My latest contribution to the Slate book club on Denialism is here. Most of the discussion concerns how to prompt a broader national debate on the subject of synthetic biology, a branch of science with revolutionary possibility that most Americans have never even heard of. Alas, I'm not optimistic this will change any time soon:
In today's media world, you really need a national leader to broach such a conversation—e.g., President Obama, as you suggest in your book. While I'd be happy to be proven wrong, though, I doubt he has the time to bring up such a dark-horse topic, especially in light of all the other policy fires that must be put out. Without a presidential initiative, we lack an adequate national forum for discussing the complex and crucial problems that science lays before us. (Don't expect synthetic biology to come up on Oprah; as you point out, she ...
