Craig Venter's bugs might save the world

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/magazine/craig-venters-bugs-might-save-the-world.html?_r=1&hp

by dr_ • 14 years ago

27 18 14 years ago

nytimes.com

npongratz• 14 years ago

Single page version here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/magazine/craig-venters-bu...

jstclair5• 14 years ago

I respect his accomplishments, but someone who gets thrills from life-endangering pursuits is not the person I would want releasing artificial-organisms into the wild to save the world.

moron• 14 years ago

Ugh, give me a break. Either they work or they don't, his motorcycle has nothing to do with it.

jstclair5• 14 years ago

I'm unclear on what you mean by "they" when you say "either they work or they don't" - his bugs? Or the way in which those bugs, once released, solve a particular problem? Or once released, those changes are non-harmful? My problem with risk is the attitudes towards proof ( or principle of least harm) in the latter, not a quibble with the previous two. And I think we can take satisfaction of those two conditions a necessary condition for the possibility of the third, right?

jstanley3• 14 years ago

Upvoted for funny delivery, but I disagree with you. I, too, enjoy riding motorcycles fast, but that doesn't mean I'm not capable of rational thought when applied to my work.

jstclair5• 14 years ago

But isn't the past 5 years a pretty-clear demolition of the idea that bright, well-trained people have a handle on systemic risk?

drharris• 14 years ago

The writing here is atrocious. I bogged down in the 3rd paragraph and decided not to continue.

Edit: Seriously, count the frequency of sentences that begin with "He", "But", "And". Sometimes parallel structure is not the way to go.

leoh• 14 years ago

I agree with you. I'm busy at the moment, by I think I'll come back later to see if it gets better. The editor may have had Hylton write a catchy, but inauthentic hook to draw readership.

debacle• 14 years ago

I read through half of a page, scrolled down and saw that I was going to have to read through nine pages of this drivel, and gave up.

sitkack• 14 years ago

The writing is so hard to read ...

bkeating• 14 years ago

Mr. Venter touches on this in a talk: http://longnow.org/seminars/02008/feb/25/joining-3-5-billion...

joshcrews• 14 years ago

I went into the article thinking that he had written some old software bugs that are inadvertently making it difficult for some evil organization to consolidate its plans and carry out its schemes.

Craig Venter's bugs might save the world

Related Stories