Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
synthetic microbes that will be used in developing high-yielding, disease resistant plants for use as feed-
stocks.
4
Chevron and Procter & Gamble are gambling that microbes can ferment plant cellulose fuels and
plastics. Unilever is seeking a palm oil substitute. General Motors and Marathon Oil are looking to turn
woodchips into ethanol. DuPont is using synthetic yeast to turn forty thousand acres of corn a year into
plastic.
5
The academic proponent Vítor Martins dos Santo recently opined about synthetic biology, “Techno-
logical potential is vast, societal impact immense and growing market opportunities substantial and di-
verse.”
6
In June 2010 the Synthetic Biology Project housed by the prestigious Woodrow Wilson International
Center for Scholars released a paper applauding the enormous amount of funding devoted to synthetic bio-
logy. This emerging field of study combines science and engineering to redesign living organisms for food
or industrial uses. Its proponents believe that man-made genetic code is the next step beyond selectively
breeding animals to increase their productivity for human needs. To some it may sound more like a mis-
application of the “better living through chemistry” philosophy that has had so many unintended conse-
quences.
Without most people even knowing that synthetic biology exists, the future of the natural world is being
decided. More than 230 different entities in the United States and Europe, including multiple government
agencies, are funding the development and commercialization of synthetic biology and the sum is predicted
to exceed $3.5 billion over the next decade. Currently, only 4 percent of the funds are devoted to the eth-
ical, legal, or social implications of playing god. No funding is currently available for assessing the risks
associated from creating synthetic organisms.
7
Drew Endy, another mover and shaker in the mysterious world of synthetic biology, is a leading member
of a “hipster geek”
8
generation of scientists who believe man can vastly improve upon nature. Educated
at Lehigh and Dartmouth, he studied genetics and microbiology as a postdoc at University of Texas at
Austin and University of Wisconsin-Madison. Since 1998 he has started the Molecular Sciences Institute
in Berkeley and co-founded the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Synthetic Working Group, the Re-
gistry of Standard Biological Parts, and the BioBricks Foundation. BioBrick is a trade-marked name for a
man-made biological part that meets the technical and legal standards set forth by the BioBricks Founda-
tion.
9
According to journalist Rebecca Cathcart, “When Endy envisions the future, he sees giant gourds en-
gineered to grow into four-bedroom, two-bathroom houses. He sees people alerted to nascent tumors in
their bodies by internal biological sensors, and cars fueled by bacteria-produced gasoline.”
10
In mid-June 2011 the future of nature and who would profit from it was being decided at a BioBricks
Foundation-sponsored conference. (The foundation is so hip that its annual conference is called SB5.0.) It
is the Fifth International Conference on Synthetic Biology, which took place at Stanford University with
seven hundred people in attendance. The stated goal was to jump-start the widespread academic and com-
mercial development of synthetic biology. In his letter to participants Endy says, “global community will
share, consider, debate, and plan efforts to understand life via building, to make biology easier to engin-
eer.”
11
Besides the dozens of scientists on panels discussing the minutiae of creating artificial life, the confer-
ence agenda was lightened by an appearance by Darlene Cavalier, the Science Cheerleader. Cavalier was a
professional cheerleader for the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team. She is the founder of “Science
Cheer-
leader.com
,
a site that promotes the involvement of citizens in science and science-related policy featuring
the Science Cheerleaders, current and former NFL and NBA cheerleaders-turned-scientists and engineers.”
Search WWH ::
Custom Search