Chelsea Wald

Last weekend, I covered the opening of a new exhibit in Vienna's Natural History Museum, Synth-ethic, for New Scientist's Culture Lab blog. It's all about synthetic biology, the science that aims to engineer biological functions and systems not found in nature. In other words, it is the intersection of engineering and biology, and it could lead to new developments in energy, drugs, agriculture, and all the other usual suspects, as well as perhaps some unusual suspects, like fashion. And, like any new technology, it could be unsafe and pose ethical problems.

While researching this story, I found several resources on the ethics, safety, and future of synthetic biology, which I thought I'd share here:

• Expert interviews at Synbiosafe, another project by the producer of Synth-ethic
• OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN THE EMERGING FIELD OF SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY: A SYMPOSIUM from the National Academies
• Ethical Issues in Synthetic Biology: An Overview of the Debates from the Hastings Center