Engineering life: the pros and cons of synthetic biotechnology

Filed in archive Biotech on June 2, 2006

Two fascinating meetings last week addressed the interconnections between nanotechnology and synthetic biotechnology, the Second International Meeting on Synthetic Biology (SB2.0) in Berkeley, and the Institute for the Future (IFTF) conference in Palo Alto.

Richard Jones at Soft Machines has a nice review of SB2.0, and the followup discussion is well worth checking out. Christine Peterson of the Foresight Institute has a post about the IFTF conference.

Both reference a recent New Scientist article entitled, "Redesigning Life: Meet the Bio-hackers". But they missed the critical discussion, "Engineering Life", the subject of this month's Scientific American.

All of these folks are discussing the possible benefits and risks of synthetic biology as it evolves, as well as possible lessons for nanotech development.

I certainly hope they're right about open the positive development and use of synthetic biology. But as they also point out, there are enough examples of greed and avarice dominating technology to lead to a more pessimistic forecast.

Take hacking, for example. Many computer hackers have already moved on to RFID hacking, and their urge to mess with the latest technologies will undoubtedly engage them in synthetic biology, with much higher stakes.

Still, the fact that this discussion is taking place at SB2.0, IFTF, New Scientist, and here at nanotechbuzz, gives hope that a proactive attitude toward synthetic biotech is emerging. (photo Ron Weiss Princeton University)