Synthetic Biology and RRI in 2014 - Share with us your perspective!

Synthetic Biology and RRI in 2014 - Share with us your perspective!

The year 2014 is almost over, and as others are starting to look ahead, we’d like to take a look back on synthetic biology and its role in society in the last 12 months.

  • What were major advancements in science and technology?
  • How was synthetic biology perceived in the public?
  • And how did societal discourse evolve?

At the beginning of 2014 the expectations were high. The Max Planck Society for example picked synthetic biology as one of the six “particularly innovative and pioneering” fields of research in their outlook for the year 2014. The magazine “Industry Leaders” predicted that during 2014 the most relevant emerging technologies would be in the field of synthetic biology. And the Reilly Center at University of Notre Dame discussed synthetic biology innovations in the context of new human-machine interfaces in their 2014 outlook on emerging ethical dilemmas and policy issues in science and technology.

But as we know, it’s always difficult to make predictions, especially about the future. So, with the benefit of hindsight, what would you say were the most important events and issues in 2014 in the field of synthetic biology? What were your expectations, and have they been satisfied? 

Please share your thoughts with us in the comments or on your blog and link back to this blog post to create a “blog carnival” on the year in review!

 

Image from christmasstockimages.com (CC BY 3.0)

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ETC Group's "2014 The Year That Was"

"In 2014, the Green Economy [...] merged and morphed into the Sharing Economy and the Maker Economy to offer us a vision of Transformative Transnationalism. But, is this really a new Triple Bottom-line or just the same old Triple-Bottom Feeders? ETC Group takes an irreverent look at what was new in 2014 – and what only claimed to be..."

http://www.etcgroup.org/content/2014-year-was