Rapid advances in genetic science will raise challenging ethical questions for which society is unprepared, the scientist chosen to give this year's Royal Institution Christmas Lectures warns.
More powerful techniques and falling costs mean the ability to genetically modify humans, extend lifespan and predict a person's risk of disease from a readout at birth - as in the film Gattaca - are now on the horizon, said Alison Woollard of Oxford University.
The scientist, who studies the exquisite process that starts with a single cell and ends with a complete organism, will continue the 188-year tradition at the Royal Institution made famous by Michael Faraday, Carl Sagan and Sir David Attenborough. In late December she will give three lectures entitled "Life Fantastic" in front of a live audience and also be broadcast on BBC4.
Woollard will explore the science of developmental biology, where discoveries are expected to lead to radical new medical treatments but also raise fresh questions for society. What should we do with genetic information? Can we halt the ageing process? Should we genetically engineer humans?
"These ideas are going to gain momentum as our understanding of DNA improves, and they can raise real ethical dilemmas," Woollard told the Guardian. "What should we do? It's not for scientists to decide, it's for society. But society cannot make decisions if people don't understand the questions."
"Too little basic science and ethics is being taught in schools. There is not enough mechanistic understanding and from that comes the language you need to discuss the ethics of these issues," she said. "Children need to think deeply about progress in medicine and what it might mean. It's a problem the next generation will have ownership of in a way that we don't."
Woollard cites gene sequencing as an example. A readout of a person's whole genome could help doctors tailor their treatment, but will patients want to know what is written in their genes? "It's going to have huge implications for health, but we're also going to have a massive ability to predict disease status throughout people's lives," she said. "That's not something to rush into lightly."
She baulks at the prospect of Creationism being taught alongside evolution in schools. "Evolution through natural selection is up there with gravity and I wouldn't trivialise that with another explanation based on a divine being. I like the Darwinian view. 'There is a grandeur in its view of life.' It is beautiful."
When Woollard was first contacted about the Christmas lectures she deleted the email, only to retrieve it later and mull the idea over. Her initial reaction was that it would be too time-consuming. She has since decided to embrace the work that lies ahead. How does she feel about following in the footsteps of Faraday and the rest? "On the one hand it's an incredible privilege, but on the other, the weight of expectation is huge."
Faraday launched the Ri lectures in 1825 to draw young people into science. They have run every year since - apart from a hiatus during the second world war - to become the most prestigious public lectures on science in Britain. Woollard is only the fifth woman to give the lectures. All the others, Baroness Susan Greenfield, Nancy Rothwell, Monica Grady and Susan Hartley, have taken the floor in the past 20 years.
Woollard, a mother of two, said she has never encountered a misogynist or sexist colleague, but had first-hand experience of the difficulty of juggling a scientific career with being a mother. "Scientists are under constant pressure to publish and get grants. Everything is deadline-driven, and people don't want gaps in their CV, in their publication record, or in their grant funding. But keeping all of that going while trying to start a family, or trying to maintain a family, is very, very difficult. For me that's been hugely challenging, and I think it's what puts most women off."
Part of the solution might be to lower expectations, she said. "We need to see careers as a whole, and we need to take into account people's circumstances. It's like being a hamster on a wheel. You can't stop the wheel, and you should be able to, or at least let it run more slowly," she said.
For the past 18 years, Woollard has studied tiny transparent worms that live in the soil. She knows how they have sex, evade danger, and precisely how many cells they should have. At 1mm long, Caenorhabditis elegans - a kind of nematode worm - look like threads of cotton to the naked eye. But under a microscope they reveal the exquisite cellular choreography of life.
This is what enthuses Woollard most. "It is such a feat of utter complexity. It is extraordinary that any of us is here," she said.
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