Summary Of A Life Of Its Own By Michael Specter

In “A Life of Its Own” Michael Specter, a journalist of the New Yorker, talks about synthetic biology, that is to say the application of the principles of molecular biology towards genetically engineering useful organisms. He claims that the opportunities posed by this technology can give birth to a new era of biological engineering while replacing the past methods of industrialization. Throughout the article Specter provides examples and presents evidence to support his ideas. Indeed, he includes quotes by several researchers he has interviewed. Specter deeply believes that through further research we can get to the point where we can transform the world where we live in. As a matter of fact, according to him owing to synthetic biology we will be able to design, and create any form of life in the near future.
Specter has high hopes for the future of this new technology . Indeed, he argues that this technology has the potential to create new genes and genomes, thus new forms of life that have never existed in nature, just from scratch. Specter is looking forward to it, and he believes it is a hard but worthwhile process which involves taking control of nature while redesigning it , “ Designing genomes will be a personal thing, a new art form as creative as painting or sculpture” ( Spencer ). Throughout his article Specter claims that synthetic biology is offering scientists as many opportunities as challenges. Synthetic biologists truly believe that through further research they can write programs which will let them guide the human evolution, “If the tools of synthetic biology succeed, though, they could turn specialized molecules into tiny, self-contained factories, creating cheap drugs, clean fuels, and new organisms to siphon carbon dioxide from the atmosphere”(