Category: Updates
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Not cheap and not plentiful: Hyped-up synthetic biology claims take another blow as malaria drug production plant shuts down
by Almuth Ernsting Synthetic biology is being heavily promoted and funded as a way to produce large quantities of cheap industrial products, including biofuels. But so far affordable, large-scale manufacture with synbio organisms has proven elusive. Synbio start-up companies that set out to produce high volumes of low-cost biofuels have switched to low volumes of […]
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‘Rogue scientists’ could exploit gene editing technology – or are they already?
An article in The Guardian (copied below) describes how a senior geneticist and a bioethicist is in agreement with a US security chief that gene-editing presents a serious risk to national security, equivalent to North Korea’s WMDs. Whilst the focus is on accidentally (or deliberately) releasing viruses, or the inevitability of “designer babies”, the researchers […]
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ETC’s Irreverent Review of 2015… and (possibly) Irrelevant Preview of 2016
Download the full review here, for ETC’s SynBio updates and industry developments. The Year that Ended Dangerously If El Niño weren’t enough, the extraordinary winds that struck Yemen and Mexico’s Pacific Coast were matched by record-breaking forest fires in the Indonesian archipelago, droughts, torrential rains and floods from Australia to the British Isles and heat-waves on the east coast of […]
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Bad-Boy Scientism
by Pete Shanks (Originally appeared on HuffPo.) Austen Heinz of Cambrian Genomics has been trolling hard lately, as blogger Josh Cunningham notes. That is, he’s been spouting provocative opinions to get attention. And it seems to be working, from his point of view. Not only was Heinz involved in the vagina bio-hack nonsense, but he told the Wall Street Journal last June, […]
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What is Synthetic Biology?
Engineering Life and Livelihoods This short film explains the basics on synbio and its attempts to engineer life. You can also download and read the comic book that accompanies it here. Full script: So here’s a thought experiment. What if living things were actually machines? The sort of machines that you could take apart, reprogram, […]
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Regulate Synthetic Biology Now: 194 Countries
SynBio industry’s wild west days are numbered PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA– In a unanimous decision of 194 countries, the United Nation’s Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) today formally urged nation states to regulate synthetic biology (SynBio), a new extreme form of genetic engineering. The landmark decision follows ten days of hard-fought negotiations between developing countries and […]
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These ice cream makers aren’t down with vanilla’s brand new invention
(This article originally appeared in Grist) by Madeleine Thomas Häagen-Dazs, the company known for its simple, less-ingredients-is-more approach to ice cream, recently confirmed that it doesn’t plan to use vanilla flavoring derived from synthetic biology — the process of inserting computer-generated DNA into living cells to create products such as food additives. Nestlé (which produces Häagen-Dazs in […]
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GMOs 2.0: Synthetic Biology – Impacts on Our Food, Farmers, Consumer Products & Health
A new generation of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) is quietly entering our food supply, cosmetics and household products. What is Synthetic Biology and what are the real costs to our food, ecosystem and farmers locally and around the world? Where: Mill Valley Community Center, Cascade Room. 180 Camino Alto, Mill Valley. When: Oct. 9, 2014; […]
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Response to Motley Fool
The following is a response to 7 Busted Myths About Solazyme’s Renewable Oils, an article which purports to debunk the claims of groups campaigning against use of synthetic biology in consumer products. Maxx, Your transparency about your financial interest in the outcome of this debate is appreciated. However, your “debunking” either misses the point or […]
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Tell Ecover: Synthetic Biology is Not “Natural”
Click here to sign the petition and learn more! FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—June 2, 2014 San Francisco, Calif.– In an open letter released today 17 national and international consumer, environmental, women’s health and farming groups called on leading “natural” cleaning and personal care products manufacturer Ecover and its U.S.-based subsidiary, Method Products Inc., to cancel plans to use […]