Synthetic biology is at least one order of magnitude more potent and
invasive than conventional biotechnology. Barely six years old, synthetic biology attempts to
construct unique and novel life forms - from the bottom up. Unlike today's genetic engineering
which "cuts and pastes" existing genes between species, synthetic biology rewrites the code of life to
create new DNA modules programmed to self-assemble with other modules to create designer
organisms capable of performing machine functions (mostly viruses and microbes). There are already
many synthetic biology companies receiving funding from government, military and private interests.
At least 39 private US gene synthesis companies are manufacturing artificial DNA and parts of DNA
(oligonucleotides). Most of the US-based work is in the Boston area (where the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology is located), around Berkeley, California and at Craig Venter's Institute for
Genomic Research in Maryland.

Much of the work is still 'proof of principle' research that involves gimmicks such as microbes
blinking in coordinated rhythm or light-sensitive bacteria that can capture a photographic image.
Some of the work, however, comes with breathtaking implications for biodiversity and life.
Researchers in California and Florida, for example, have taken standard four-letter DNA and built on
a fifth and then a sixth letter - making it theoretically possible to create species of unbelievable
complexity. Six-letter DNA could give industry more diversity in a test tube than in the Amazon.

Synthetic Biology - Why Worry? By seizing control of the genetic code to make entirely new
organisms, synthetic biology hugely extends and heightens the risks of genetic engineering and
makes vastly more problematic scenarios possible...
* Biosafety - While genetic engineering moves one or two existing genes between species, synthetic
biology builds entirely new genomes nature has never seen. Biosafety regimes are woefully
inadequate. Synthetic biologists talk of reducing genetics to 'standard parts' or 'BioBricks' - but life is
not electrical engineering or computer code writing. Mistakes could prove live, lethal and beyond
recall.
* Biowarfare - synthetic biology allowed scientists to reconstruct the 1918 Spanish flu virus that
killed 50-100 million people. Researchers routinely work with parts of Ebola, dengue, smallpox, West
Nile and other pathogens. It is now relatively inexpensive and quick for synthetic biology to fabricate
existing - or new - bioweapons. While many governments make some pathogens illegal to produce
or export, pathogen pieces can be produced, purchased and re-engineered.

* Geo-engineering - the US Department of Energy and the governments of at least 25 other
countries are actively pursuing weather and climate modification techno-fixes assuming that the
Kyoto Accord will fail and that the only option will be earth engineering. DOE's past initiatives have
involved the use of iron nanoparticles to moderate ocean temperatures. Craig Venter seeks to use
synthetic biology to sequester carbon dioxide and mitigate climate change. The possibility of
diverting a hurricane by placing a biological film over warm water was mentioned as one possible
area of research to be considered by the US National Science Board at the April 2006 Hurricane
Science and Engineering Task Force Workshop in Florida.

* Economics - synthetic biology is a capital-intensive technology likely to have massive downstream
impacts on marginalized peoples. Impacts will come first in agriculture and health but soon in geo-
engineering climate change. Synthetic microbes programmed to make industrial substances could
traumatically de-stabilize South economies and employment.
* Ethics -there are enormous ethical complexities involved with the creation of new life forms. For
example, synthetic biology could introduce a new era of eugenics wherein only the enhanced rich are
entitled and the un-enhanced are either denied services or obliged to become enhanced.
* Control - Like biotech, companies are already patenting critical synthetic biology technologies and
processes. Although some in the synthetic biology community may be advocating for open-source
biology, others such as Craig Venter have a long biopiracy rap sheet profiting from human and non-
human gene sequences.