Two themes have come up time and time again during the opening sessions of the Opportunities and Challenges symposium. The first, emphasised by amongst others Arden Bement, Director, National Science Foundation and Adrian Smith, Director General for Science and Research, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is that social scientific and humanities investigation must accompany technical research as synthetic biology develops. As Adrian Smith put it, the science and thinking about the science must proceed together.
The second and connected theme is the need for public participation, raised in every session. Setting aside the debate over what counts as 'the public' (a debate we had but of course did not resolve), the public can take part in imagining the future of science and technology. Bement pointed out that this is especially important for transformative technologies that have the potential to genuinely change the way we live. Could views such as these from Government officials have been imagined for any previous technology?
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