by Andrew Maynard | Sep 30, 2008 | Engagement, Public Perception, Synthetic Biology
So, you have a cool new science that could make a major impact on global challenges like energy, disease and pollution and you want to make sure it reaches its full potential. What do you do? At some point, having a heart to heart with “the public” might be a good...
by Andrew Maynard | Jun 13, 2008 | Civic Science, Engagement, Synthetic Biology
Read Thomas L. Friedman’s “The World is Flat” or Neal Stephenson’s “Cryptonomicon”, and you get a glimpse into how the hacker culture that emerged at the tail end of the twentieth century revolutionized the digital world. Will a confluence of emerging...
by Andrew Maynard | Mar 6, 2008 | Engagement, Synthetic Biology
Can current approaches to doing science sustain us over the next one hundred years? An increasing reliance on technological fixes to global challenges — including nanotechnology — demands a radical rethink of how we use science in the service of society. Over the...
by Andrew Maynard | Jan 26, 2008 | Oversight, Policy, Synthetic Biology
The popular computer game “SimLife” allows users to create and manipulate virtual people. But what are the chances of us one day being able to do the same with real organisms: building new life-forms out of basic chemicals, so “SimLife” becomes “SynLife”? This week’s...
