molecular anthropology where it looks at things like mitochondrial dna, how it changed over centuries and we can trace that back to a potential ancestor, that famous mitochondrial eve from central africa. i'm forgetting one of the four fields. my professors would be very upset with me. inside of anthropology if you have a question about how does the religious structure or tradition work or how was kinship understood in different parts of the world, or howl is an economic system and forcing some forms of power and discounting other forms of power and how is that like a different era in time or different people in a different part of the world it's both a way of learning about celebrating difference, and to learn -- a way to learn about and celebrate commonality. to me, it is where you can have the most fun really questioning where our species and all of its glory and ridiculousness, i really, really like being an anthropologist. >> what do you do full-time? >> i direct a masters program at new york university. it's an interdisciplinary masters program. i teach. and there is a field i'm

is to create genetically modified embryos using healthy donor dna so mothers don't pass on incurable diseases to their children. mitochondrial disease causes rare inherited conditions including fatal heart problems, brain disorders and multiple sclerosis. >> the recent treatment and cure for patients with mitochondrial disease and what we are trying to do is prevent the transmission from mother to child. >> reporter: one technique involves swapping faulty genetic material for healthy material between the mother's egg and donor egg. britain's chief medical officer says the research should go forward. >> we're not touching the nuclear dna which comes from both parents. >> reporter: critics say creating a baby from the dna of three people is unethical. >> it's crossing the line that many, many experts in ethics and genetics and scientists generally are very concerned about. >> reporter: mitochondrial disease affects about one in 6500 children around the world. experts say only between 5 and 10 families a year would benefit from this new technique in britain. this person has mitochondrial disease in her family. >> we are talking