Last Wednesday the MIT Museum kicked off "Re:Making Life", a series of four conversations about synthetic biology. How are scientists using innovative techniques to modify organisms, and for what purposes?

We are particularly interested in the final program "Who Needs Rules?" on October 21, which will feature George Church of Harvard Medical School and Ken Oye of MIT's departments of Political Science and Engineering Systems and Design. It promises to be a lively and highly informative discussion of the role of ethical guidelines in the midst of rapid discovery and innovation.

Ken Oye led a National Science Foundation project to set a research agenda for studying the ecological implications of synthetic biology. One of the team's key recommendations was: "Democratic, deliberative processes will be challenging but they should have a strong role, not just for the public to be informed, but consulted."

George Church has spoken out clearly against the fear that often limits access to genetic information and experimentation. With appropriate consent and safeguards, he believes we could benefit greatly from sharing our personal genomes as an open source database, from biotechnology solutions such as genetic therapy to make individuals immune to dangerous viruses, and even from the reintroducing the ancient DNA of wooly mammoths in order to create new species adapted to help protect the diminishing arctic tundra.