The first synthetic virus self-replicated in 2002. Its DNA molecules were created in a laboratory, using genetic information copied from nature. In 2016 an international project, the Human Genome Project – Write, was launched to synthesise and recode entire human genomes.
Join a panel to discuss biosecurity and ethics, science fiction, practical limits and
possible futures related to our species.
Marianne Talbot is a bioethicist and Director of Studies in Philosophy at the University
of Oxford Department for Continuing Education.
Piers Millett is a Senior Research Fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute, where he
focuses on pandemic and deliberate disease and the implications of biotechnology.
Justina Robson is a science fiction author. Her novel Natural History, was reviewed by The Guardian: “clarity of vision now demonstrates itself as her major asset, making her one of the very best of the new British hard SF writers.”