This refers to Devangshu Datta's column "It's in the 'super' genes" (Quantum Leap, May 2). Two hundred years after Darwin's path-breaking theory of evolution on the development of life from an ancestor, it is now the age of life forms being born from an idea. Scientists believe that life is based on DNA software - you change the DNA, and you change the species. But scientists and thinkers also believe that self-replicating bacteria (and other microbes) with artificial genomes could do more harm than good if they escape our control. Synthetic biology is currently tightly regulated, along the same lines as genetically modified organisms. But when biosynthetic products overflow into the natural world, it will be harder to control them. There is concern about the natural world becoming unnatural.
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H N Ramakrishna Novi, Michigan
Letters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:
The Editor, Business Standard
Nehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg
New Delhi 110 002
Fax: (011) 23720201
E-mail: letters@bsmail.in
All letters must have a postal address and telephone number