Nano foods are causing concern as people have no clue what they are being served. Already many nano food products have hit the market in the form of Nanotea, nanochocolate diet shake and nano Canola oil. Nanotechnology involves the design and manipulation of materials on molecular scales. Companies using nanotechnology believe that it can enhance the flavour or the nutritional value of food.

Indeed there is already a prototype of a chewing gum that uses nano capsules to produce the taste of real chocolate, and coming soon will be vegetarian food that tastes like roast turkey made of plant protein! So what’s wrong about smart food? It’s the size, as particles behave differently at nanoscales. Aluminium for example is stable in the ‘big world’ but an explosive at nano-levels.

As Dr. Qasim Chaudhry points out in the Guardian, ‘I’d like to drink a glass of water and know that the contents are going into my stomach and not into my lungs.’

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Biological circuits, transistors made of DNA, space crafts for mice, polka dotted programmed bacteria are just the beginning of this brave new world of synthetic biology taught at MIT. 

MIT’s computer science guru Tom Knight reports in Wired about synthetic biology, which is “specifying every bit of DNA that goes into an organism to determine its form and function in a controlled, predictable way, like etching a microprocessor or building a bridge. The goal is to “reimplement life in a manner of our choosing.” For instance, you could build super corals that would suck carbon out of the biosphere, or create bacteria that would mass produce drugs (as in Micheal Chricton’s novel Prey).

As long as synthetic biology is about learning and using research for the good of mankind, it’s fine, but imagine the worst.  Imagine if this knowledge gets into the hands of some sinister megalomaniac monster! or some mentally retarded scientist churning out killer ants the size of elephants in his lab, Science fiction would come true! and then, god save us!