Abstract
Synthetic biology (SynBio) aims at making life easier to an engineer by applying biotechnology engineering principles such as standardization and modularity. I argue that living organisms are inherently non-machine, non-standardized entities and that the current state-of-the-art in SynBio combines pre- and post-standardization efforts, in a scenario without evidence that full standardization in biology is even possible. I finally propose a new view on SynBio based on purpose rather than on technicalities.
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Porcar, M. Synthetic Biology: From Having Fun to Jumping the Gun. Nanoethics 10, 105–109 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11569-016-0251-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11569-016-0251-8