. 26. - Personally, I'd go for the Doof Wagon, the giant, rolling heavy metal soundstage that featured its own electric guitarist as a hood ornament.
- From the auction brochure: "The wail of the banshee, the distorted lick and demented, driving bass, the call to arms and the baying for blood, all music to the ears and grist to the mill, a symphony, a song, a single scream, the soundtrack to the end of civilization."
The bottom line: But first I'd have to check out the resale value for my 2011 Toyota Prius. | | | | | | | | A message from Unfinished Live | | Join us to explore the future of tech, Sept. 23-24 in NYC | | | | | | | | Join tech, impact and cultural leaders for two days of mainstage talks, live podcasts + an immersive art installation — A Project Liberty Experience — focused on decentralization, ethical tech and a new civic architecture for the digital world. RSVP today. | | |  | | It'll help you deliver employee communications more effectively. | | | | | | Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. If you're interested in advertising, learn more here.
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