Reality & Respect
I was grateful to see your article's attempt to bring some perspective to the current press-driven hype frothing around synthetic biology. It would be good to develop still more perspectives on how synthetic biology is (or is not) any different from the last 35 years of biotechnology and genetic engineering. There are some real changes underway, but most of them are at the level of underlying technologies used to design and build genetic systems, and not in the high profile applications that attract most of the attention. A good place to learn more is to study the student project presentations from the iGEM jamboree (try YouTube or www.igem.org); a quick glance will let you know that we still have a long way to go, but that some interesting work is being done. As a last note, it is a shame that you appear to disrespect Rich Newton in your article's closing. He was one of the great engineering leaders in the US and world, and a hero to many people. His very sudden passing is still deeply felt. You can learn more about Rich via this website:
http://www.coe.berkeley.edu/news-center/newton/a-richard-newton-1951-2007.html
Biting the hand that feeds IT
