welcome to hardtalk, i am sarah montague.s9 has been described as the greatest biological breakthrough in decades. it is a gene editing tool and the hopes that rest on it are immense, that it can be used to cure cancer and other intractable diseases, stop mosquitoes carrying malaria, create drought resistant crops and through that does not rot, even that it can recreate extinct animals. the scientist who led the discovery in 2012 is my guest today. drjennifer doudna, what does she make of the great taking pace of innovation since her discovery, and does she fear where it could lead? drjennifer doudna, welcome to hardtalk. thanks very much. what is crispr—cas9? well, crispr—cas9 is an incredible tool. it is molecular scissors that can cut dna at targeted sites in a genome of a cell, changing the genetic code in a precise fashion. i think you described it as like being able to edit a book, to change one word or even a letter. that's right. it is essentially like being able to rewrite the code of life. we can change the dna sequ

welcome to hardtalk, i'm sarah montague.atorjeff flake is one of president trump's harshest critics. he thinks the president is a danger to america and to the republican party, and he has exhorted his fellow republicans to do something about him, but any republican who speaks out against president trump suffers in the polls. it's why senator flake won't be standing for election again. he knows he won't win. so why does he think republicans need to reclaim their party from their own president? senatorjeff flake, welcome to hardtalk. thanks for having me on. why do you say that president trump is dangerous? well, what i said is, he's the type of, the type of politics that he practices is a danger to democracy. a type of politics that is crude and crass and that really doesn't recognise our allies and expresses a fondness for authoritarians and dictators, that upends arrangements that we have had a hand in creating, this rules—based international order that has made the world prosperous and generally free for 70 years now. that