(Science) – Risks and benefits of mirror life, AI, synthetic cells debated at anniversary of the landmark 1975 meeting

Half a century ago, molecular biologists came together up the hill from the beach in a conference center—made up of exquisite Arts and Crafts buildings that date back to 1913—to discuss the benefits and dangers of what was then a revolutionary technique: stitching together DNA from different species, creating chimeras the world had never seen. A Rolling Stone story called it “The Pandora’s Box Congress,” because this advance might lead to “a major break in cancer research,” but also to an organism that escapes from a “sloppy” lab to trigger an “epidemic cancer that spreads through the sewer system.” (Read More)