Kevin Esveltย has helped develop a technology calledย โgene driveโ…Now heโs proposing the unprecedented step of using patents to require university scientists to disclose their intentions before they carry out any experiments.
โItโs essential we donโt develop ecological technologies behind closed doors,โ says Esvelt. โWe need a space to discuss what is going on in laboratories and what they are planning.โ
[T]he law says that a patent holder can stopย anyone from making or using a technology.Esvelt says he wants to test the law. His demand: be 100 percent open or work on something else.
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Esvelt likens his initiative to โcopyleft,โ a way some software developers…use their copyright to make sure their code stays open-source. He says he would also require labs to followย safety procedures that he and other scientists agreed on in 2015 to prevent gene-drive creations from escaping.
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โSome scientists might not like being so open, but most say โOkay, so long as everyone else is too,โ says Esvelt. Biologists can be highly secretive, but itโs often because they are afraid of being scooped.
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post:ย Stop โGene Spillsโ Before They Happen
