Synthetic Biology Quotes

“Earlier in this book, I introduced the idea of synthetic biology having ‘two souls’, one focused on engineering new features into existing life and the other aiming to create life de novo. Though the first attracts the bulk of current effort and funding because of its industrial, environmental, and medical potential, the goal of creating life is arguably far more significant in terms of long-term scientific and philosophical impact. It is poised to be another step in the long journey from Copernicus (the Earth is just one part of the universe, not its centre) and Darwin (humans are animals, and share their origins) to an irrefutable demonstration that life is just normal matter, albeit organized in a particular way. Most scientists already take this as a working assumption; however, it has not yet been proven, and it will not be until someone creates life from non-living matter.”
― Jamie A. Davies, Synthetic Biology: A Very Short Introduction

“There is occasional speculation that synthetic biology might be used to adapt a natural pathogen to be active only against a specific human race. This is based on a misunderstanding of our species; humans do not have separate ‘races’ in the sense that a geneticist would recognize. Our species is a continuum: some versions of genes (alleles) do turn up at different frequencies in different ethnic groups, but this is a statistical property only. There are no absolute genetic differences that separate peoples on opposite sides of even a ‘racial’ conflict that would make one side vulnerable and the other safe.”
― Jamie A. Davies, Synthetic Biology: A Very Short Introduction