In pursuing questions about how our bodies build themselves from a fertilised egg, Palestinian biologist Jacob Hanna is searching out fundamental truths about the human condition—and making discoveries that destabilise our concepts of what we are and how we come to be. Although he is—for now—far from being a household name, his field of enquiry is thus a fitting one in which to find Prospect readers’ surprise pick for the world’s top thinker of 2021.
Early embryos are composed of stem cells, which were thought to grow inexorably into all tissues of the body in a process of progressive specialisation. But research over the past decade has revealed our cells to be far more versatile than this, and the body has emerged as much less inevitable or predetermined than we had previously imagined. Far from being the simple unfolding of a blueprint using immutable cellular building blocks, embryo development turns out to be more contingent, self-organised and perhaps reconfigurable.
For example, mature tissue cells can be “reprogrammed” back into stem cells—a process Hanna, working at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, in central Israel, is seeking to explain. Moreover, the canonical embryo or fetus is not the only structure that stem cells can make. Some can be “guided” into becoming miniature organs, grown in the lab. “We are studying stem cells with the ultimate goal to make organs from them for transplantation,” says Hanna—a goal that could potentially save untold lives and transform regenerative medicine.
In and around his field, others are creating synthetic entities they call embryoids and gastruloids, which approximately mirror normal embryo growth and structure without fully recreating normal human development. We don’t yet know how to think about them—not biologically, ethically or philosophically.
Studying embryo growth in the uterus is almost impossible to do ethically for humans, and even with lab animals like mice there have—until recently—been huge technical challenges. But Hanna’s group developed apparatus for growing mice from embryos to half of the full gestation period totally in vitro. While the goal was fundamentally about research—learning by watching how internal organs grow—Hanna’s work became, inevitably, the focus of speculation about human reproduction outside the womb, or ectogenesis as it was christened in the early 20th century. “We just wondered: how far [into embryo growth] can we get?” Hanna tells me. “We didn’t expect the method to be that successful.”
“Hanna acknowledges that studies like his are at the boundaries of life—which creates an obligation to wrestle with ethical dilemmas ”
He now hopes to grow human embryos (already doomed, after being discarded from IVF) for several weeks to learn how their organs are formed. In many countries, including the UK, human embryo growth in vitro beyond 14 days is forbidden. But there is no such absolute prohibition in Israel, and the International Society for Stem Cell Research has recently recommended dropping the 14-day rule in favour of case-by-case regulation based on the importance of the research.
Hanna acknowledges that studies like these at the contested boundaries of life create an obligation to wrestle with ethical dilemmas. “In our field we’re working at the cusp of ethics,” he says. “But just because a line of research [sounds] scary or because you can think of extreme scenarios, you shouldn’t automatically try to ban it, particularly when there is clear scientific benefit… You don’t ban nuclear physics just because one can make a bomb.
“People always like to say you’re ‘playing God,’” he says, “but we are [just] trying to understand organ growth and avoid developmental defects. We’re not saying this should be a carte blanche, but we should, as a society, decide what is needed and justified, and when.”
Hanna recognises that his work takes place in a “liberal academic bubble.” But as a Palestinian scientist (who also identifies as non-binary in gender terms) he’s less cosseted than many thinkers. Life outside the lab “is very challenging”—the Palestinians are “a very oppressed minority both politically and financially,” living in what he calls “an apartheid-like regime.” He sees little prospect of an internal resolution: Israel has no motive, he says. Ultimately he feels that an agreement can only come with the help of the international community. It’s too early to say whether Israel’s change of leadership in July will help, he says—but the defeat of Donald Trump improves the chances.
Philip Ball is a science writer
The year of doers
Specialist, diverse and—more than anything—practical, Prospect readers’ selection of the top 10 global thinkers of 2021 confirms that the idea of a public intellectual is being remade. The top thinker of all, Jacob Hanna embodies the shift: he’s a non-binary Palestinian biologist who grows mouse embryos, partly in the hope of facilitating lab-grown human organs for transplant.
Hanna’s edge was narrow—unlike over the last two years (when Kurdish mathematician Caucher Birkar and Kerala’s revered health minister, KK Shailaja, won) there was no sign of an organised campaign of votes. His closest rival, Italian theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli, is also a scientist. As indeed are Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci, the married Turkish-German couple who developed a Covid-19 vaccine and jointly fill the number five slot. There’s a strong scientific aspect, too, in the work of public health expert Devi Sridhar (No 8) and European “rewilder” Frans Schepers (No 9).
The results confirm the rising salience of both environmental and, more recently, medical science in our discourse. But the contrast with the first similar Prospect vote in 2005 goes beyond that. Back then, the top five were Noam Chomsky, Umberto Eco, Richard Dawkins, Václav Havel and Christopher Hitchens, with another five grand old men including Jürgen Habermas and Jared Diamond in slots 6-10. More striking even than the European/American hegemony—as well as male monopoly—back then is the great premium on thinkers who could write, and then especially (in cases like Hitchens) those who could write about pretty well anything.
“What passed for ‘global thought’ a generation ago was overwhelmingly western—that is no longer true”
Apart from feminist essayist Rebecca Solnit (No 10), today’s names are grounded in scholarly specialisms, even when they get political. Both political theorist Mahmood Mamdani and literature professor Priyamvada Gopal root their interventions in a disruptive analysis of colonialism, whose long shadow the world of ideas is more alert to than it was a generation ago.
The inclusion of theologian Mustafa Akyol (No 7) for his work on Islam’s medieval past confirms a tilt away from the west. The last name in our top 10, Peter Adamson (No 4), partly recognises a new intellectual form—due to his outstanding podcast, the History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps. But Adamson’s commitment to include, for example, African philosophy, confirms once again how what passes for “global thought” has become much more global.
Tom Clark is editor of Prospect
Who we missed...
Strikingly, we chose very few economists for our 2021 list. Readers were quick to pick up on our omissions, suggesting Adam Tooze (“Jeez crazy he is not here”), Amartya Sen (winner in 2014), Mariana Mazzucato, Mark Carney and Kate Raworth, among others.
On international affairs readers were equally split in recommending liberal interventionist Anne Applebaum, who recently doubled down on her support for the Afghanistan war, and the great sceptic of the US empire Noam Chomsky. Rory Stewart, who takes a critical view of western intervention while retaining a faith in its capacity to be done well, was also on readers’ minds.
There were a few “contrarians” put forward, including the inevitable Jordan Peterson. More interesting suggestions picked out those who have rebelled against groupthink among their peers. Conservative African-American thinker Thomas Sowell is a critic of positive discrimination and “woke” culture. Feminists such as Kathleen Stock see a potential conflict between the rights of women and those of men who transition to become women. Paul Kingsnorth is a rare Brexit-friendly novelist, interested in the work of philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre on virtue ethics. All these names will rile some, but at least the discussion is happening.
Heather Cox Richardson was a new name to me. The US historian of the Civil War has a huge following on Substack, where subscribers pay for her daily newsletter entitled “Letters from an American,” which brings a historical perspective to bear on current events.
It doesn’t seem that long ago that England manager Gareth Southgate was leading a winning team while calling for a truce in the culture wars at the same time. The bubble burst after those missed penalties and the racist abuse of his players. But more than one person wanted to acknowledge his extraordinary summer. Be more Gareth, in victory and defeat.
Sameer Rahim is managing editor of Prospect
