At this week’s Table Talk, we discussed the controversy of various forms of genetic engineering and the forms of competition which drive progress, especially in fields such as science and medicine. One of the forms we discussed was that which occurs between countries. I found this particularly compelling because it reminded me of previous events in the history of the United States and the world: one positive in the eyes of scientific progress and one catastrophic to humanity. The first of these, the space race, mainly provided a motivational drive — a political benefit to scientific progress, and it concluded with one of mankind’s greatest achievements to date, placing a man on the moon. However, the latter of these was the race to create an atomic bomb, and while it also represented great scientific progress, this time in terms of the understanding of radioactive elements, the ultimate result was the death and devastation of hundreds of thousands of people. Ultimately, the question this raises to me is not whether genetic engineering will result in incredible scientific progress — for it undoubtedly will. Instead, will genetic engineering one day find itself the cause of great devastation to humanity? And what steps can we take to prevent such a disaster without hindering scientific progress?I personally have faith in the scientific community in preventing physical threats that would resemble an atomic bomb, such as a swine flu epidemic, but I am less certain about the potential impacts of genetic engineering that will come about based on people’s choices and investments (i.e. designer babies) and what consequences, both physical and societal, may arise as a result.