You probably know the scientist George Church from the extravagant media headlines that have referred to his work in one way or another-about bringing back the wooly mammoth, using CRISPR to put an animated GIF inside living DNA, and curing (or reversing aging). By his own measure, the Harvard Medical School and MIT professor does say things that sound implausible.
“A lot of the things I said when I was young were ignored or ridiculed by people in my own lab,” Church said. “After a few work out, it flips to the other state where, even if I say ridiculous things, I’m not ridiculed. And even the most ridiculous things have a non-ridiculous version.”