title: Cannabis in the United States

text: On August 29, 2013, the Justice Department adopted a new policy (known as the Cole memo) regarding the enforcement of federal law in states that have legalized non-medical cannabis. The policy specified that commercial distribution of cannabis would be generally tolerated, except in certain circumstances, such as if violence or firearms are involved, the proceeds go to gangs and cartels, or if the cannabis is distributed to states where it is illegal.


title: Cannabis in the United States

text: On December 11, 2014, the Department of Justice told U.S. attorneys to allow Native American tribes on reservations to grow and sell marijuana, even in states where it is illegal. The policy will be implemented on a case-by-case basis and tribes must still follow federal guidelines.


title: Cannabis in the United States

text: On May 30, 2014, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Rohrabacher–Farr amendment, prohibiting the Justice Department from spending funds to interfere with the implementation of state medical marijuana laws. The amendment became law in December 2014, and must be renewed each year in order to remain in effect.


title: Cannabis in the United States

text: On March 10, 2015, U.S. Senators Rand Paul, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Cory Booker introduced the Compassionate Access, Research Expansion and Respect States Act or CARERS Act. The bipartisan bill would move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule II of the Controlled Substances Act. This would allow states with medical cannabis laws to legally prescribe it, and allow for much easier research into its medical efficacy. The bill would also allow grow sites besides the University of Mississippi, which has long been the sole supplier of cannabis for academic research, to supply cannabis for study.


title: Cannabis in the United States

text: The Food and Drug Administration has approved two synthetic cannabis drugs for treating cancer and other medical issues. The federal government of the U.S. continues to argue that smoked cannabis has no recognized medical purpose (pointing to a definition of "medical purpose" published by the DEA, not the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, or the office of the U.S. Surgeon General and the U.S. Public Health Service). Many officials point to the difficulty of regulating dosage of cannabis (a problem for treatment as well as research), despite the availability (in Canada and the United Kingdom) of dosage-controlled Sativex. The U.S. has also pressured other governments (especially Canada and Mexico, with which it shares borders) to retain restrictions on marijuana.


title: Cannabis in the United States

text: On January 4, 2018, the Cole memo was rescinded by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, restoring the ability of US Attorneys to enforce federal law in states that have legalized non-medical cannabis.


title: Cannabis in the United States

text: On December 20, 2018, President Donald Trump signed the farm bill which descheduled hemp, making cannabis under 0.3% THC legal once again. The law may have inadvertently allowed cultivation of hemp plants with high levels of delta-8-THC, which is also psychoactive and has since become more popular recreationally across the U.S.


title: Cannabis in the United States

text: In February 2019, three researchers used MedMen as a case study to illustrate their concerns with marijuana companies' marketing practices. The authors criticized MedMen's use of health claims without health warnings and their appeals to youth. They called for federal regulators to investigate the marketing practices of MedMen and other US-based marijuana companies.


title: Cannabis in the United States

text: In June 2021, Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas stated that "A prohibition on interstate use or cultivation of marijuana may no longer be necessary or proper to support the federal government's piecemeal approach," criticizing "[t]he federal government's ... half-in, half-out regime that simultaneously tolerates and forbids local use of marijuana."


title: Cannabis in the United States

text: In 2022, President Joe Biden released a budget proposal that did not extend protections for states violating federal laws around marijuana. It also did not give the District of Columbia permission to legalize, which drew mild surprise among political observers given the Democratic Party's support of D.C. autonomy.


title: Cannabis in the United States

text: In July 2022, Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act "CAOA" (see Text of S.4591)' was introduced by Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Chuck Schumer) (D-NY), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) with the aim of decriminalizing cannabis on the federal level and officially acknowledging states' own marijuana laws. Even though the bill includes both Democratic and Republican priorities, it appears unlikely to pass.


title: Cannabis in the United States

text: In 1973 Oregon became the first state to decriminalize cannabis, and in 2012 Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize recreational use. As of November 2022, twenty-one states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington), the District of Columbia, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam have legalized recreational use of cannabis, with all but D.C. having legalized its commercial sale. Another 10 states (plus the U.S. Virgin Islands) are considered to have decriminalization policies in effect.


title: Cannabis in the United States

text: In 1996, California became the first state to legalize the medical use of cannabis when voters approved Proposition 215. As of February 2022, thirty-seven states, four out of five permanently inhabited U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia have legalized medical cannabis. Eleven other states have more restrictive laws limiting THC content, for the purpose of allowing access to products that are rich in cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive component of cannabis.


title: Cannabis in the United States

text: Prior to 2021, the National Center for Natural Products Research in Oxford, Mississippi was the only facility in the U.S. that was federally licensed by the Drug Enforcement Administration to cultivate cannabis for scientific research. The facility is part of the School of Pharmacy at the University of Mississippi, and cultivates cannabis through a contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse, to which it provides the cannabis.


title: Cannabis in the United States

text: Cannabis research has been hindered by the monopoly held by the National Institute on Drug Abuse that existed prior to 2021. The cannabis supplied by NIDA has been criticized by researchers for a variety of reasons, including high amounts of stems and seeds, high mold and yeast levels, low THC content, and low diversity of strains available. NIDA has also been criticized for the length of time in which it responds to proposals, and for favoring research on the harms caused by cannabis over research on the health benefits of cannabis. In August 2016 the DEA announced intention to issue additional cultivation licenses, however, and in 2021 the first licenses were granted.


title: Cannabis in the United States

text: Research conducted on cannabis also requires licensing from the DEA (specific to Schedule I drugs), and approval from the FDA as well. Prior to 2015, research also required approval from the U.S. Public Health Service, but this requirement was eliminated to make it less difficult for cannabis research to be approved. Numerous medical organizations in the U.S. have called for restrictions on cannabis research to be further eased, including the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Psychological Association, American Cancer Society, American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Nurses Association.


title: Cannabis in the United States

text: The great majority of cannabis arrests are for possession. However, in 1997, the vast majority of inmates in state prisons for marijuana-related convictions were convicted of offenses other than simple possession.


title: Cannabis in the United States

text: According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Uniform Crime Report, there have been over twelve million cannabis arrests in the U.S. since 1996, including 749,825 persons for marijuana violations in 2012. Of those charged with marijuana violations in 2012, 658,231 (88%) were charged with possession only. The remaining 91,593 individuals were charged with "sale/manufacture", a category that does not differentiate for cultivation offenses, even those where the marijuana was being grown for personal or medical use. Marijuana arrests comprise almost one-half (48.3%) of all drug arrests reported in the U.S. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, there were 8.2 million marijuana arrests from 2001 to 2010, and 88% of those arrests were just for having marijuana with them.


title: Cannabis in the United States

text: In a study done by the American Civil Liberties Union, from 2001 to 2010 Black and white people use marijuana at about the same rate.Nationwide, Black people are 3.6 times more likely than white people to be arrested for marijuana, despite similar usage rates. Racial disparities vary in severity among states. For example, Colorado has the lowest disparity with Black people being 1.5 more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana. On the other hand, in Montana, Kentucky, Illinois, West Virginia and Iowa, Black people are more than seven times more likely to be arrested for marijuana than white people. Nonetheless, in all states whether marijuana is legalized, decriminalized or illegal, Black people still are more likely of going to prison on marijuana charges, proving that legalizing or decriminalizing marijuana alone will not change the disparity.


title: Cannabis in the United States

text: Racial profiling among law enforcement is to blame for these disparities. Law enforcement often targets people on their actual and perceived race instead of having reasonable suspicion for a crime. Minor offense like possession of marijuana are strictly enforced in racial communities, while the same offenses are often ignored in white affluent communities. This racial profiling results in the mass incarceration of Black, Hispanic and Latino individuals.


title: Cannabis in the United States

text: The Libertarian Party and the Green Party are known for advocating for the legalization of marijuana. There are also active cannabis political parties in at least five states. These include the Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis Party, the Legal Marijuana Now Party, the Legalize Marijuana Party, and the U.S. Marijuana Party.


title: Cannabis in the United States

text: In July 2016, delegates at the 2016 Democratic National Convention voted to approve a party platform calling for cannabis to be removed from the list of Schedule I substances, as well as calling for a "reasoned pathway for future legalization".


title: Cannabis in the United States

text: Gallup began polling the public as to the issue of legalizing cannabis in 1969; in that year 12% were in favor. The 2017 Gallup poll showed a record high of 64% in favor of legalizing cannabis, including a majority of Republicans for the first time. In 2018, the same poll increased to an all-new high of 68%, showing that the great majority of Americans favored legalizing recreational marijuana.


title: Cannabis in the United States

text: According to a 2013 survey by Pew Research Center, a majority of Americans favored complete or partial legalization of cannabis. The survey showed 52% of respondents support cannabis legalization and 45% do not. College graduates' support increased from 39% to 52% in just three years, the support of self-identified conservative Republicans (a group not traditionally supportive of cannabis legalization) had increased to nearly 30%, and bipartisan support had increased across the board. The 2018 version of the poll showed public support had increased to 61%.


title: Cannabis in the United States

text: Attitudes regarding marijuana regulation changed as some states (Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Maine, and Alaska) passed their own laws legalizing marijuana for recreational use. According to a Gallup Poll published in December 2012, 64% of Americans believe the federal government should not intervene in these states.


title: Cannabis in the United States

text: A 2018 study in Social Science Research found that the main determinants of these changes in attitudes toward marijuana regulation since the 1990s were a decline in perception of the riskiness of marijuana, changes in media framing of marijuana, a decline in overall punitiveness, and a decrease in religious affiliation.


title: Cannabis in the United States

text: Marijuana legalization polled as very popular in 2019 according to three major national polls. In fact, research indicates that communities with legal, recreational marijuana use have seen home values rise more quickly than communities where recreational use remains illegal.


title: Edgar Bronfman Jr.

text: Edgar Miles Bronfman Jr. (born May 16, 1955) is an American businessman who currently serves as a Managing Partner at Accretive LLC, a private equity firm focused on creating and investing in technology companies. He previously served as CEO of Warner Music Group from 2004 to 2011 and as Chairman of Warner Music Group from 2011 to 2012. In May 2011, the sale of WMG was announced; Bronfman would continue as CEO in the transaction. In August 2011, he became Chairman of the company as Stephen Cooper became CEO. Bronfman previously served as CEO of Seagram and vice-chairman of Vivendi Universal. Bronfman Jr. expanded and later divested ownership of the Seagram Company, and also worked as a Broadway and film producer, and songwriter under the pseudonyms Junior Miles and Sam Roman.


title: Edgar Bronfman Jr.

text: Born in 1955, Edgar Jr. ("Efer" to friends) is the son of Edgar Miles Bronfman and the grandson of Samuel Bronfman, patriarch of one of the wealthiest and most influential Jewish families in Canada. The Bronfman family gained its fortunes through the Seagram Company, an alcohol distilling company. Edgar Jr. is the second of five children of Ann (Loeb) and Edgar Miles Bronfman. His mother was the daughter of John Langeloth Loeb Sr. (a Wall Street investment banker whose company was a predecessor of Shearson Lehman/American Express) and Frances Lehman (a scion of the Lehman Brothers banking firm). They divorced in 1973.


title: Edgar Bronfman Jr.

text: Bronfman proceeded to a brief career in entertainment in the 1970s as a film and Broadway producer. The summer before his final year of high school, in 1972, he was a credited producer on the film, "The Blockhouse". His Efer Productions company was signed by Universal Studios in 1977 to a three-year movie production contract. He produced the unsuccessful film "The Border" (1982), which starred Jack Nicholson.


title: Edgar Bronfman Jr.

text: In 1982, Bronfman returned to the Seagram Company, spending three months learning the ropes before moving to London to become managing director of Seagram Europe. In 1984, Bronfman returned to New York as President of the House of Seagram, the company's U.S. marketing division. By 1994, he became the Chief Executive Officer, where he began a move away from the traditional liquor business and into entertainment. According to "Cigar Aficionado," Edgar Jr. led the family on a series of disastrous business deals, ultimately losing the family's ownership of Seagram.


title: Edgar Bronfman Jr.

text: The first step in this diversification was the widely criticised sale of Seagram's stake in DuPont. In 1981, Edgar Bronfman Sr. had sold Seagram's stake in Conoco to DuPont, in exchange for almost 25% of the chemical giant. This stake in DuPont, by 1995, represented about 70% of Seagram's total earnings. Nevertheless, Bronfman Jr., acting as Seagram CEO, approached DuPont about buying back its shares, a deal that DuPont wasted no time in closing.


title: Edgar Bronfman Jr.

text: With the proceeds of the $9 billion sale, Bronfman Jr. went on an expansion into the entertainment business, in music through the acquisition of PolyGram, and in film entertainment through MCA and Universal Pictures. However, the new entertainment conglomerate he created had a brief life, before needing a strategic partner. Bronfman Jr., then led Seagram into a controversial all-stock acquisition by French conglomerate Vivendi in 2000. Bronfman Jr., became chief of the new company, Vivendi Universal, but the Seagram company effectively lost control of its entertainment businesses. Meanwhile, the beverage division—the core of Seagram was acquired by Pernod Ricard and Diageo and divided between the two firms. Seagram, for all intents and purposes, ceased to exist.


title: Edgar Bronfman Jr.

text: In December 2001, Bronfman announced he was stepping down from an executive capacity at Vivendi Universal, but remaining as vice chair of the board.


title: Edgar Bronfman Jr.

text: In 2002, Bronfman joined private investment firm Accretive LLC as General Partner. The firm focuses on conducting deep market research and hand-selecting firms to back. Among its past projects are Accretive Health and Fandango (ticket service). Companies it currently backs include human resources firm AlphaStaff and small-business insurance company Insureon.


title: Edgar Bronfman Jr.

text: On February 27, 2004, Bronfman finalised the acquisition of Warner Music Group and served as Chairman and CEO of the music company for the following 7 years. Bronfman helped to transform WMG by rapidly growing the company's digital music sales, redefining the relationships it has with artists and diversifying its revenue streams through its expansion into growing areas of the music business. WMG held an initial public offering of stock in 2005 (NYSE: WMG), and is now the only standalone major music company to be publicly traded. While the stock has fallen from a high in 2005 of over $30 per share, the company has nonetheless produced double-digit growth in its digital business, increased its market share and delivered stable revenue performance despite a drastic music industry decline during the same period. In 2008, "The New York Times" reported that WMG's Atlantic Records became the first major record label to generate more than half of its music sales in the U.S. from digital products.


title: Edgar Bronfman Jr.

text: In May, 2011, WMG and Bronfman announced the company's sale to Access Industries for US$3.3 billion cash. Access is controlled by Russian-born billionaire Len Blavatnik, a former board member and still-substantial shareholder of WMG at the time of the purchase announcement. The sale, coming after a three-month bidding process, "serves the best interests of stockholders as well as the best interests of music fans, our recording artists and songwriters, and the wonderful people of this company," according to a statement released by Bronfman. CEO Bronfman would continue in his post in the transaction, though further job cuts were also foreseen. The investment group which has owned the company since 2004 was said to have received a positive return on its investment.


title: Edgar Bronfman Jr.

text: In August 2011, Bronfman became Chairman of Warner Music and Stephen Cooper became CEO. He stepped down as Chairman on January 31, 2012. In February 2017, it was reported that Meredith Corp. and a group of investors led by Bronfman Jr. were considering pursuing Time Inc.


title: Edgar Bronfman Jr.

text: He is currently the chairman of Endeavor, an international non-profit development organisation that supports entrepreneurs.


title: Edgar Bronfman Jr.

text: In 2017, it was announced that Bronfman would be launching a new venture capital firm called Waverley Capital, alongside Luminari Capital founder Daniel Leff. This firm would invest in "innovative and disruptive" companies within both technology and entertainment, with offices in New York and Palo Alto, California, with a Los Angeles office expected to open in the future.


title: Edgar Bronfman Jr.

text: In 1973, Bronfman began a songwriting career under the pseudonyms Junior Miles and Sam Roman. He often collaborated with Bruce Roberts on songs like "Whisper in the Dark", which he gave to Dionne Warwick to record in thanks for introducing him to his first wife, Sherry. Bronfman also co-wrote "To Love You More", which was recorded by Celine Dion, and Barbra Streisand's "If I Didn't Love You".


title: Edgar Bronfman Jr.

text: Edgar M. Bronfman, Jr., is the son of Edgar Bronfman, Sr., the billionaire businessman and longtime president of the World Jewish Congress who died aged 84 in 2013. He is the half-brother of Clare Bronfman, who as a 39-year-old was charged in 2018 in a NXIVM sex-trafficking case.


title: Edgar Bronfman Jr.

text: In 1979, Bronfman married his first wife, the actress Sherry Brewer, in New Orleans. Bronfman's father did not approve of marriage. "I very much wanted for him to end the relationship, because I told him, all marriages are difficult enough without the added stress of totally different backgrounds", Bronfman Sr. wrote in his memoirs. "Sherry offered to convert [to Judaism], which though well intentioned, was not the point."


title: Edgar Bronfman Jr.

text: Bronfman and Brewer eloped and he and his father remained estranged. The couple had three children before they divorced in 1991:


title: Edgar Bronfman Jr.

text: In 1993 Bronfman married Clarisa Alcock San Román, a Catholic, the daughter of Frank Alcock Pérez-Matos, a Venezuelan oil executive of half British descent, and Dinorah San Román Strup, her Venezuelan mother. They have four children: Aaron, Bettina, Erik, and Clarissa.


title: Edgar Bronfman Jr.

text: On January 21, 2011, Bronfman was found guilty in French court of insider trading as Vivendi chief and received a 15-month suspended sentence and a €5m fine.


title: Edgar Bronfman Jr.

text: Considering the jail sentences handed out to other executives for similar convictions, BNN reporter Michael Kane told CTV News "The fact that the judge suspended the jail time could be looked at as getting off lightly, perhaps."


title: Edgar Bronfman Jr.

text: At the height of file sharing service Napster's popularity, Bronfman was a leading opponent of the illegal use of peer-to-peer technology. As CEO of Universal, he helped lead the music industry's opposition to Napster, likening it to slavery and Soviet communism.


title: Edgar Bronfman Jr.

text: In 2006, WMG was the first major media company to create a business model around user-generated content and, more recently, has been pushing for ways to monetise the popularity of P2P networks on college campuses.


title: Edgar Bronfman Jr.

text: In late 2006 in an interview with Reuters, Bronfman caused a stir by admitting that his children have copyright infringing music. He claims to have delivered punishment for this but wants it to remain within the realm of the family.


title: Edgar Bronfman Jr.

text: Lately, Bronfman may have revised his judgement. During the GSMA Mobile Asia Congress, he told the audience that mobile operators should not make the same mistakes that the music industry has:


title: Edgar Bronfman Jr.

text: In 2010 Bronfman changed his philosophy on the music industry's online business models, stating that he does not support free advertising supported models. He said that WMG will focus on promoting services that require payment, that will appeal to the population that already pays for downloads in stores such as iTunes.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Synthetic biology (SynBio) is a multidisciplinary area of research that seeks to create new biological parts, devices, and systems, or to redesign systems that are already found in nature.


title: Synthetic biology

text: It is a branch of science that encompasses a broad range of methodologies from various disciplines, such as biotechnology, biomaterials, material science/engineering, genetic engineering, molecular biology, molecular engineering, systems biology, membrane science, biophysics, chemical and biological engineering, electrical and computer engineering, control engineering and evolutionary biology.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Due to more powerful genetic engineering capabilities and decreased DNA synthesis and sequencing costs, the field of synthetic biology is rapidly growing. In 2016, more than 350 companies across 40 countries were actively engaged in synthetic biology applications; all these companies had an estimated net worth of $3.9 billion in the global market.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Synthetic biology has traditionally been divided into two different approaches: top down and bottom up.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Biological systems are thus assembled module-by-module. Cell-free protein expression systems are often employed, as are membrane-based molecular machinery. There are increasing efforts to bridge the divide between these approaches by forming hybrid living/synthetic cells, and engineering communication between living and synthetic cell populations.


title: Synthetic biology

text: 1910: First identifiable use of the term "synthetic biology" in Stéphane Leduc's publication "Théorie physico-chimique de la vie et générations spontanées". He also noted this term in another publication, "La Biologie Synthétique" in 1912.


title: Synthetic biology

text: 1961: Jacob and Monod postulate cellular regulation by molecular networks from their study of the "lac" operon in "E. coli" and envisioned the ability to assemble new systems from molecular components.


title: Synthetic biology

text: 1973: First molecular cloning and amplification of DNA in a plasmid is published in "P.N.A.S." by Cohen, Boyer "et al." constituting the dawn of synthetic biology.


title: Synthetic biology

text: 1978: Arber, Nathans and Smith win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of restriction enzymes, leading Szybalski to offer an editorial comment in the journal "Gene":


title: Synthetic biology

text: The work on restriction nucleases not only permits us easily to construct recombinant DNA molecules and to analyze individual genes, but also has led us into the new era of synthetic biology where not only existing genes are described and analyzed but also new gene arrangements can be constructed and evaluated.


title: Synthetic biology

text: 1988: First DNA amplification by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using a thermostable DNA polymerase is published in "Science" by Mullis "et al." This obviated adding new DNA polymerase after each PCR cycle, thus greatly simplifying DNA mutagenesis and assembly.


title: Synthetic biology

text: 2000: Two papers in Nature report synthetic biological circuits, a genetic toggle switch and a biological clock, by combining genes within "E. coli" cells.


title: Synthetic biology

text: 2003: The most widely used standardized DNA parts, BioBrick plasmids, are invented by Tom Knight. These parts will become central to the international Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM) founded at MIT in the following year.


title: Synthetic biology

text: 2004: First international conference for synthetic biology, Synthetic Biology 1.0 (SB1.0) is held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.


title: Synthetic biology

text: 2005: Researchers develop a light-sensing circuit in "E. coli". Another group designs circuits capable of multicellular pattern formation.


title: Synthetic biology

text: 2010: Researchers publish in "Science" the first synthetic bacterial genome, called "M. mycoides" JCVI-syn1.0. The genome is made from chemically-synthesized DNA using yeast recombination.


title: Synthetic biology

text: 2012: Charpentier and Doudna labs publish in "Science" the programming of CRISPR-Cas9 bacterial immunity for targeting DNA cleavage. This technology greatly simplified and expanded eukaryotic gene editing.


title: Synthetic biology

text: 2019: Scientists at ETH Zurich report the creation of the first bacterial genome, named "Caulobacter ethensis-2.0", made entirely by a computer, although a related viable form of "C. ethensis-2.0" does not yet exist.


title: Synthetic biology

text: 2019: Researchers report the production of a new synthetic (possibly artificial) form of viable life, a variant of the bacteria "Escherichia coli", by reducing the natural number of 64 codons in the bacterial genome to 59 codons instead, in order to encode 20 amino acids.


title: Synthetic biology

text: 2020: Scientist created the first xenobot, programmable synthetic organism derived from frog cells and designed by AI.


title: Synthetic biology

text: 2021: Scientist reported that xenobots are able to self-replicate by gathering loose cells in the environment and then forming new xenobot.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Engineers view biology as a "technology" (in other words, a given system includes "biotechnology" or its "biological engineering") Synthetic biology includes the broad redefinition and expansion of biotechnology, with the ultimate goals of being able to design and build engineered live biological systems that process information, manipulate chemicals, fabricate materials and structures, produce energy, provide food, and maintain and enhance human health, as well as advance fundamental knowledge of biological systems (see Biomedical Engineering) and our environment.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Studies in synthetic biology can be subdivided into broad classifications according to the approach they take to the problem at hand: standardization of biological parts, biomolecular engineering, genome engineering, metabolic engineering.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Biomolecular engineering includes approaches that aim to create a toolkit of functional units that can be introduced to present new technological functions in living cells. Genetic engineering includes approaches to construct synthetic chromosomes or minimal organisms like Mycoplasma laboratorium.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Biomolecular design refers to the general idea of de novo design and additive combination of biomolecular components. Each of these approaches share a similar task: to develop a more synthetic entity at a higher level of complexity by inventively manipulating a simpler part at the preceding level. Optimizing these exogenous pathways in unnatural systems takes iterative fine tuning of the individual biomolecular components to select for the highest concentrations of the desired product.


title: Synthetic biology

text: On the other hand, "re-writers" are synthetic biologists interested in testing the irreducibility of biological systems. Due to the complexity of natural biological systems, it would be simpler to rebuild the natural systems of interest from the ground up; In order to provide engineered surrogates that are easier to comprehend, control and manipulate. Re-writers draw inspiration from refactoring, a process sometimes used to improve computer software.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Several novel enabling technologies were critical to the success of synthetic biology. Concepts include standardization of biological parts and hierarchical abstraction to permit using those parts in synthetic systems. Basic technologies include reading and writing DNA (sequencing and fabrication). Measurements under multiple conditions are needed for accurate modeling and computer-aided design (CAD).


title: Synthetic biology

text: Driven by dramatic decreases in costs of oligonucleotide ("oligos") synthesis and the advent of PCR, the sizes of DNA constructions from oligos have increased to the genomic level. In 2000, researchers reported synthesis of the 9.6 kbp (kilo bp) Hepatitis C virus genome from chemically synthesized 60 to 80-mers. In 2002 researchers at Stony Brook University succeeded in synthesizing the 7741 bp poliovirus genome from its published sequence, producing the second synthetic genome, spanning two years. In 2003 the 5386 bp genome of the bacteriophage Phi X 174 was assembled in about two weeks. In 2006, the same team, at the J. Craig Venter Institute, constructed and patented a synthetic genome of a novel minimal bacterium, "Mycoplasma laboratorium" and were working on getting it functioning in a living cell.


title: Synthetic biology

text: In 2007 it was reported that several companies were offering synthesis of genetic sequences up to 2000 base pairs (bp) long, for a price of about $1 per bp and a turnaround time of less than two weeks. Oligonucleotides harvested from a photolithographic- or inkjet-manufactured DNA chip combined with PCR and DNA mismatch error-correction allows inexpensive large-scale changes of codons in genetic systems to improve gene expression or incorporate novel amino-acids (see George M. Church's and Anthony Forster's synthetic cell projects.) This favors a synthesis-from-scratch approach.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Additionally, the CRISPR/Cas system has emerged as a promising technique for gene editing. It was described as "the most important innovation in the synthetic biology space in nearly 30 years". While other methods take months or years to edit gene sequences, CRISPR speeds that time up to weeks. Due to its ease of use and accessibility, however, it has raised ethical concerns, especially surrounding its use in biohacking.


title: Synthetic biology

text: DNA sequencing determines the order of nucleotide bases in a DNA molecule. Synthetic biologists use DNA sequencing in their work in several ways. First, large-scale genome sequencing efforts continue to provide information on naturally occurring organisms. This information provides a rich substrate from which synthetic biologists can construct parts and devices. Second, sequencing can verify that the fabricated system is as intended. Third, fast, cheap, and reliable sequencing can facilitate rapid detection and identification of synthetic systems and organisms.


title: Synthetic biology

text: The most used standardized DNA parts are BioBrick plasmids, invented by Tom Knight in 2003. Biobricks are stored at the Registry of Standard Biological Parts in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The BioBrick standard has been used by tens of thousands of students worldwide in the international Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition. BioBrick Assembly Standard 10 promotes modularity by allowing BioBrick coding sequences to be spliced out and exchanged using restriction enzymes EcoRI or XbaI (BioBrick prefix) and SpeI and PstI (BioBrick suffix).


title: Synthetic biology

text: Sequence overlap between two genetic elements (genes or coding sequences), called overlapping genes, can prevent their individual manipulation. To increase genome modularity, the practice of genome refactoring or improving "the internal structure of an existing system for future use, while simultaneously maintaining external system function" has been adopted across synthetic biology disciplines. Some notable examples of refactoring including the nitrogen fixation cluster and type III secretion system along with bacteriophages T7 and ΦX174.


title: Synthetic biology

text: While DNA is most important for information storage, a large fraction of the cell's activities are carried out by proteins. Tools can send proteins to specific regions of the cell and to link different proteins together. The interaction strength between protein partners should be tunable between a lifetime of seconds (desirable for dynamic signaling events) up to an irreversible interaction (desirable for device stability or resilient to harsh conditions). Interactions such as coiled coils, SH3 domain-peptide binding or SpyTag/SpyCatcher offer such control. In addition it is necessary to regulate protein-protein interactions in cells, such as with light (using light-oxygen-voltage-sensing domains) or cell-permeable small molecules by chemically induced dimerization.


title: Synthetic biology

text: In a living cell, molecular motifs are embedded in a bigger network with upstream and downstream components. These components may alter the signaling capability of the modeling module. In the case of ultrasensitive modules, the sensitivity contribution of a module can differ from the sensitivity that the module sustains in isolation.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Models inform the design of engineered biological systems by better predicting system behavior prior to fabrication. Synthetic biology benefits from better models of how biological molecules bind substrates and catalyze reactions, how DNA encodes the information needed to specify the cell and how multi-component integrated systems behave. Multiscale models of gene regulatory networks focus on synthetic biology applications. Simulations can model all biomolecular interactions in transcription, translation, regulation and induction of gene regulatory networks.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Microfluidics, in particular droplet microfluidics, is an emerging tool used to construct new components, and to analyze and characterize them. It is widely employed in screening assays.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Studies have considered the components of the DNA transcription mechanism. One desire of scientists creating synthetic biological circuits is to be able to control the transcription of synthetic DNA in unicellular organisms (prokaryotes) and in multicellular organisms (eukaryotes). One study tested the adjustability of synthetic transcription factors (sTFs) in areas of transcription output and cooperative ability among multiple transcription factor complexes. Researchers were able to mutate functional regions called zinc fingers, the DNA specific component of sTFs, to decrease their affinity for specific operator DNA sequence sites, and thus decrease the associated site-specific activity of the sTF (usually transcriptional regulation). They further used the zinc fingers as components of complex-forming sTFs, which are the eukaryotic translation mechanisms.


title: Synthetic biology

text: A biosensor refers to an engineered organism, usually a bacterium, that is capable of reporting some ambient phenomenon such as the presence of heavy metals or toxins. One such system is the Lux operon of "Aliivibrio fischeri," which codes for the enzyme that is the source of bacterial bioluminescence, and can be placed after a respondent promoter to express the luminescence genes in response to a specific environmental stimulus. One such sensor created, consisted of a bioluminescent bacterial coating on a photosensitive computer chip to detect certain petroleum pollutants. When the bacteria sense the pollutant, they luminesce. Another example of a similar mechanism is the detection of landmines by an engineered "E.coli" reporter strain capable of detecting TNT and its main degradation product DNT, and consequently producing a green fluorescent protein (GFP).


title: Synthetic biology

text: Modified organisms can sense environmental signals and send output signals that can be detected and serve diagnostic purposes. Microbe cohorts have been used.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Biosensors could also be used to detect pathogenic signatures – such as of SARS-CoV-2 – and can be wearable.


title: Synthetic biology

text: However, not all synthetic nutrition products are animal food products – for instance, as of 2021 there are also products of synthetic coffee that are reported to be close to commercialization. Similar fields of research and production based on synthetic biology that can be used for the production of food and drink are:


title: Synthetic biology

text: A biological computer refers to an engineered biological system that can perform computer-like operations, which is a dominant paradigm in synthetic biology. Researchers built and characterized a variety of logic gates in a number of organisms, and demonstrated both analog and digital computation in living cells. They demonstrated that bacteria can be engineered to perform both analog and/or digital computation. In human cells research demonstrated a universal logic evaluator that operates in mammalian cells in 2007. Subsequently, researchers utilized this paradigm to demonstrate a proof-of-concept therapy that uses biological digital computation to detect and kill human cancer cells in 2011. Another group of researchers demonstrated in 2016 that principles of computer engineering, can be used to automate digital circuit design in bacterial cells. In 2017, researchers demonstrated the 'Boolean logic and arithmetic through DNA excision' (BLADE) system to engineer digital computation in human cells. In 2019, researchers implemented a perceptron in biological systems opening the way for machine learning in these systems.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Cells use interacting genes and proteins, which are called gene circuits, to implement diverse function, such as responding to environmental signals, decision making and communication. Three key components are involved: DNA, RNA and Synthetic biologist designed gene circuits that can control gene expression from several levels including transcriptional, post-transcriptional and translational levels.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Traditional metabolic engineering has been bolstered by the introduction of combinations of foreign genes and optimization by directed evolution. This includes engineering "E. coli" and yeast for commercial production of a precursor of the antimalarial drug, Artemisinin.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Entire organisms have yet to be created from scratch, although living cells can be transformed with new DNA. Several ways allow constructing synthetic DNA components and even entire synthetic genomes, but once the desired genetic code is obtained, it is integrated into a living cell that is expected to manifest the desired new capabilities or phenotypes while growing and thriving. Cell transformation is used to create biological circuits, which can be manipulated to yield desired outputs.


title: Synthetic biology

text: By integrating synthetic biology with materials science, it would be possible to use cells as microscopic molecular foundries to produce materials with properties whose properties were genetically encoded. Re-engineering has produced Curli fibers, the amyloid component of extracellular material of biofilms, as a platform for programmable nanomaterial. These nanofibers were genetically constructed for specific functions, including adhesion to substrates, nanoparticle templating and protein immobilization.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Natural proteins can be engineered, for example, by directed evolution, novel protein structures that match or improve on the functionality of existing proteins can be produced. One group generated a helix bundle that was capable of binding oxygen with similar properties as hemoglobin, yet did not bind carbon monoxide. A similar protein structure was generated to support a variety of oxidoreductase activities while another formed a structurally and sequentially novel ATPase. Another group generated a family of G-protein coupled receptors that could be activated by the inert small molecule clozapine N-oxide but insensitive to the native ligand, acetylcholine; these receptors are known as DREADDs. Novel functionalities or protein specificity can also be engineered using computational approaches. One study was able to use two different computational methods – a bioinformatics and molecular modeling method to mine sequence databases, and a computational enzyme design method to reprogram enzyme specificity. Both methods resulted in designed enzymes with greater than 100 fold specificity for production of longer chain alcohols from sugar.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Another common investigation is expansion of the natural set of 20 amino acids. Excluding stop codons, 61 codons have been identified, but only 20 amino acids are coded generally in all organisms. Certain codons are engineered to code for alternative amino acids including: nonstandard amino acids such as O-methyl tyrosine; or exogenous amino acids such as 4-fluorophenylalanine. Typically, these projects make use of re-coded nonsense suppressor tRNA-Aminoacyl tRNA synthetase pairs from other organisms, though in most cases substantial engineering is required.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Other researchers investigated protein structure and function by reducing the normal set of 20 amino acids. Limited protein sequence libraries are made by generating proteins where groups of amino acids may be replaced by a single amino acid. For instance, several non-polar amino acids within a protein can all be replaced with a single non-polar amino acid. One project demonstrated that an engineered version of Chorismate mutase still had catalytic activity when only 9 amino acids were used.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Researchers and companies practice synthetic biology to synthesize industrial enzymes with high activity, optimal yields and effectiveness. These synthesized enzymes aim to improve products such as detergents and lactose-free dairy products, as well as make them more cost effective. The improvements of metabolic engineering by synthetic biology is an example of a biotechnological technique utilized in industry to discover pharmaceuticals and fermentive chemicals. Synthetic biology may investigate modular pathway systems in biochemical production and increase yields of metabolic production. Artificial enzymatic activity and subsequent effects on metabolic reaction rates and yields may develop "efficient new strategies for improving cellular properties ... for industrially important biochemical production".


title: Synthetic biology

text: Scientists can encode digital information onto a single strand of synthetic DNA. In 2012, George M. Church encoded one of his books about synthetic biology in DNA. The 5.3 Mb of data was more than 1000 times greater than the previous largest amount of information to be stored in synthesized DNA. A similar project encoded the complete sonnets of William Shakespeare in DNA. More generally, algorithms such as NUPACK, ViennaRNA, Ribosome Binding Site Calculator, Cello, and Non-Repetitive Parts Calculator enables the design of new genetic systems.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Many technologies have been developed for incorporating unnatural nucleotides and amino acids into nucleic acids and proteins, both "in vitro" and "in vivo". For example, in May 2014, researchers announced that they had successfully introduced two new artificial nucleotides into bacterial DNA. By including individual artificial nucleotides in the culture media, they were able to exchange the bacteria 24 times; they did not generate mRNA or proteins able to use the artificial nucleotides.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Synthetic biology raised NASA's interest as it could help to produce resources for astronauts from a restricted portfolio of compounds sent from Earth. On Mars, in particular, synthetic biology could lead to production processes based on local resources, making it a powerful tool in the development of occupied outposts with less dependence on Earth. Work has gone into developing plant strains that are able to cope with the harsh Martian environment, using similar techniques to those employed to increase resilience to certain environmental factors in agricultural crops.


title: Synthetic biology

text: One important topic in synthetic biology is "synthetic life", that is concerned with hypothetical organisms created "in vitro" from biomolecules and/or chemical analogues thereof. Synthetic life experiments attempt to either probe the origins of life, study some of the properties of life, or more ambitiously to recreate life from non-living (abiotic) components. Synthetic life biology attempts to create living organisms capable of carrying out important functions, from manufacturing pharmaceuticals to detoxifying polluted land and water. In medicine, it offers prospects of using designer biological parts as a starting point for new classes of therapies and diagnostic tools.


title: Synthetic biology

text: A living "artificial cell" has been defined as a completely synthetic cell that can capture energy, maintain ion gradients, contain macromolecules as well as store information and have the ability to mutate. Nobody has been able to create such a cell.


title: Synthetic biology

text: A completely synthetic bacterial chromosome was produced in 2010 by Craig Venter, and his team introduced it to genomically emptied bacterial host cells. The host cells were able to grow and replicate. The Mycoplasma laboratorium is the only living organism with completely engineered genome.


title: Synthetic biology

text: The first living organism with 'artificial' expanded DNA code was presented in 2014; the team used "E. coli" that had its genome extracted and replaced with a chromosome with an expanded genetic code. The nucleosides added are d5SICS and dNaM.


title: Synthetic biology

text: In May 2019, researchers, in a milestone effort, reported the creation of a new synthetic (possibly artificial) form of viable life, a variant of the bacteria "Escherichia coli", by reducing the natural number of 64 codons in the bacterial genome to 59 codons instead, in order to encode 20 amino acids.


title: Synthetic biology

text: In 2017 the international Build-a-Cell large-scale open-source research collaboration for the construction of synthetic living cells was started, followed by national synthetic cell organizations in several countries, including FabriCell, MaxSynBio and BaSyC. The European synthetic cell efforts were unified in 2019 as SynCellEU initiative.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Bacteria have long been used in cancer treatment. "Bifidobacterium" and "Clostridium" selectively colonize tumors and reduce their size. Recently synthetic biologists reprogrammed bacteria to sense and respond to a particular cancer state. Most often bacteria are used to deliver a therapeutic molecule directly to the tumor to minimize off-target effects. To target the tumor cells, peptides that can specifically recognize a tumor were expressed on the surfaces of bacteria. Peptides used include an affibody molecule that specifically targets human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 and a synthetic adhesin. The other way is to allow bacteria to sense the tumor microenvironment, for example hypoxia, by building an AND logic gate into bacteria. The bacteria then only release target therapeutic molecules to the tumor through either lysis or the bacterial secretion system. Lysis has the advantage that it can stimulate the immune system and control growth. Multiple types of secretion systems can be used and other strategies as well. The system is inducible by external signals. Inducers include chemicals, electromagnetic or light waves.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Multiple species and strains are applied in these therapeutics. Most commonly used bacteria are "Salmonella typhimurium", "Escherichia Coli", "Bifidobacteria", "Streptococcus", "Lactobacillus", "Listeria" and "Bacillus subtilis". Each of these species have their own property and are unique to cancer therapy in terms of tissue colonization, interaction with immune system and ease of application.


title: Synthetic biology

text: The immune system plays an important role in cancer and can be harnessed to attack cancer cells. Cell-based therapies focus on immunotherapies, mostly by engineering T cells.


title: Synthetic biology

text: T cell receptors were engineered and ‘trained’ to detect cancer epitopes. Chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) are composed of a fragment of an antibody fused to intracellular T cell signaling domains that can activate and trigger proliferation of the cell. A second generation CAR-based therapy was approved by FDA.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Gene switches were designed to enhance safety of the treatment. Kill switches were developed to terminate the therapy should the patient show severe side effects. Mechanisms can more finely control the system and stop and reactivate it. Since the number of T-cells are important for therapy persistence and severity, growth of T-cells is also controlled to dial the effectiveness and safety of therapeutics.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Although several mechanisms can improve safety and control, limitations include the difficulty of inducing large DNA circuits into the cells and risks associated with introducing foreign components, especially proteins, into cells.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Synthetic biology has been used for organoids, which are lab-grown organs with application to medical research and transplantation.


title: Synthetic biology

text: There is ongoing research and development into synthetic biology based methods for inducing regeneration in humans as well the creation of transplantable artificial organs.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Synthetic biology can be used for creating nanoparticles which can be used for drug-delivery as well as for other purposes. Complementing research and development seeks to and has created synthetic cells that mimics functions of biological cells. Applications include medicine such as designer-nanoparticles that make blood cells eat away – from the inside out – portions of atherosclerotic plaque that cause heart attacks. Synthetic micro-droplets for algal cells or synergistic algal-bacterial multicellular spheroid microbial reactors, for example, could be used to produce hydrogen as hydrogen economy biotechnology.


title: Synthetic biology

text: The creation of new life and the tampering of existing life has raised ethical concerns in the field of synthetic biology and are actively being discussed.


title: Synthetic biology

text: The ethical aspects of synthetic biology has 3 main features: biosafety, biosecurity, and the creation of new life forms. Other ethical issues mentioned include the regulation of new creations, patent management of new creations, benefit distribution, and research integrity.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Ethical issues have surfaced for recombinant DNA and genetically modified organism (GMO) technologies and extensive regulations of genetic engineering and pathogen research were in place in many jurisdictions. Amy Gutmann, former head of the Presidential Bioethics Commission, argued that we should avoid the temptation to over-regulate synthetic biology in general, and genetic engineering in particular. According to Gutmann, "Regulatory parsimony is especially important in emerging technologies...where the temptation to stifle innovation on the basis of uncertainty and fear of the unknown is particularly great. The blunt instruments of statutory and regulatory restraint may not only inhibit the distribution of new benefits, but can be counterproductive to security and safety by preventing researchers from developing effective safeguards.".


title: Synthetic biology

text: One ethical question is whether or not it is acceptable to create new life forms, sometimes known as "playing God". Currently, the creation of new life forms not present in nature is at small-scale, the potential benefits and dangers remain unknown, and careful consideration and oversight are ensured for most studies. Many advocates express the great potential value—to agriculture, medicine, and academic knowledge, among other fields—of creating artificial life forms. Creation of new entities could expand scientific knowledge well beyond what is currently known from studying natural phenomena. Yet there is concern that artificial life forms may reduce nature's "purity" (i.e., nature could be somehow corrupted by human intervention and manipulation) and potentially influence the adoption of more engineering-like principles instead of biodiversity- and nature-focused ideals. Some are also concerned that if an artificial life form were to be released into nature, it could hamper biodiversity by beating out natural species for resources (similar to how algal blooms kill marine species). Another concern involves the ethical treatment of newly created entities if they happen to sense pain, sentience, and self-perception. There is an ongoing debate as to whether such life forms should be granted moral or legal rights, though no consensus exists as to how these rights would be administered or enforced.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Ethics and moral rationales that support certain applications of synthetic biology include their potential mititgation of substantial global problems of detrimental environmental impacts of conventional agriculture (including meat production), animal welfare, food security and human health, as well as potential reduction of human labor needs and, via therapies of diseases, reduction of human suffering and prolonged life.


title: Synthetic biology

text: What is most ethically appropriate when considering biosafety measures? How can accidental introduction of synthetic life in the natural environment be avoided? Much ethical consideration and critical thought has been given to these questions. Biosafety not only refers to biological containment; it also refers to strides taken to protect the public from potentially hazardous biological agents. Even though such concerns are important and remain unanswered, not all products of synthetic biology present concern for biological safety or negative consequences for the environment. It is argued that most synthetic technologies are benign and are incapable of flourishing in the outside world due to their "unnatural" characteristics as there is yet to be an example of a transgenic microbe conferred with a fitness advantage in the wild.


title: Synthetic biology

text: In general, existing hazard controls, risk assessment methodologies, and regulations developed for traditional genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are considered to be sufficient for synthetic organisms. "Extrinsic" biocontainment methods in a laboratory context include physical containment through biosafety cabinets and gloveboxes, as well as personal protective equipment. In an agricultural context they include isolation distances and pollen barriers, similar to methods for biocontainment of GMOs. Synthetic organisms may offer increased hazard control because they can be engineered with "intrinsic" biocontainment methods that limit their growth in an uncontained environment, or prevent horizontal gene transfer to natural organisms. Examples of intrinsic biocontainment include auxotrophy, biological kill switches, inability of the organism to replicate or to pass modified or synthetic genes to offspring, and the use of xenobiological organisms using alternative biochemistry, for example using artificial xeno nucleic acids (XNA) instead of DNA. Regarding auxotrophy, bacteria and yeast can be engineered to be unable to produce histidine, an important amino acid for all life. Such organisms can thus only be grown on histidine-rich media in laboratory conditions, nullifying fears that they could spread into undesirable areas.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Some ethical issues relate to biosecurity, where biosynthetic technologies could be deliberately used to cause harm to society and/or the environment. Since synthetic biology raises ethical issues and biosecurity issues, humanity must consider and plan on how to deal with potentially harmful creations, and what kinds of ethical measures could possibly be employed to deter nefarious biosynthetic technologies. With the exception of regulating synthetic biology and biotechnology companies, however, the issues are not seen as new because they were raised during the earlier recombinant DNA and genetically modified organism (GMO) debates and extensive regulations of genetic engineering and pathogen research are already in place in many jurisdictions.


title: Synthetic biology

text: The European Union-funded project SYNBIOSAFE has issued reports on how to manage synthetic biology. A 2007 paper identified key issues in safety, security, ethics and the science-society interface, which the project defined as public education and ongoing dialogue among scientists, businesses, government and ethicists. The key security issues that SYNBIOSAFE identified involved engaging companies that sell synthetic DNA and the biohacking community of amateur biologists. Key ethical issues concerned the creation of new life forms.


title: Synthetic biology

text: A subsequent report focused on biosecurity, especially the so-called dual-use challenge. For example, while synthetic biology may lead to more efficient production of medical treatments, it may also lead to synthesis or modification of harmful pathogens (e.g., smallpox). The biohacking community remains a source of special concern, as the distributed and diffuse nature of open-source biotechnology makes it difficult to track, regulate or mitigate potential concerns over biosafety and biosecurity.


title: Synthetic biology

text: COSY, another European initiative, focuses on public perception and communication. To better communicate synthetic biology and its societal ramifications to a broader public, COSY and SYNBIOSAFE published "SYNBIOSAFE", a 38-minute documentary film, in October 2009.


title: Synthetic biology

text: The International Association Synthetic Biology has proposed self-regulation. This proposes specific measures that the synthetic biology industry, especially DNA synthesis companies, should implement. In 2007, a group led by scientists from leading DNA-synthesis companies published a "practical plan for developing an effective oversight framework for the DNA-synthesis industry".


title: Synthetic biology

text: In January 2009, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation funded the Woodrow Wilson Center, the Hastings Center, and the J. Craig Venter Institute to examine the public perception, ethics and policy implications of synthetic biology.


title: Synthetic biology

text: On July 9–10, 2009, the National Academies' Committee of Science, Technology & Law convened a symposium on "Opportunities and Challenges in the Emerging Field of Synthetic Biology".


title: Synthetic biology

text: After the publication of the first synthetic genome and the accompanying media coverage about "life" being created, President Barack Obama established the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues to study synthetic biology. The commission convened a series of meetings, and issued a report in December 2010 titled "New Directions: The Ethics of Synthetic Biology and Emerging Technologies." The commission stated that "while Venter's achievement marked a significant technical advance in demonstrating that a relatively large genome could be accurately synthesized and substituted for another, it did not amount to the “creation of life”. It noted that synthetic biology is an emerging field, which creates potential risks and rewards. The commission did not recommend policy or oversight changes and called for continued funding of the research and new funding for monitoring, study of emerging ethical issues and public education.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Synthetic biology, as a major tool for biological advances, results in the "potential for developing biological weapons, possible unforeseen negative impacts on human health ... and any potential environmental impact". The proliferation of such technology could also make the production of biological and chemical weapons available to a wider array of state and non-state actors. These security issues may be avoided by regulating industry uses of biotechnology through policy legislation. Federal guidelines on genetic manipulation are being proposed by "the President's Bioethics Commission ... in response to the announced creation of a self-replicating cell from a chemically synthesized genome, put forward 18 recommendations not only for regulating the science ... for educating the public".


title: Synthetic biology

text: On March 13, 2012, over 100 environmental and civil society groups, including Friends of the Earth, the International Center for Technology Assessment and the ETC Group issued the manifesto "The Principles for the Oversight of Synthetic Biology". This manifesto calls for a worldwide moratorium on the release and commercial use of synthetic organisms until more robust regulations and rigorous biosafety measures are established. The groups specifically call for an outright ban on the use of synthetic biology on the human genome or human microbiome. Richard Lewontin wrote that some of the safety tenets for oversight discussed in "The Principles for the Oversight of Synthetic Biology" are reasonable, but that the main problem with the recommendations in the manifesto is that "the public at large lacks the ability to enforce any meaningful realization of those recommendations".


title: Synthetic biology

text: The hazards of synthetic biology include biosafety hazards to workers and the public, biosecurity hazards stemming from deliberate engineering of organisms to cause harm, and environmental hazards. The biosafety hazards are similar to those for existing fields of biotechnology, mainly exposure to pathogens and toxic chemicals, although novel synthetic organisms may have novel risks. For biosecurity, there is concern that synthetic or redesigned organisms could theoretically be used for bioterrorism. Potential risks include recreating known pathogens from scratch, engineering existing pathogens to be more dangerous, and engineering microbes to produce harmful biochemicals. Lastly, environmental hazards include adverse effects on biodiversity and ecosystem services, including potential changes to land use resulting from agricultural use of synthetic organisms. Synthetic biology is an example of a dual-use technology with the potential to be used in ways that could intentionally or unintentionally harm humans and/or damage the environment. Often "scientists, their host institutions and funding bodies" consider whether the planned research could be misused and sometimes implement measures to reduce the likelihood of misuse.


title: Synthetic biology

text: Existing risk analysis systems for GMOs are generally considered sufficient for synthetic organisms, although there may be difficulties for an organism built "bottom-up" from individual genetic sequences. Synthetic biology generally falls under existing regulations for GMOs and biotechnology in general, and any regulations that exist for downstream commercial products, although there are generally no regulations in any jurisdiction that are specific to synthetic biology.


title: Duke of Burgundy

text: Duke of Burgundy () was a title used by the rulers of the Duchy of Burgundy, from its establishment in 843 to its annexation by France in 1477, and later by Holy Roman Emperors and Kings of Spain from the House of Habsburg who claimed Burgundy proper and ruled the Burgundian inheritance in the Low Countries.


title: Duke of Burgundy

text: The Duchy of Burgundy was a small portion of the traditional lands of the Burgundians west of the river Saône which, in 843, was allotted to Charles the Bald's kingdom of West Franks. Under the Ancien Régime, the Duke of Burgundy was the premier lay peer of the kingdom of France. Beginning with Robert II of France, the title was held by the Capetians, the French royal family. It was granted to Robert's younger son, Robert, who founded the House of Burgundy. When the senior line of the House of Burgundy became extinct, it was inherited by John II of France through proximity of blood. John granted the duchy to his younger son, Philip the Bold. The Valois Dukes of Burgundy gradually ruled over a vast complex of territories known as the Burgundian State, and became dangerous rivals to the senior line of the House of Valois.


title: Duke of Burgundy

text: When the male line of the Valois Dukes of Burgundy became extinct in 1477, the Duchy of Burgundy was confiscated by Louis XI of France. The title Duke of Burgundy passed to Habsburg monarchs via marriage. The Habsburgs used it to have a claim on Burgundy proper and to rule their Burgundian Inheritance. Today, the title is used by the House of Bourbon as a revived courtesy title.


title: Duke of Burgundy

text: The first margrave ("marchio"), later duke ("dux"), of Burgundy was Richard of the House of Ardennes, whose duchy was created from the merging of several regional counties of the kingdom of Provence which had belonged to his brother Boso.


title: Duke of Burgundy

text: His descendants and their relatives by marriage ruled the duchy until its annexation over a century later by the French crown, their suzerain.


title: Duke of Burgundy

text: In 1004, Burgundy was annexed by the king, of the House of Capet. Otto William continued to rule what would come to be called the Free County of Burgundy. His descendants formed another House of Ivrea.


title: Duke of Burgundy

text: Robert, son of Robert II of France, received the Duchy as a peace settlement, having disputed the succession to the throne of France with his brother Henry.


title: Duke of Burgundy

text: John II of France, the second Valois king, successfully claimed the duchy after the death of Philip, the last Capet duke. John then passed the duchy to his youngest son Philip as an apanage.


title: Duke of Burgundy

text: In 1477, the territory of the Duchy of Burgundy was annexed by France. In the same year, Mary married Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, giving the Habsburgs control of the remainder of the Burgundian Inheritance.


title: Duke of Burgundy

text: Although the territory of the Duchy of Burgundy itself remained in the hands of France, the Habsburgs remained in control of the title of Duke of Burgundy and the other parts of the Burgundian inheritance, notably the Low Countries and the Free County of Burgundy in the Holy Roman Empire. They often used the term Burgundy to refer to it (e.g. in the name of the Imperial Circle it was grouped into), until the late 18th century, when the Austrian Netherlands were lost to the French Republic. The Habsburgs also continued to claim Burgundy proper until the Treaty of Cambrai in 1529, when they surrendered their claim in exchange for French recognition of Imperial sovereignty over Flanders and Artois.


title: Evian

text: Evian ( , ; , stylized as evian) is a French company that bottles and commercialises mineral water from several sources near Évian-les-Bains, on the south shore of Lake Geneva. It produces over 2 billion plastic bottles per year.


title: Evian

text: Today, Evian is owned by Danone, a French multinational corporation. In addition to the mineral water, Danone Group uses the Evian name for a line of organic skin care products as well as a luxury resort in France.


title: Evian

text: The water at Evian was first claimed to as benefit health by Jean-Charles de Laizer, Count of Laizer, during 1789.


title: Evian

text: Evian first became a public company in 1859 as the "Société anonyme des eaux minérales de Cachat" and a year later it became French when Savoy was incorporated into France under the Treaty of Turin. The French Ministry of Health reauthorized the bottling of Cachat water on the recommendation of the Medicine Academy in 1878. In 1908 Evian water began to be sold in glass bottles manufactured by the glass factory Souchon-Neuvesel, which today is a part of Owens-Illinois. The first PVC bottle was launched in 1969.


title: Evian

text: During the following year, the BSN Group, which eventually became the Danone Group, took 100% control of the Évian brand. 1978 marked an entrance into the U.S. market. In 1995 Evian switched to collapsible PET bottles.


title: Evian

text: Evian's site in the French alps was, during 2015, the largest production facility operating within the French borders. The company produces 6 million plastic bottles per day, over 2 billion per year.


title: Evian

text: In popular culture, Evian is portrayed as a luxury and expensive bottled water. It was named in Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express". It is popular among Hollywood celebrities. David LaChapelle photographed an evian campaign juxtaposing a supermodel next to an Evian fountain formed from a Greek statue, which was painted to look like stone by Joanne Gair. The brand frequently collaborates with high-fashion designers for a series of limited edition bottles. Diane von Fürstenberg designed the limited edition bottle for 2013, Elie Saab for 2014, Kenzo for 2015, Alexander Wang for 2016, Christian Lacroix for 2017, and Chiara Ferragni for 2018.


title: Evian

text: Evian worked with Virgin Records and EMI in 1998 for the mix album "Club Nation". The album featured many advertisements for Évian, including a logo on the cover, six full pages in the booklet, the image of a bottle of Évian on CD1 and a crushed bottle of Évian on CD2.


title: Evian

text: In 2009, Evian launched the advertisement campaign, "Evian Roller Babies". The campaign won a Gold Award at the London International Awards 2009 for Best Visual Effects.


title: Evian

text: In 2014, Evian collaborated with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 to create an advertisement, gaining 150+ million views on YouTube.


title: Evian

text: In April 2008, Evian created the "Evian Water Protection Institute" to work on three water and wetlands management projects with the Ramsar Convention. The three areas where the projects will take place are Thailand's Bung Khong, the La Plata Basin in Argentina, and the Jagdishpur Reservoir in Nepal. Evian has also taken the initiative to cut their own energy and water use by incorporating post-consumer recycled PET plastic into the bottle sizes that receive the most sales. The company has joined with RecycleBank in an effort to get consumers to recycle. Recyclebank is an award-based company that gives participating households redeemable points according to the amount of materials they recycle.


title: Evian

text: During 2018, Evian announced that it will make all of its plastic bottles from 100% recycled plastic by 2025, a move that will see the natural spring water brand adopt a ‘circular approach’ to its plastic usage, where plastic is kept within the economy and out of nature. In order to achieve its 2025 ambition, Evian is partnering with breakthrough technology companies, one of which is Loop Industries. Loop Industries has developed a technology that enables a continuous loop for recycling at large scale, transforming all types of PET plastic waste into the high-quality plastic required by Evian.


title: The Shaggy Dog (2006 film)

text: The Shaggy Dog is a 2006 American science fantasy family comedy film directed by Brian Robbins and written by Geoff Rodkey, Jack Amiel, Michael Begler, Cormac Wibberley and Marianne Wibberley, and is a remake of the 1959 live-action film of the same name by Charles Barton and loosely based on the 1923 novel "The Hound of Florence" by Felix Salten. The original film had a character named Wilby Daniels transforming into an Old English Sheepdog after putting on a magic ring, whereas the remake presents a character named Dave Douglas transforming into a Bearded Collie after getting bitten by a sacred dog. It stars Tim Allen, Robert Downey Jr., Kristin Davis, Danny Glover, Spencer Breslin, Jane Curtin, Zena Grey and Philip Baker Hall.


title: The Shaggy Dog (2006 film)

text: "The Shaggy Dog" released on March 10, 2006 by Walt Disney Pictures, received negative reviews from critics and grossed $87 million against its $50 million budget, becoming a box office flop.


title: The Shaggy Dog (2006 film)

text: Dave Douglas is a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles County who is prosecuting social studies teacher and activist Justin Forrester for firebombing the pharmaceutical corporation Grant and Strictland. Forrester denies this, but claims that Grant and Strictland have been engaging in illegal animal experimentation. This distances Dave from his daughter Carly, one of Forrester's students. As Dave is also a workaholic, his relationships with his wife Rebecca and son Josh are strained.


title: The Shaggy Dog (2006 film)

text: The greedy geneticists working for Mr. Lance Strictland, led by Dr. Kozak, have stolen a 300-year-old sacred dog named Khyi Yang Po (a Bearded Collie) from a Tibetan monastery. The scientists determine that Khyi Yang Po's genetic sequence, when isolated and put into a vaccination, invades and alters the cells and DNA of a victim.


title: The Shaggy Dog (2006 film)

text: Carly brings Khyi Yang Po, who she calls ‘Shaggy’, home. When Dave returns from work, he takes Khyi Yang Po out in the garage, then the dog runs to get the newspaper. Khyi Yang Po gives him his newspaper, and Dave reaches for it, only to be bitten on the hand by Khyi Yang Po. Khyi Yang Po's saliva and cells infect Dave and is taken to be tested for rabies and the tests came back negative. Over the next few days, Dave realizes that he uncontrollably transforms into a sheep dog exactly like Khyi Yang Po when prompted by distractions and activities typical of a dog, such as a stick thrown through the air and chasing cats. These transformations can be reversed by sleeping, but Dave's human absence from his family further strains his relationships. During this time, his family, unaware of Dave's condition, continue housing Dave as a dog, thinking it's Khyi Yang Po. Dave slowly learns just how little he understands his kids and wife and resolves to make amends.


title: The Shaggy Dog (2006 film)

text: In the ongoing trial, Forrester testifies seeing the animals behaving like dogs and the presence of a bearded collie he identifies as a giant sheepdog, which sparks Dave's suspicions about Grant and Strictland. When his dog-like behavior annoys the judge, Dave is removed from the case. Seeking answers to his transformation, Dave heads to Grant and Strictland. He has a homeless man help him transform so that he may sneak in through a vent. Hidden in the laboratory, Dave witnesses Dr. Kozak injecting company president Lance Strictland with a drug that will paralyze him for several months, giving Kozak enough time to usurp control of the company. After viewing security cameras, Kozak and his minions realize that Dave is capable of transforming into a copy of Khyi Yang Po.


title: The Shaggy Dog (2006 film)

text: When Dave returns home, still in his canine form, he overhears a conversation between Carly and Josh that he and Rebecca may be splitting up. After hearing this, Dave then knocks over a Scrabble game and uses the letters to reveal his identity to his kids. But when Dave gets out of the house, he is tased by Kozak's minions. His kids attempt to save him, but end up picking up the real Khyi Yang Po instead and rush to their mom at work to report recent events.


title: The Shaggy Dog (2006 film)

text: Dave is taken to the laboratory to be euthanized, but Kozak has a court summons, and must deal with Dave later. Right before he exits, Kozak mocks Dave in canine form and Dave bites him in response. The other mutated animals in the laboratory tell Dave to meditate to reverse his transformation. Dave succeeds in returning to human form, and is able to escape with all of the other animals. He drives to the courthouse and calls his wife to ready a change of clothes for him at the courthouse, but is forced to abandon the car with the animals when they get stuck in traffic. Dave runs on all fours to trigger his transformation to get to the courthouse in time. At the courthouse entrance, his attempts to tell his wife that he loves her allows him to transform back.


title: The Shaggy Dog (2006 film)

text: In the courtroom, Dave calls Kozak back to the stand and tries to get him to admit what he has done, but Kozak manages to hide his secret. Thinking quickly, he mocks Kozak by implying he was working under Strictland's shadow, and angers him. The two begin growling at each other, and the judge, exasperated by Dave's canine behavior, orders the bailiff to remove him. Dave grabs the baliff's baton and tells Kozak to fetch, triggering a partial transformation in him and thus implicating him of illegal and unethical experimentation. The pharmaceutical company is returned to Strictland, the mutant animals enter protective custody, and Dave finally makes amends with his family.


title: The Shaggy Dog (2006 film)

text: An epilogue shows the family vacationing in Hawaii with Khyi Yang Po. Josh tells his dad to fetch a frisbee he just tossed, and Dave catches it with his mouth.


title: The Shaggy Dog (2006 film)

text: The film was released in the United States on March 10, 2006. To tie-in with the theatrical release of the remake, the original 1959 film was re-issued in the United States as a special DVD labeled "The Wild & Woolly Edition", which featured the film in two forms: one in the original black and white, the other a colorized version. The colorized version however is not restored and suffers from age. In the UK, however, the 1959 film has only ever been made available on DVD in black and white.


title: The Shaggy Dog (2006 film)

text: "The Shaggy Dog" grossed $61.1 million in the United States $26 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $87.1 million, against its budget of $60 million.


title: The Shaggy Dog (2006 film)

text: In its opening weekend the film made $16.3 million, finishing second at the box office behind "Failure to Launch" ($24.4 million).


title: The Shaggy Dog (2006 film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 26% based on 105 reviews and an average rating of 4.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "This Disney retread has neither inspiration nor originality, but may please moviegoers under the age of ten." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 43 out of 100 based on 25 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: The Shaggy Dog (2006 film)

text: BBC called Allen uninteresting and said he "only stops short of leg-humping in his attempts to win our affections". At the Razzie Awards, the film earned three nominations, "Worst Actor" for Tim Allen, "Worst Remake or Rip-Off" and "Worst Excuse for Family Entertainment", but failed to "win" any of those categories. "Variety" Chief Film Critic Justin Chang noted: "its occasional lump-in-the-throat moments are almost effortlessly achieved, thanks to strong work from [Kristin] Davis and Spencer Breslin in particular."


title: The Shaggy Dog (2006 film)

text: The soundtrack to "The Shaggy Dog" was released on March 14, 2006. The entire score is by Alan Menken.


title: Cannabaceae

text: Cannabaceae is a small family of flowering plants, known as the hemp family. As now circumscribed, the family includes about 170 species grouped in about 11 genera, including "Cannabis" (hemp), "Humulus" (hops) and "Celtis" (hackberries). "Celtis" is by far the largest genus, containing about 100 species.


title: Cannabaceae

text: Cannabaceae is a member of the Rosales. Members of the family are erect or climbing plants with petalless flowers and dry, one-seeded fruits. Hemp ("Cannabis") and hop ("Humulus") are the most economically important species.


title: Cannabaceae

text: Other than a shared evolutionary origin, members of the family have few common characteristics; some are trees (e.g. "Celtis"), others are herbaceous plants (e.g. "Cannabis").


title: Cannabaceae

text: Members of this family can be trees (e.g. "Celtis"), erect herbs (e.g. "Cannabis"), or twining herbs (e.g. "Humulus").


title: Cannabaceae

text: Leaves are often more or less palmately lobed or palmately compound and always bear stipules. Cystoliths are always present and some members of this family possess laticifers.


title: Cannabaceae

text: Cannabaceae are often dioecious (distinct male and female plants). The flowers are actinomorphic (radially symmetrical) and not showy, as these plants are pollinated by the wind. As an adaptation to this kind of pollination, the calyx and corolla are radically reduced to only vestigial remnants found as an adherent perianth coating the seed. (A reduced and monophyllous cuplike perigonal bract, properly known as the bracteole, immediately surrounds and protects the seed and is often misnamed as a "calyx".) Flowers are grouped to form cymes. In the dioecious plants the masculine inflorescences are long and look like panicles, while the feminine are shorter and bear fewer flowers. The pistil is made of two connate carpels, the usually superior ovary is unilocular; there is no fixed number of stamens.


title: Cannabaceae

text: Classification systems developed prior to the 1990s, such as those of Cronquist (1981) and Dahlgren (1989), typically recognized the order Urticales, which included the families Cannabaceae, Cecropiaceae, Celtidaceae, Moraceae, Ulmaceae and Urticaceae, as then circumscribed. Molecular data from 1990s onwards showed that these families were actually embedded within the order Rosales, so that from the first classification by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group in 1998, they were placed in an expanded Rosales, forming a group which has been called 'urticalean rosids'.


title: Cannabaceae

text: Cannabaceae likely originated in East Asia during the Late Cretaceous. The oldest known pollen typical of members of Cannabaceae is from the Late Cretaceous (Turonian ~94–90 million years ago) of Sarawak, Borneo. Fossils show Cannabaceae were widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere during the early Cenozoic, though their distribution shifted towards tropical regions in the later Cenozoic due to changing climates.


title: Cannabaceae

text: Carbon dating has revealed that these plants may have been used for ritual/medicinal purposes in Xinjiang, China as early as 494 B.C.


title: Cannabaceae

text: "Humulus lupulus", the common hop, has been the predominant bittering agent of beer for hundreds of years. The flowers' resins are responsible for beer's bitterness and their ability to extend shelf life due to some antimicrobial qualities. The young shoots are used as vegetable.


title: Cannabaceae

text: Some plants in the genus "Cannabis" are cultivated as hemp for the production of fiber, as a source of cheap oil, for their nutritious seeds, or their edible leaves. Others are cultivated for medical or recreational use as dried flowers, extracts, or infused food products. Induced parthenocarpy in pistilate flowers, and selective breeding are used to produce either higher or lower yields of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), other cannabinoids, as well as terpenes with desired flavors or aromas, such as blueberry, strawberry, or even citrus.


title: Cannabaceae

text: Many trees in the genus "Celtis" are grown for landscaping and ornamental purposes, and the bark of Pteroceltis is used to produce high-end Chinese rice paper.


title: Jewish secularism

text: Jewish secularism refers to secularism in a Jewish context, denoting the definition of Jewish identity with little or no attention given to its religious aspects. The concept of Jewish secularism first arose in the late 19th century, with its influence peaking during the interwar period.


title: Jewish secularism

text: The Marranos in Spain, who retained some sense of Jewish identity and alienation while formally Catholic, anticipated the European secularisation process to some degree. Their diaspora outside Iberia united believing Catholics, returnees to Judaism (on both accounts, rarely fully at comfort in their religions) and deists in one "Marrano nation." Baruch Spinoza, the herald of the secular age, advocated the demise of religious control over society and the delegation of faith to the private sphere. Yet his notions lacked anything specifically Jewish: He believed that without the ceremonial law to define the Jews, their collective existence would eventually cease, an outcome he regarded as welcome. There is no evidence he retained a sense of Jewishness after being anathemised in 1656. Religious laxity and acculturation, widespread among Spanish exiles, began to appear among the Ashkenazim of Central Europe when affluent court Jews entered Christian society.


title: Jewish secularism

text: At the end of the 18th century, communal autonomy was gradually abolished by the rising centralised states of Europe, and with it the authority of rabbis and wardens to criminally sanction transgressors. Acculturation, piecemeal integration and, far less importantly, Enlightenment thought, all rapidly chafed at traditional observance. With the weakening of Christianity, the Jews' traditional role as humiliated witnesses to its truth was no longer a political maxim, and the absolutist rulers pondered how to turn them into useful subjects. Jewish intellectuals, members of a new non-rabbinic secularised elite, likewise attempted to solve the modern problems. Radical Jewish enlighteners like Saul Ascher, Lazarus Bendavid and Perez Peter Beer suggested that Judaism be reduced to little more than Deism. Yet even their arguments were predicated on the concept of divine revelation, aiming to restore the religion to an ancient, "pure" version, before God's commandments were supposedly corrupted by irrational additions.


title: Jewish secularism

text: Eventually, the constraints of emancipation in Central and Western Europe, willing to tolerate the Jews as a Christian-like denomination and rejecting any vestige of corporate autonomy, ensured that modernisation and secularisation were expressed in confessionalising Judaism. It was limited to the private sphere, while its adherents were expected to conform to civil norms in the public one, and identify with the nation-state in the political, often as "citizens of the Mosaic faith". The synagogue, family life and strictly religious questions – the differentiation between "secular" and "religious" spheres, imported from Christianity, was alien to Jewish tradition – were the only venues in which Jewishness could be expressed. The nascent Reform movement radically altered the religion so it could be adapted to modern circumstances. The traditionalists, coalescing into self-aware Orthodoxy, silently tolerated change while turning a blind eye to unprincipled laxity. In modernist Orthodox circles, acculturation was even lauded.


title: Jewish secularism

text: The scholars of the "Science of Judaism", who introduced critical academic methods in the study of Jewish history, rebutted traditional interpretation, but were rarely interested in alternatives for the secularised, modern crowd. They even scorned the efforts of religious reform, whether radical or conservative, and many were convinced that Judaism was destined to dissipate; Moritz Steinschneider once commented that their aim was to "duly bury its corpse." Utter religious apathy was common among 19th-century Jews, but it was not accompanied by any positive identity. The children of such people often converted to Christianity.


title: Jewish secularism

text: Only in late-19th century Eastern Europe, did a new, positive and secular definition of Jewish existence arise. Eastern European Jews, more than 90% of world Jewry at the time, were decidedly unacculturated: In 1897, 97% declared Yiddish their mother tongue and only 26% could read the Russian alphabet. Hebrew remained the language of letters, and traditional education was the norm; out of 5.2 million Jews, only 21,308 attended state schools in 1880. Suffering severe discrimination, they remained a distinct corporate and ethnic group. Secularisation processes were slow: Radical enlighteners, preaching civic integration and modernisation, had to contend with a well-entrenched rabbinic leadership which enjoyed little-questioned prestige. Unlike their emancipated brethren in the West, their Jewishness was self-evident and unreflective. On that "thick" layer of ethnicity, with virtually no alternative high culture to assimilate into, the slow disintegration of community life and exposure to modern notions allowed an adaptation, rather than marginalisation. In the 1870s and 1880s, several Jewish national movements coalesced in Eastern Europe, coupled with a literary renaissance of Hebrew and Yiddish. In tandem, young intellectuals advanced a radically new understanding of Jewish identity.


title: Jewish secularism

text: The most prominent of these, who is widely considered as the father of Jewish secularism, was Asher Hirsch Ginsberg, known by his "nom de plume" Ahad Ha'am. Unlike other thinkers exposed to the influences of secularisation, he did not seek to avoid their implications, but to confront them while maintaining full continuity with the Jewish past. He understood that the theological discourse which defined the Jews was about to lose relevance, first for the young and educated and later for most. While others ignored the subject, Ginsberg delineated a revolutionary solution, borrowing especially from the social Darwinism of Herbert Spencer. He utterly disposed of the question of revelation, which so concerned the Orthodox and Reform in the west, and that of divine election. In his secular, agnostic view, the people arose by itself, not by God's intervention; the driving, enlivening force of Jewish history was not the transmission of God's teachings through the generations, but the creative instincts and "national spirit" of the Jews. He described himself and his like-minded in 1898: "The free-thinking Jew, who loves his own people, is a pantheist. He sees the creativity of the national spirit from within, where the believer only sees a higher power intervening from without."


title: Jewish secularism

text: Ahad Ha'am was not the only one, and far from the most radical, to promulgate a cultural-national conception of Jewishness. His harsh critic Micha Josef Berdyczewski, strongly influenced by Nietzsche, sought a transvaluation of values and preached for a rupture with the past. Ginsberg greatly valued tradition, regarding it not as a body of divine commandments standing in their own right, but as a set of customs aimed at consolidating the people, which could be adapted or abandoned based on that same consideration (this instrumental view of Jewish law was adopted by many secularist ideologists, and even taught as historically factual). Simon Dubnow, yet another leading intellectual of the cultural-national school, was particularly influential in developing a secular Jewish historiography. "Science of Judaism" scholars in Germany, mainly Heinrich Graetz, secularized the rabbinic view of the past, but maintained a religion-based view of it. In Dubnow's work, serving as the basis for all secularist historians, the Jewish people were a "psychological organism", with every individual but "a cell" therein, which was imbued with the primordial instinct to form collective institutions. Dubnow and his supporters espoused national personal autonomy for the Jews in Russia. Yet another thinker, whose philosophy was more explicitly concerned only with Eastern European Jews, was Chaim Zhitlowsky, the founder of radical Yiddishism. With the demise of faith, Zhitlowsky advocated that a monolingustic Yiddish nation and culture were the future of local Jews, with old traditions serving as folklore to be selectively adopted. Neither he nor his followers ever discussed other Jewish ethnic groups.


title: Jewish secularism

text: Ahad Ha'am, Berdyczewski, Dubnow and Zhitlowsky were only few of the most prominent Jewish secularist ideologues of their age. Hundreds of others, influenced by the major thinkers and supporting the various national movements, were active among the millions in the Pale of Settlement, Poland and the adjacent regions.


title: Jewish secularism

text: The new understanding of Jewishness swiftly spread from the intellectuals to the rest of society, into the spheres of popular culture and daily life. As Eastern European Jews were undergoing secularisation and acculturation, in the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and being recognised as a national minority with autonomous rights in the Interwar period, Jewish secularism thrived. From the socialist Bund to the bourgeois Folkspartei, Jewish political parties declared their commitment to propagating the new views among the public. Even the Zionists, who were more keen to cooperate with the Orthodox, lost many traditional members when they adopted a similar policy in their 1911 World Congress. A new literary canon, authored by writers committed to the secular cause, was to provide the people with a Jewish culture that could compete with the Polish or Russian ones. It was supplemented with burgeoning theatre and press scenes, reaching a vast audience. Intellectuals, dedicated to a secular cultural revival, enlisted to reinterpret and reformulate the holidays and other aspects of Jewish tradition: New children's songs, for example, served to remove the old religious narratives and impart new ones, centered on the family or the nation. The secular messages were spread by the modern Jewish schools and youth movements, which catered to hundreds of thousands of pupils.


title: Jewish secularism

text: The logic of redefining the Jews as a modern nation was extended to the criteria for being a Jew, changing them to ethno-cultural markings. Ahad Ha'am repudiated the idea of conversion, which he regarded as invalid. Berdyczewski advocated assimilating the Palestinian Arabs into Jewish society through intermarriage, without conversion. Not a few Yiddishists, like Bundist ideologue A. Litvak, urged that declaring Yiddish as one's mother tongue was the only measure for determining Jewish nationality. Zionist Jakob Klatzkin declared that those who identified with other nations (as did most Western and Central European "citizens of Mosaic faith"), were committing "national apostasy", and were therefore outside the pale of Jewishness.


title: Jewish secularism

text: Among the millions of Eastern Europeans who immigrated to the United States and other western countries, the new Jewish secularism imported from home continued to prosper. A group of radical intellectuals coalesced in 1915 to found "The Menorah Journal", advocating a "secular Hebrew" identity and deriding religion and the rabbis. Socialist Yiddishists, organised in the Arbeter Ring and other trade unions, furthered the secular reformulation of Jewish life: traditional texts, like the Passover Haggadah, were supplanted with Yiddish or English editions, emphasising Jewish class consciousness and anti-rabbinism. The dense immigrants' neighbourhoods in New York provided a strong sense of Jewish ethnicity, and an audience for the intellectuals and cultural activists.