daveversace's review
3.0
Interesting if somewhat speculative discussion of how synthetic biology (primarily protocells, chemically programmable systems that respond to changes in their environment in potentially useful ways). There are some compelling ideas here, such as they idea of chemically petrifying the woodpiles currently supporting Venice to create an artificial limestone reef more capable of distributing the load of the city. But I can't see that the author makes much of a case for how the proposed technology will become ubiquitous. It might be the political wonk in me, but I can see an awful lot of hurdles - social, legislative, financial and environmental, for a start - that would have to be overcome. What I can't see from this discussion is a convincing path to the tsunami-resistant Japan of 2060 described in the final chapter.
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