The Documentary Podcast

Controlling nature's data

Jul 31, 2025 · 26 min · 12.8 MB
0:00-26:36

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Could AI cure cancer using nature's DNA? A London tech firm, Basecamp Research, harvests genetic information from organisms and microbes around the world. Its genome database - the world's biggest - will help supercomputers to create new products, from detergents to medicines. It's a bewildering new frontier, and it comes with big questions: who should own this valuable information? Who should benefit? And what could it unleash?