A Synthetic Biology Conference Lures an Intriguing Audience

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/09/science/a-synthetic-biology-conference-lures-an-intriguing-audience.html

by vex • 12 years ago

31 3 12 years ago

technotony• 12 years ago

Not much news here, a sensational headline is all. The FBI has been going to conferences like this and working with the DIY Bio community for ages. Some day some terrorist will have the capability to make entirely new viruses, but that day is still away off and they'd have to do it without killing themselves first. It's good that the FBI is paying attention, but honestly there are many natural viruses which nature has made already that would be more useful to a terrorist than using synthetic biology, and luckily we've been quite good historically at containing these kinds of risks (as long as you don't believe Hollywood).

kiba• 12 years ago

Synthetic biology tend to go for things that's not optimized for spreading around in people and killing them. They'll be used to produce products and goods for human consumption, which preclude genes spent on being viral and deadly.

Ultimatt• 12 years ago

I think you're missing the point. Once its a lot more trivial to synthesize a cell from data its not just blue skies scientists involved anymore. When anyone can do whatever they like you will get misuse of the technology.

A Synthetic Biology Conference Lures an Intriguing Audience

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