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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 Jul 6.
Published in final edited form as: C R Chim. 2010 Aug 7;14(4):372–387. doi: 10.1016/j.crci.2010.06.013

Figure 12.

Figure 12

A Venn diagram illustrating the hazards of synthetic biology. The green circle contains systems able to evolve. Those outside the circle cannot, and present no more hazard than a toxic chemical. The blue circle contains systems that are self-sustaining. Those inside the circle “live” without continuing human intervention; those outside require continuous feeding, and are no more hazardous than a pathogen that dies when released from a laboratory. Systems within the red circle use standard terran molecular biology; those outside do not. The greatest chance for hazard comes from a system that is self-sustaining, uses standard biochemistry, and is capable of evolving, the intersection between the three circles.