Saved by Science - Mark J. Poznansky

 << In May 2010, he and a team of scientists at the Venter Institute became the first group to successfully create a fully artificial living cell>> 

<<If genetic sequencing is about reading DNA and genetic engineering as we know is about copying, cutting and pasting it, synthetic biology is about writing and programming new DNA with two main goals: create genetic machines from scratch and gain new insight about how life works>>

<<Organic farming requires as much as 50 percent more land use per calorie than conventional farming>>

Saved by science - Mark Poznansky

This book provide us an overall about synthetic biology and how is it evolving. I learned that this science has a lot of applications, like:

a) Storing more information compared to the current binary system.
b) Bioremediation or biomining.
c) Modification and improvement of bacteria, inspired on the gene-editing program CRISPR-Cas9, which is a defense mechanism that bacteria developed to protect against attacking viruses, so it recognizes the intrusion and, using an enzyme, snips out the viral DNA and repairs DNA strand to its original state, also keeping part of the viral DNA, storing it in the memory to defend for further attacks. 

Companies are investing a lot of money to develop new technologies using synthetic biology because it can help in many current human problems like global warming, hunger, contamination, illness, etc.

I decided to read this book because in the past I saw Richard Dawkins said GMOs were safe, so, I started to think and question that maybe some organizations like Greenpeace were not based on science, and Poznansky corroborates it. Obviously some people will disagree with the author, due to not all people believe in science, but I think this book can be a good option to look into a different point of view.