Synthetic Biology

Synthetic biology technology is a social/environmental/biological experiment said to one day save the world…or destroy it. Although a formal definition of the science that goes into it is yet to be defined, it has something to do with writing DNA sequences using computer code and somehow printing it out for insertion into a hollowed-out host cell like E. coli—which will then self-replicate for mass production. And like rDNA technology, it is presented as a way of solving problems of capital like “oil shortages” and for making useful products like the bio-medicines that will one day extend our lives at a price. Others, however, think that synthetic biology is an attempt to “play God” and argue that creating and releasing new life forms may trigger unpredictable disasters since nature itself is unpredictable—and although these technologies have built-in “suicide genes,” they remain subject to evolution.