From Steve Last
The “firewall” safety device designed to prevent genetically-modified bacteria escaping their designated environment – for example by programmed cell suicide – worries me. Isn't the entire theory of evolution based on organisms adapting to novel environments through genetic mutation?
Dunfermline, Fife, UK
Ricard Solé writes:
• Of course no designed firewall will behave completely as predicted. Consider, however, a microorganism adapted to a specific food source that strongly differs from any “natural” metabolic pathway. How will it mutate – out of the blue – into something dangerous?
