synthetic biology

With great complexity, we manufacture things like jet airplanes, interplanetary probes, medical tools, and microprocessors. We build with a top-down approach, starting with a big picture concept which we then design and assemble in pieces. Duke University professor of computer sciences, Dr. John Reif, notes that nature works from the bottom up to assemble complex structures in three dimensions. He and his lab are working on that.

What is keeping a genetically altered super-villain bug from escaping Duke University's synthetic biology labs, and destroying humanity Holloywood-style? A Duke University scientist has engineered genetically altered “swarmbots” that can only survive in a swarm of their own kind. And that's just the start of it all.