The role of social scientists in synthetic biology

Abstract

Social scientists can adopt many different roles and responsibilities when they study scientific research: they can be advocates, intermediaries, translators, connoisseurs, critics, activists or reformers. They can reflect on the implications of a finished piece of research, or become involved at a much earlier stage. In newly emerging areas of scientific endeavour, we are seeing novel arrangements forming between natural and social scientists, whereby social scientists are becoming a required component of research programmes and are even involved in the creation of new fields. Here, we explore these developments and examine the various possible roles that social scientists may play in debates about new technologies using the example of synthetic biology. > Although there is no consensus on the definition of synthetic biology, there is a widespread conviction that it has important ethical, legal and social implications… Synthetic biology is a ‘field in the making’ that combines the expertise and knowledge of biologists and engineers. It is accompanied by both high expectations and considerable uncertainty; there are debates about its definition, its potential applications, safety considerations and how it should be institutionalized. In common with other emerging areas of technology and science, synthetic biology covers a broad and disparate set of research activities, and there is, as yet, no consensus on how the field should be defined; although the most common definitions emphasize both the building of new biological entities and the improvement of existing ones. A group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT; Cambridge, MA, USA), for example, defines synthetic biology as “the design and construction of new biological parts, devices, and systems and the re‐design of existing, natural biological systems for useful purposes” (www.syntheticbiology.org). In practice, many different activities are pursued under the heading of synthetic biology (O'Malley et al , 2008), including the construction of interchangeable biological …