Synthetic biology in the social context: the UK debate to date

The scientific community has shown unusual leadership in early and proactive identification of some of the social, environmental, ethical and security concerns raised by synthetic biology. The current influx of social scientists focusing their attention on the technology has, however, broadened the concerns and challenges of synthetic biology and, to some extent, altered the focus of the debate about social context. This article provides a snapshot of some of the main events and discussions that have taken place in the United Kingdom over the last few months on socio-political aspects of synthetic biology.