On May 20, the prestigious academic journal Science announced the “Creation of a Bacterial Cell Controlled by a Chemically Synthesized Genome.” For those who ventured past the title, however, pure and unadulterated drama lay ahead: A team of American biologists declared that they had succeeded in creating something very similar to artificial life in the laboratory. For the first time in history, man had created a being with no ancestor. Although the dazzling pace of scientific and technological progress may, at times, create the impression that the debate between those eager to forge through the uncharted territory and those who seek to check—or at the very least slow—the swift charge ahead is futile, it is in truth a moral imperative. For how we use the knowledge we have just gained will, in the final equation, determine whether science will bestow upon mankind infinite abundance, or, alternatively, lead it to utter ruin.

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