Africa: Synthetic Biology - Artificial Life Threatens Nature and Society

analysis

Synthetic food has long been the subject of speculative fiction, from Charlie Chaplin's "The Great Dictator" where poor quality artificial food spawned dissent, to Kurt Vonnegut's "Breakfast of Champions" where food was manufactured from coal and petroleum because fossil fuels had trashed global ecosystems.

Today fiction manifests as reality. If genetic modification (GM) of our food were not enough, biologists continue to push the boundaries of their ability to alter life on earth in novel and unpredictable ways. The latest version is known as synthetic biology, or "synbio."

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