Published: 05-12-2025
Synthetic human genomes are being developed faster than society can govern them. Good intentions won’t prevent misuse. Without early, values-led scrutiny, we risk creating a technology whose risks become apparent long before its benefits.
Published: 04-12-2025
We live in a century shaped by loss – of habitats, species and ecological certainty. The idea of reviving extinct creatures can be seductive. But resurrection isn’t just scientific: it is deeply moral, forcing us to ask what a virtuous relationship with nature – based on respect, care and humility – should look like in an age of extinction.
Published: 07-11-2025
Farmers don’t want to be separated from their land by screens and algorithms – they became farmers precisely to work outdoors, build community and nurture soil health. The question is: what digital tools actually help farmers who are trying to grow food sustainably while making a living?
Published: 09-10-2025
Our Turbo Charging Nature report explores how the UK’s rush to deregulate gene editing rests on a myth of speed. Drawing on five case studies, it shows that “fast science” has delivered slow results and obscured deeper questions about progress and accountability.
Published: 07-10-2025
As the IUCN World Conservation Congress opens in Abu Dhabi, members face a pivotal choice between embracing genetic engineering as a conservation tool or pausing to apply the precautionary principle to these rapidly advancing technologies.
Published: 07-07-2025
Too often, research on agricultural biotechnology focuses on citizens as consumers, analysing buying habits, but ignoring bigger issues like the environment, fairness and values that may inform their views. We need a broader, more well-rounded view of citizens that encompasses different perspectives, explores why people may be sceptical and includes citizens in shaping the future of these technologies.
Published: 12-06-2025
A Bigger Conversation will be collaborating with the University of Edinburgh, The Nuffield Council on Bioethics and others on a new project from the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA). Part of its Synthetic Plants programme, the aim of the project is to take a holistic approach to designing governance frameworks.
Published: 01-05-2025
As the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) begins its formal deliberations on synthetic biology applications, we find ourselves in a critical window where governance frameworks around the use […]
Published: 18-02-2025
As the UK pushes ahead with plans to deregulate both environmental and commercial releases of gene-edited crops and foods – and, soon, farm animals – this thoughtful long-read considers whether we are building a bright new future or just a more sophisticated form of man-made pollution.
Published: 06-02-2025
Will the 50th anniversary ‘Spirit of Asilomar’ conference on the future of biotechnology recapture the expansive moral considerations of the pre-1975 Asilomar discussion? Or will it serve as the latest effort bolstering professional immunity from public oversight?