Synthetic biologist Drew Endy is leading efforts to make the natural world programmable. He tells Douglas Heaven why succeeding means blurring the distinction between information and matter
How significant is this idea that living things can be engineered?
With Darwin and the theory of evolution came a sea change in perspective. We moved from an idea of the natural world as something that doesn't change to something that does. I think biotechnology, at its heart, represents a similar transition. Biology is not just a science. Biology is a technology.
Do you think we fully grasp the magnitude of this transition?
We've heard the word "biotechnology" so much that we don't really wrestle with the depth of its meaning. In part, that's because most of biotechnology hasn't yet been imagined, let alone made a reality.
We're not very far along in learning how to partner with biology to make stuff. That is typically ...
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