Monthly Archives: October 2019

Humankind is on the verge of a genetic revolution that holds great promise and potential. It will change the ways food is grown, medicine is produced, animals are altered and will give rise to new ways of producing plastics, biofuels and chemicals.

Many object to the genetic revolution, insisting we should not be playing God by tinkering with the building blocks of life; we should leave the genie in the bottle. This is the view held by many opponents of GMO foods. But few transformative scientific advances are widely embraced at first. Once a discovery has been made and its impact widely felt it is impossible to stop despite the pleas of doubters and critics concerned about potential unintended consequences. Otherwise, science would not have experienced great leaps throughout historyand we would still be living a primitive existence.

[Editors note: This is the first in a four-part series examining genetic engineerings impact on our lives. The second installment examines regulatory obstacles blunting the potential of genetically engineered animals;the third looks at the role of gene editing in medicine; and the final segment looks at synthetic biology and other novel applications.]

Gene editing of humans and plantsa revolutionary technique developed just a few years ago that makes genetic tinkering dramatically easier, safer and less expensivehas begun to accelerate this revolution. University of California-Berkeley biochemistJennifer Doudna, one of the co-inventors of the CRISPR technique:

Within the next few years, this new biotechnology will give us higher-yielding crops, healthier livestock, and more nutritious foods. Within a few decades, we might well have genetically engineered pigs that can serve as human organ donorswe are on the cusp of a new era in the history of life on earthan age in which humans exercise an unprecedented level of control over the genetic composition of the species that co-inhabit our planet. It wont be long before CRISPR allows us to bend nature to our will in the way that humans have dreamed of since prehistory.

The four articles in this series will examine the dramatic changes that gene editing and other forms of genetic engineering will usher in.

Despite the best efforts of opponents, GE crops have become so embedded and pervasive in the food systemseven in Europe which has bans in place on growing GMOs in most countriesthat it is impossible to dislodge them without doing serious damage to the agricultural sector and boosting food costs for consumers.

Even countries which ban the growing of GMOs or who have such strict labeling laws that few foods with GE ingredients are sold in supermarkets are huge consumers of GE products.

Europe is one of the largest importers of GMO feed in the world. Most of the meat we consume from cattle, sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys, pigs and fish farms are fed genetically modified corn, soybeans and alfalfa.

And the overwhelming majority of cheeses are made with an enzyme produced by GM microbes and some beers and wines are made with genetically engineered yeast.

North America, much of South America and Australia are major consumers of foods grown from GE seeds. Much of the corn oil, cotton seed oil, soybean oil and canola oil used for frying and cooking, and in salad dressings and mayonnaise is genetically modified. GM soybeans are used to make tofu, miso, soybean meal, soy ice cream, soy flour and soy milk. GM corn is processed into corn starch and corn syrup and is used to make whiskey. Much of our sugar is derived from GM sugar beets and GE sugarcane is on the horizon. Over 90 percent of the papaya grown in Hawaii has been genetically modified to make it resistant to the ringspot virus. Some of the squash eaten in the US is made from GM disease-resistant seeds and developing countries are field testing GM disease-resistant cassava.

Many critics of GE in agriculture focus on the fact that by volume most crops are used in commodity food manufacturing, specifically corn and soybeans. One reason for that is the high cost of getting new traits approved. Indeed, research continues on commodity crops, although many of the scientists work for academia and independent research institutes.

For example, in November 2016, researchers in the UK were granted the authority to begin trials of a genetically engineered wheat that has the potential to increase yields by 40 percent. The wheat, altered to produce a higher level of an enzyme critical for turning sunlight and carbon dioxide into plant fuel, was developed in part by Christine Raines, the Head of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Essex.

A new generation of foods are now on the horizon, some as the result of new breeding techniques (NBTs), such as gene editing. Many of these foods will be nutritionally fortified, which will be critical to boosting the health of many of the poorest people in developing nations and increase yields.

Golden rice is a prime example of such a nutrition-enhanced crop. It is genetically engineered to have high levels of beta carotene, a precursor of Vitamin A. This is particularly important as many people in developing countries suffer from Vitamin A deficiency which leads to blindness and even death. Bangladesh is expected to begin cultivation of golden rice in 2018. The Philippines may also be close to growing it.

A strain of golden rice that includes not only high levels of beta carotene but also high levels of zinc and iron could be commercialized within 5 years. Our results demonstrate that it is possible to combine several essential micronutrients iron, zinc and beta carotene in a single rice plant for healthy nutrition, said Navreet Bhullar, senior scientist at ETH Zurich, which developed the rice.

The Science in the News group at Harvard University discussed some of the next generation foods.

Looking beyond Golden Rice, there are a large number of biofortified staple crops in development. Many of these crops are designed to supply other micronutrients, notably vitamin E in corn, canola and soybeansProtein content is also a key focus; protein-energy malnutrition affects 25% of children because many staple crops have low levels ofessential amino acids. Essential amino acids are building blocks of proteins and must be taken in through the diet or supplements. So far, corn, canola, and soybeans have been engineered to contain higher amounts of the essential amino acid lysine. Crops like corn, potatoes and sugar beets have also been modified to contain more dietary fiber, a component with multiple positive health benefits.

Other vitamin-enhanced crops have been developed though they have yet to be commercialized. Australian scientists created a GE Vitamin A enriched banana, scientists in Kenya developed GE Vitamin A enhanced sorghum and plant scientists in Switzerland developed a GE Vitamin B6 enhanced cassava plant.

Scientists genetically engineered canola, a type of rapeseed, to produce additional omega-3 fatty acids. Research is being conducted on developing GM gluten free wheat and vegetables with higher levels of Vitamin E to fight heart disease.

Other more consumer-focused genetically-engineered crops that do not use transgenics, and have sailed through the approval system include:

Other products are in development that fight viruses and disease. Scientists have used genetic engineering to develop disease-resistant rice. A new plum variety resists the plum pox virus. It has not yet been commercialized. GE solutions may be the only answer to save the orange industry from citrus greening, which is devastating orange groves in Florida. GE might be utilized to curb the damage caused by stem rust fungus in wheat and diseases effecting the coffee crop.

In Africa, GE solutions could be used to combat the ravages of banana wilt and cassava brown streak disease and diseases that impact cocoa trees and potatoes. A GE bean has been developed in Brazil that is resistant to the golden mosaic virus. Researchers at the University of Florida, the University of California-Berkeley and the 2Blades Foundation have developed a disease resistant GM tomato.

Scientists at the John Innes Center in the UK are attempting to create a strain of barley capable of making its own ammonium fertilizer from nitrogen in the soil. This would be particularly beneficial to farmers who grow crops in poor soil conditions or who lack the financial resources to buy synthetic fertilizers.

Peggy Ozias-Akins, a horticulture expert at the University of Georgia has developed and tested genetically-engineered peanuts that do not produce two proteins linked to intense allergens.

New gene editing techniques (NBTs) such as CRISPR offer great potential and face lower approval hurdles, at least for now.

In June 2017, the EPA approved a new first of its kind GE corn known as SmartStaxPro, in which the plants genes are tweaked without transgenics to produce a natural toxin designed to kill western corn rootworm larvae. It also produces a piece of RNA that shuts down a specific gene in the larvae, thereby killing them. The new GE corn is expected to be commercialized by the end of the decade.

What could slowor even stopthis revolution? In an opinion piece for Nature Biology, Richard B. Flavell, a British molecular biologist and former director of the John Innes Center in the UK, which conducts research in plant science, genetics and microbiology, warned about the dangers of vilifying and hindering new GE technologies:

The consequences of simply sustaining the chaotic status quoin which GMOs and other innovative plant products are summarily demonized by activists and the organic lobbyare frightening when one considers mounting challenges to food production, balanced nutrition and poverty alleviation across the world. Those who seek to fuel the GMO versus the non-GMO debate are perpetuating irresolvable difference of opinion. Those who seek to perpetuate the GMO controversy and actively prevent use of new technology to crop breeding are not only on the wrong side of the debate, they are on the wrong side of the evidence. If they continue to uphold beliefs against evidence, they will find themselves on the wrong side of history.

A version of this article previously ran on the GLP on January 24, 2018.

Steven E. Cerier is a freelance international economist and a frequent contributor to the Genetic Literacy Project

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Genetic engineering, CRISPR and food: What the 'revolution' will bring in the near future - Genetic Literacy Project

Jamie Metzl is an extremely impressive man. Having held senior positions on Clinton's National Security Council and Department of State, and Joe Biden's Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he's also been Executive VP of the Asia Society, a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council and a former partner in Cranmere LLC, a global investment company. Today, while he's not running ultra-marathons, he's best known as a geopolitics expert, futurist and author.

Metzl writes in science fiction and scientific non-fiction, and his latest book, Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity, delivers a serious, strongly-researched warning on what's likely to happen if we sleepwalk into the genetics age.

We spoke to Metzl at WCIT 2019 in Yerevan, Armenia, where he appeared as a keynote speaker, moderator and panel member.

Vahram Baghdasaryan/WCIT Yerevan 2019

"Right now were at this moment of super-convergence," Metzl tells us. "Its not any one technology thats determinative, its all these technologies happening at the same time, because theyre all influencing each other."

The first of these, Metzl outlines, is cheap sequencing of the human genome. Well need a ton of genetic information to be able to find the patterns needed to move forward, and while the cost of full genome sequencing is currently the limiting factor, it's dropping steeply, from around US$2.7 billion in 2003, to less than US$600 today. That's going to have to come down by another order or two of magnitude before it starts getting used as a matter of routine.

Secondly, 5G connectivity and the Internet of Things promises to teach us enormous amounts of information about people's health over the years, as wearable health analysis devices begin to stream back colossal piles of dynamic data about what's going on in people's bodies. Eventually, this will enable population-wide phenotypical research to be cross-checked against the genome to learn even more about how genes express themselves, individually and in concert with one another.

Thirdly, big data and analytics tools. The 2.9 billion haploid pairs making up each sequenced human genome represent about 725 megabytes of data, and dynamic health records will likely require even more storage space, in formats that can easily be cross-checked against each other at a massive scale.

Metzl notes that artificial intelligence or more precisely, deep learning is the only way we'll ever be able to meaningfully process such monstrous amounts of data, and its capabilities are rocketing forward daily. Perhaps when it's ready for serious commercial use, the speed and power of quantum computing will prove invaluable in quickly crunching through these petabytes of data.

Then of course, there are the wetter technologies: vastly improved IVF technologies that will soon enable us to generate egg and sperm cells from skin cells without needing invasive or embarrassing procedures to be carried out. Eventually, we'll have the capability to cheaply produce dozens, or even hundreds of embryos to sequence, select and implant.

And of course, gene editing tools. CRISPR/Cas9 editing is the most famous example of these, but it's already being compared to "genetic vandalism" due to its imprecise nature. More accurate and precise tools are constantly being discovered and refined to edit the genome of living subjects.

"We have to stitch together all these technologies," says Metzl, "and its already starting to happen. And itll happen increasingly until the end of time."

Vahram Baghdasaryan/WCIT Yerevan 2019

The first step, says Metzl, will be in healthcare. Our interactions with health care professionals will move from the current generalized model, to something more personal and precise as we start to understand what treatments work for people with certain genetic markers. Eventually, we'll have enough information to start engaging in predictive health care.

"You dont need to be perfect to make a huge impact on health care," says Metzl, "you just have to be better than the status quo, where nobody has that information, for it to be applied." It'll inch forward, offering probabilities rather than certainties as more and more is discovered.

Next and soon, we'll start seeing advanced embryo selection as a core part of any IVF treatment. Prospective parents will start having multiple embryos to choose from, each of which will have its genome fully sequenced so they'll be able to choose between offspring with a growing amount of information.

To begin with, this will allow parents to select against crippling genetic diseases, much the same as how parents who can afford the right scans can "select against" things like Down syndrome now.

But as science learns more and more about what individual genes, and combinations of them, do to the final outcome of a human, we'll quickly gain the ability to select for certain traits as well as against others. Will you want your child to be taller? More athletic, with a greater proportion of fast twitch muscle fibers? What about intelligence? Skin color? Eye color? Would you select for a child with a higher probability of living longer? Would you select for a child with a higher degree of extraversion, or a more even temperament?

All these things, and many more, are already known to have genetic underpinnings. And soon, parents will be able to choose between dozens, or potentially hundreds of their own biological embryos with this information at hand. All these possible kids are yours, so why wouldn't you choose the one that appears to have the best possible shot at life? Not doing so, says Metzl, could grow to be seen as a "crime against potential."

The disadvantages of having children the old-fashioned way will soon become apparent, as smarter, stronger, faster, healthier kids born from selection processes begin to dominate across a range of competitive situations, from sport to business to earning capacity and these advantages will multiply with subsequent generations, as more and more science is applied to the reproductive process.

"Embryo selection uses technologies that already exist," says Metzl. "IVF, embryo screening, and genome sequencing. Obviously we need to get better at all these things, but its happening very, very quickly."

And that's just using our naturally-occurring genetics. Soon afterward will follow precision gene editing, in which you select option J from your pre-implanted embryos, but make a few tweaks before you implant it. Here's where things start getting a little sketchy, as you're making edits to the germ line of the human species.

"Editing the genome requires the understanding that one gene might not just do one thing; it might do a lot of things," Metzl tells us. "If its a particularly harmful gene, then we know the alternative is deadly, so that decision will be easier. But when we move into the world of non-deadly single gene mutations, well, then the costs of not having a full understanding go higher."

Metzl says it's clear which direction things will go."We are going to do more and more complex genome editing," he tells us, "either to address risks, or to create enhancements - and there will be no natural boundary between the two. This is all about ethics. The science is advancing, theres nothing we can do to stop the science. The question is ethics."

The dawn of a new age of superhumans could nearly be upon us, in which a lucky, selected, edited few will have extraordinary genetic potentials in a wide range of areas. Sports could become almost meaningless, as it'll be impossible to tell a selected or edited human from a "natural born" one. Humanity will begin steering its own evolution for the first time in history, with some predictable results and some we can't see coming.

Negative results, says Metzl, could include everything from a gaping division between genetic haves and have-nots which could express itself within and between countries all the way up to eliminating all human life altogether. "We may make choices based on something we think is really good, like eliminating a terrible disease," says Metzl, "but then that genetic pattern that enabled that disease, in some other formulation, could be protective against some threat we cant even imagine, thats coming our way a thousand years from now. Thats why we need to be so respectful of our diversity. Genetic diversity, up to this point, has been our sole survival strategy. If we didnt have diversity, you could say wed still be single-celled organisms. We wouldnt, wed probably just have died. When the world changes around us, diversity is what helps us survive."

And then there's the potential of creating genetically engineered weapons. "Researchers in Canada spent $100,000 a couple of years ago," says Metzl, "to create essentially a weaponized version of horse pox in the lab, to show what could be done. Well, that could probably now be done for $20,000. In five years, you might be talking $2,000. These tools are agnostic. They dont come with their own value system. Just like nuclear power. We had to work out what are the OK uses, what are the not OK uses, and how do we structure things to we minimize the downsides."

Metzl wants people across the world to be informed about the technologies and capabilities that are barreling down the pipeline toward us, so meaningful efforts can be made to steer them in a direction that everyone can agree on, and set up clear redlines past which we agree not to venture. Each country, he says, needs to set up a national regulatory infrastructure to control the pace of these changes, and there also needs to be an international body with some teeth to make sure certain nations don't leap ahead and change the nature of humanity just due to lax regulations.

"This is always going to be changing," says Metzl. "The science is changing, the societal norms about what is and isnt OK are going to be changing too, and we need a dynamic process that can at least try to do a better job of keeping up with that rapid change."

Where does Metzl stand personally on how this next phase should be approached? "I'm a conservative person about this," he says. "I mean, four billion years of evolution is a lot. Life has made a lot of trade-offs. So if youre going against four billion years of evolution, you have to be humble. We know so little about the body. We cant let our hubris run away with us."

If you want to get informed on this incredibly complex, multilayered and potentially explosive technological revolution, Metzl's book Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity (April 2019) is an outstanding summary with more examples and possible future situations laid out than you could possibly need, written in an engaging style designed to be accessible to anyone. I found it extremely enlightening and recommend it thoroughly.

Source: Jamie Metzl, WCIT Yerevan 2019

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Hacking Darwin: How the coming genetics revolution will play out - New Atlas

With the impending premier of HBOs new Watchmen series looming over us like the Doomsday Clock, its probably a good time to revisit the original story so you know what the hell is going on. The new series, from Lost showrunner Damon Lindelof, looks in part like HBOs attempt to fill the violent intrigue and nudity void left by Game of Thrones with violent intrigue and superhero capes (and probably also nudity). Such is the burden of prestige television.

However, if youve never read Watchmen, youre going to be confused when you tune into the first episode this Sunday. Thats because the HBO show is a sequel to the graphic novel specifically (and not the 2009 film). Lindelof is a longtime fan of the graphic novel, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. In fact, a praise-heaping quote from Lindelof has been included on the back cover of every trade paperback edition of Watchmen since the mid-2000s, and he has said that it was a huge inspiration on Losts time-hopping narrative of interconnected flashbacks. So its no surprise he wanted to base his new story on the source material, rather than do a continuation of the film adaptation.

But odds are you probably dont have time to cram in a reading of Moore and Gibbons notoriously dense story before the show airs this weekend. Luckily, I have nothing but time for things like that, because Im catastrophically irresponsible and great at compartmentalizing. And Ive written a helpful summary of the story of Watchmen to tell you everything you need to know before using your friends parents HBO account to watch the show this Sunday.

Image via Vertigo

Watchmen takes place in an alternate history 1985, in a world where costumed superheroes are real. However, only one person with actual superpowers exists Jon Osterman, AKA Dr. Manhattan, a physicist who gained near-omnipotence after a freak accident. Among Dr. Manhattans powers are the ability to rearrange matter at will, teleport anywhere in the universe instantaneously, clone himself infinitely, see backwards and forwards in time simultaneously, and blow people up with a hand gesture. Hes like a mix between Superman and Professor X, with some Dr. Strange thrown in for good measure.

In the storys timeline, superheroes become outlawed in the 1970s. Only Dr. Manhattan and The Comedian a violent, Punisher-type militant are allowed to continue to operate, because they agree to work exclusively as agents of the U.S. government. The rest of the heroes Dan Dreiberg AKA Nite Owl, Laurie Jupiter AKA Silk Spectre, and Adrian Veidt AKA Ozymandias are forced to retire. Adrian retires publicly, revealing his identity to the world. Hes basically Tony Stark. Dan and Lauries identities remain secret, although Laurie lives with Dr. Manhattan in a government facility as his lover / babysitter. Dan is kind of a sad Batman, while Laurie is sort of like Black Widow meets Black Canary (again, without any superpowers). The only hero who refuses to retire is Rorschach, a brutal, murderous vigilante clad in a fedora and a white mask covered in ink blot patterns that are constantly shifting. Hes still prowling the streets, attacking criminals and evading capture by the police. Were also led to believe that he smells like a sack of dead cats in a diaper bin.

Meanwhile, Dr. Manhattan has allowed the U.S. to keep a stranglehold on the world. The Vietnam War was a decisive American victory, Richard Nixon has been president for several terms, the Watergate scandal never happened (its implied The Comedian murdered Woodward and Bernstein), and the Cold War has mostly consisted of the United States using Dr. Manhattan to flex on the Soviet Union. However, the Soviet Union is getting tired of it, and threatens to invade Afghanistan to goad the U.S. into mutually-assured destruction. (This happened in real life as well, for those of you who dont remember, but in Watchmen the Soviet Unions invasion of Afghanistan happens much later.) So, despite the presence of an honest-to-god Superman who could stop 98% of incoming nuclear missiles from ever reaching the U.S., the world is still on the brink of world-ending nuclear war.

Still with me? Great, because thats just all the stuff that happens before the story starts. So, deep breath, here we go:

Image via Vertigo

The story begins with the Comedian getting murdered by an unknown attacker. Rorschach investigates, initially believing that someone is bumping off all the old superheroes. He notifies Dan, Adrian, Laurie, and Dr. Manhattan of both the Comedians death and of his superhero killer theory, but none of them take his warning very seriously. Particularly unfazed is Laurie, because the Comedian had assaulted and nearly raped her mother, the original Silk Spectre, back when her mother and the Comedian were on the same superhero team, the Minutemen.

Meanwhile, Dr. Manhattan gets hit with a series of allegations from former friends and coworkers claiming that exposure to his super-powered body gave them all terminal cancer. Manhattan, whose god-like status already has him struggling to continue to care about regular humans, has a good old fashioned freakout and teleports to Mars, like you do. With him gone, the Soviet Union takes the opportunity to invade Afghanistan, bringing the world even closer to nuclear war. Meanwhile, an assassin shows up at Adrians office and tries to kill him, and Rorschach finally gets arrested after a meeting with an informant turns out to be a setup. (The informant, a former supervillain named Moloch, is murdered before Rorschach arrives.)

Dan and Laurie get together, and begin to suspect that some aspects of Rorschachs theory may be accurate. They bust Rorschach out of prison, at which point Dr. Manhattan reappears and admits that he cant really find a reason why he should care about humanity or what happens to the world, because in addition to being an immortal metahuman, he is also a colossal douche canoe. Laurie goes with him back to Mars to try and convince him to help them stop the impending nuclear war and whatever sinister conspiracy seems to be egging it on.

During her talk with Dr. Manhattan, and partially using his ability to see past events as clearly as the present, Laurie realizes that the Comedian is her father, and that he and her mother loved each other. The news devastates and confuses her, as she struggles to reconcile how her mother couldve gone on to have a romantic relationship with the man who had brutally attacked her years before. Dr. Manhattan is intrigued by the random, unpredictable chaos that brings each human life into being, and decides to return with Laurie to Earth to help stop the war. Like I said, hes a dickhead.

Dan and Rorschach, now on the run from the police, follow a series of leads that leads them to Adrians office. Adrian, it turns out, owns both the company that employed Moloch, and the company that employed all of Dr. Manhattans former coworkers now stricken with cancer. Uncertain if they will survive confronting Adrian, Rorschach mails a journal detailing all of the incriminating evidence against Adrian to a newspaper. He and Dan then travel to Adrians Arctic getaway, Karnak, to talk to him, at which point Adrian freely admits to being behind the entire plot.

Image via Warner Bros.

Adrians plan is complicated, so Im going to give you the short version, followed by the longer-but-still short version. Basically, Adrian wants to put an end to nuclear war and achieve a form of world peace. He does this by staging a catastrophic alien invasion, which he triggers just before Dan and Rorschach arrive to confront him. He stages the invasion by genetically engineering a giant psychic alien and teleporting it into the middle of Times Square. As the alien dies, it lets out a psychic explosion that wipes out millions of people. By staging a terrifyingly violent alien attack, the impending nuclear war with Russia is averted and the world powers unite under the belief that the aliens could strike again at any moment. Dan and Rorschach try to stop him, but a pitying Adrian reveals that the attack has already happened, and millions of people in New York City are already dead. Ok, thats the short version. Maybe hit the bathroom, grab a glass of water, and lets continue.

To accomplish his goal, Adrian hires a writer, a surrealist painter, a science fiction author, a radical architect, an avant-garde composer, and a eugenicist, and brings them to a secluded island, paying them handsomely to sever all ties with friends and family for the duration of their stay. He uses the teams specialized talents to create his alien monster, which the team believes is for a movie. Adrian has the eugenicist genetically engineer the alien and fill it with the cloned brain of a famous psychic, who died recently of a stroke, although it is heavily implied that Adrian simply murdered him. Adrian has the mammoth psychic brain exposed to bizarre, otherworldly sounds and imagery created by his team of artists, to ensure that the psychic burst triggered by the aliens teleportation death will be mind-shreddingly lethal.

Oh, yeah genetic engineering exists in the world of Watchmen, along with a number of other incredible scientific advances. Thanks to Dr. Manhattan, things like clean energy and teleportation technology also exist, although teleportation is ultimately deemed unworkable because it immediately kills any living thing you try to teleport. Also, psychics apparently exist, but the book kind of hand-waves that one.

Anyway, once the alien is completed, Adrian puts his team of scientists and artists on a tugboat and blows them straight the fuck up. His murder of The Comedian, the inciting event of the story, occurs after the Comedian just happens to stumble on the island while flying over it on a mission for the U.S. government. Thinking it might be an insurgent base, he goes in for a closer look and uncovers Adrians plan, the scope of which totally breaks him. And although the Comedian never attempts to spill the beans, Adrian kills him anyway, just to be certain. Adrian also murdered Rorschachs informant and orchestrated his arrest, to prevent him from uncovering the plan. Ok, long version over. Now here comes the climax.

Dr. Manhattan and Laurie teleport back to Earth in the middle of Times Square and see the carnage firsthand dead bodies littering every square inch of asphalt, buildings demolished, and the carcass of an impossibly huge alien monster bursting from the ruins of Madison Square Garden. They teleport to Karnak and confront Adrian alongside Dan and Rorschach. After a brief fight, Adrian shows them a series of news broadcasts from around the world, each one reporting that hostilities between nations have virtually disappeared, with the worlds super powers agreeing to an indefinite peace in order to prepare against further attacks from the alien threat.

Image via Warner Bros.

Realizing that exposing Adrians crime would essentially mean dooming the world, the heroes agree to keep it a secret and play along with the alien invasion. That is, except for Rorschach. Enraged by the cowardice of the rest of the group, Rorschach insists that peace earned through deception and the mass murder of civilians is worthless. He leaves, vowing to reveal the truth. Dr. Manhattan intercepts him outside of the base and asks him to rethink his position. Rorschach refuses, and Dr. Manhattan disintegrates him.

The graphic novel ends with the remaining heroes agreeing to keep Adrians secret for the good of the world. Dr. Manhattan travels to another galaxy to create his own planet full of life. Dan and Laurie change their names, and indicate that they intend to start fighting crime again as Nite Owl and Silk Spectre (although Laurie insists shes going to update her superhero name and costume, and maybe start carrying a gun). Rorschachs incriminating journal revealing Adrians involvement arrives at The New Frontiersman, a radical right-wing newspaper, after he dropped it in the mail before his death. Judging by the trailers for the HBO series, Rorschachs journal was definitely published, but not everyone believes it.

Heres a couple of other things to know while diving into the new series, which wont necessarily affect the plot but will help to explain the context of the original story, as well as the direction the HBO series appears to be taking.

The title Watchmen is a reference to a line from the Roman poet Juvenals work Satires Quis custodiet ipsos custodes, which roughly translates to who watches the watchmen? The graphic novels author, Alan Moore, was referencing the term in how it relates to the policing of people in positions of power. Specifically, the comic was meant, in part, as an indictment of Reaganism. Ironically, the quote from Juvenal would eventually appear as an epigraph in the Tower Commission Report, which was the report written by the committee tasked with investigating then-President Reagan and his administrations involvement / culpability in the Iran-Contra Affair, although Moore and Gibbons began publishing the series almost a year before the report was written. (In a further dose of irony, the report was commissioned by President Reagan himself.) The quote, and a reference to its inclusion in the Tower Commission Report, is included as an epigraph in subsequent reprintings of Watchmen.

Image via HBO

The last major thing that needs to be addressed is Rorschach himself. Some of his more fanatical edges were smoothed out for the 2009 Zack Snyder film, to transform him into a murderous vigilante that we can ultimately still root for, like the Punisher or John Wick. But the Rorschach of Moore and Gibbons original work is a radical, violent nationalist. He constantly espouses his hatred of homosexuals, women, intellectuals, social programs, liberals, and foreigners. He only ventures out into public to pick up the latest issue of The New Frontiersman, the books far-right tabloid newspaper. In the novel, were shown an editorial from The New Frontiersman that rails against the Marxist mainstream media while arguing that the KKK was the original superhero team, begun with noble intentions of defending the antebellum South before it was corrupted by racist members (a common, false talking point frequently made by the Klans supporters to minimize the hate groups racist history). The editorial is accompanied by a disgustingly racist, Anti-Semitic political cartoon, depicting a white superhero and his white wife and child besieged at all angles by Jewish businessmen, Communist agitators, Italian criminals, and Black drug dealers. This is the only newspaper Rorschach reads, and he reads it every day.

Its important to understand this aspect of Rorschachs character because the inciting incident of the HBO series is a coordinated attack on the homes of several police officers, conducted by a group of white supremacists wearing Rorschach masks and calling themselves the Seventh Cavalry. The Seventh Cavalry was the Regiment George A. Custer led into his famed last stand at The Battle of Little Big Horn, and its a reference Adrian makes in the graphic novel (only, in Adrians reference, the Seventh Cavalry is the last line of defense against the four horsemen of the Apocalypse).

SPEED ROUND! Here Ill cite some final, minor plot points, just in case theyre referenced or somehow become important in the series:

Nobody witnesses Rorschachs death at the hands of Dr. Manhattan. Its ultimately unclear whether the rest of the superheroes Adrian, Dan, and Laurie even know Rorschach is dead.

Image via HBO

Its implied that the Comedian murders Hooded Justice, a gigantic hooded superhero who intervenes when the Comedian assaults the first Silk Spectre. Its also revealed that Hooded Justice had a romantic relationship with Captain Metropolis, the leader of the Minutemen.

The book contains a reference, on the very last page, to Robert Redfords upcoming presidential campaign, which is derided with who wants a cowboy president? (Insert wink.) When the HBO series begins, Redford is president, and has been in office since 1992. They even got Redford to come out of retirement and guest star as himself. Not even Avengers: Endgame could do that they had to rely on a CGI ghost bearing his digitally plaster-cast face.

And with that, you should be fully primed and ready to watch the Watchmen this Sunday without growing distraught with angry confusion. That is, outside of the angry confusion Damon Lindelof normally deals in.

Watchmen premiers this Sunday on HBO. For more on the series, read our review.

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Watchmen Comic Book Recap: What Happens in the Graphic Novel? - Collider.com