IF YOU THINK OF LIFE on Earth as a magnificent incarnation of natural technology, then life has the classic double-edged character of all powerful technologies…

In a technical tour de force with potentially profound implications for the study of emerging diseases, researchers have built the largest-ever self-replicating organism from scratch…

SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY. It sounds big and sweeping like synthetic chemistry, and it is…

Bay Area futurists and their fans are gathering Sunday in a coming-of-age celebration for the fledgling field of synthetic biology, which builds living entities from lifeless chemicals…

The Bay Area's latest motor fuel factory looks like a microbrewery run by Ph.D.s…

Drew Endy, a leading researcher in a new field called synthetic biology, gave a lecture at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine recently, explaining how researchers in this promising new field are shaping the future of life sciences…

Here's a reason to raise a pint; scientists at Rice University have created beer that could extend your life…

Synthetic biologists say their technology could tackle climate change and feed the hungry, but its dangers are terrifying...

Petroleum geologists normally look for oil underground…

We humans spend a lot of time building tools out of pieces of the natural world…

Biotechnology researchers want to reengineer microorganisms to turn agricultural products into gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel…

As bioengineers continue to build things with the stuff of life itself, the rest of the world is slowly waking up to the power of synthetic biology…

If you’ve never heard of the exciting field of synthetic biology, you’re not alone…