The Genesis Machine: Our Quest to Rewrite Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology

<p><div>What if the miracle that created mRNA vaccines is less a once-in-lifetime event and more the harbinger of the emerging age of synthetic biology? This fusion of biology and computers has a singular goal: to gain access to cells in order to write new--and possibly better--biological code.&nbsp;<br aria-hidden="true" /> <br /> <br /> Synthetic biology promises to reveal how life is created and how it can be re-created, enabling scientists to rewrite the rules of our reality. It could help us, for example, heal without prescription medications, grow meat without harvesting animals, or confront our looming climate catastrophe. Synthetic biology will determine the ways in which we conceive future generations and how we define family, how we identify disease and treat aging, where we make our homes, and how we nourish ourselves. Soon, we will program living, biological structures as though they were tiny computers.&nbsp;<br aria-hidden="true" /> <br /> <br /> But who should decide how to engineer living organisms? Whether engineered organisms should be planted, farmed, and released into the wild? Should there be limits to human enhancements? Amy Webb and Andrew Hessel's riveting examination of synthetic biology and the bioeconomy provide the background for thinking through the upcoming risks and moral dilemmas posed by redesigning life, as well as the vast opportunities waiting for us on the horizon.</div></p>

Business & Money

Webb, Amy

Hessel, Andrew

Industries

PublicAffairs

<p><div><b>A breakthrough investigation of synthetic biology: the promising and controversial technology platform that combines biology and artificial intelligence and has the potential to program biological systems like we program computers.</b></div> <div>&nbsp; <div>Synthetic biology is the technique that enables us not just to read and edit but also write DNA to program living biological structures as though they were tiny computers. Unlike cloning Dolly the sheep-which cut and copied existing genetic material-the future of synthetic biology might be something like an app store, where you could download and add new capabilities into any cell, microbe, plant, or animal.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>This breakthrough science has the potential to mitigate, perhaps solve, humanity's immediate and longer-term existential challenges: climate change; the feeding, clothing, housing, and caring for billions of humans; fighting the next viral outbreak before it becomes a global pandemic; old age as a treatable pathology; bringing back extinct animals.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>It could also be anarchic and socially destructive. With our governing structures created in an era before startling advances in technology, we are not prepared for a future in which life could be manipulated or programmed.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>As futurist Amy Webb and synthetic biologist Andrew Hessel show in this book, within the next decade, we will need to make important decisions: whether to program novel viruses to fight diseases, what genetic privacy will look like, who will "own" living organisms, how companies should earn revenue from engineered cells, and how to contain a synthetic organism in a lab. <i>The Genesis Machine&#8203;</i> provides the background for us to understand and grapple with these issues, and think through the religious, philosophical, and ethical implications for the future.</div> </div></p>

<p>Review\n[A] thought-provoking introduction to synthetic biology...[a] breathtaking science, but it is also scary. Who's in charge, and where are the brakes?-- "Booklist"\n<p>The breakthrough science of synthetic biology and its potential for helping solve humanity&#39;s existential challenges, from climate change to the health and feeding of millions, and fighting the next viral outbreak before it becomes a global pandemic.<br><br><br>Synthetic biology is the promising and controversial technology platform that combines biology and artificial intelligence, opening up the potential to program biological systems much as we program computers<b>.</b><br>&#160;<br>Synthetic biology enables us not just to read and edit DNA &#8211; the technique of CRISPR - &#160;but also write it. &#160;Rather than life being &#8220;a beautiful game of chance&#8221;, synthetic biology creates the potential to control our genetic destiny, to say &#8220;no&#8221; to bad genes and build&#160; a veritable genetic app store for downloading and adding new capabilities into any cell, microbe, plant, or animal.<br>&#160;<br>Amy Webb and Andrew Hessel&#8217;s riveting stories include: the work of scientists to develop plants that can be grown in sprawling indoor farms capable of feeding millions with a fraction of the usual resources required; a synthetic, self-regulating insulin that doesn&#8217;t require injections or a pump; life-altering regenerative, personalized medicine; and novel, durable solutions to climate change. There is also whimsy, such as the dream of some geneticists to &#8220;unextinct&#8221; the wooly mammoth.<br>&#160;<br>By examining both the science and the ethical, moral, and religious issues surrounding synthetic biology, Webb and Hessel provide the background for preventing its misuse by some to re-engineer their bodies and that of their children, further increasing the disturbing division and polarization of societies into the haves (the enhanced) and the have nots. They provide the background for making wise decisions about issues such as: whether to program novel viruses to fight diseases, what genetic privacy will look like, who will &#34;own&#34; living organisms, how companies should earn revenue from engineered cells, and how to contain a synthetic organism in a lab.&#160;<br>&#160;<br>Whether we approve or disapprove of synthetic biology, it is coming. Now, we need to understand its promise and peril. Webb and Hessel help us understand the science as well as the political and societal issues involved.<br>&#160;<br>&#160;</p></p>

Science & Math

Biological Sciences

Blackstone Pub

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Books by Webb, Amy

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Webb, Amy. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Genesis Machine: Our Quest to Rewrite Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology

The Genesis Machine: Our Quest to Rewrite Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology

The Genesis Machine: Our Quest to Rewrite Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology