nce to suggest that these efforts pose undue risk to society, and the DIYbio community holds the potential to improve science education in the U.S., which was ranked 25th in math and 17th in science worldwide in a 2012 report from Harvard University’s Program on Education Policy and Governance. Public policy should be written to enable the exploration and innovation of the DIYbio community—not to limit its reach based on overblown fears of the unknown.
Todd Kuiken is a senior research associate in the Science and Technology Innovation Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars where he focuses on biosafety and biosecurity aspects of synthetic biology.