Gen-engineered bacteria develops picture

[Atreides]

Here's the link.

 

A summary:

 

It's the latest advance in "synthetic biology," a disputed research movement launched largely by engineers and chemists bent on genetically manipulating microscopic bugs into acting like tiny machines, creating new, powerful and inexpensive ways to make drugs, plastics and even alternatives to fossil fuel.

 

The field seeks to go beyond traditional genetic engineering feats where a single gene is spliced into bacteria and other cells to manufacture drugs. Synthetic biologists are trying to create complex systems that function as logically and reliably as computers.

 

Mainstream biologists, however, scoff that biology

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If they are really safe and treat the stuff like nuclear waste, the swapping won't happen, and if they renew their materials often so that the bacteria doesn't mutate, then it sounds good to me.

 

My only concern would be biological warfare. if you engineer the bacteria to be extremely contagious and deadly then there is the real problem.