Project news

June 4, 2010

Rogue Scientists and an Experiment Gone Wrong

Splice opens in theaters today.

Elsa and Clive, two young rebellious scientists, defy legal and ethical boundaries and forge ahead with a dangerous experiment: splicing together human and animal DNA to create a new organism. Named “Dren”, the creature rapidly develops from a deformed female infant into a beautiful but dangerous winged human-chimera, who forges a bond with both of her creators – only to have that bond turn deadly. -IMDB

Watch a trailer for Splice here.

Splice touches on a number of important questions relevant to synthetic biology and many other emerging technologies. How far should the science go? What kind of rules should be in place? How do you enforce those rules? What happens when scientists don’t follow the rules?

Fact: Last month scientists announced the creation of a synthetic bacterial chromosome. Using the tools of synthetic biology, they sequenced a novel genome and inserted it into a bacteria, creating the first “bacterium whose parent is a computer.” Read more about this development here.

What do you think about this development? How do you feel about the movie Splice?

Email us your comments about the movie and synthetic biology by clicking here.

Learn more about synthetic biology here.