This New Yorker story looks into synthetic biology, particularly the work of Berkeley's Jay Keasling and Stanford's Drew Endy. Both say that one goal of their work is to make interchangeable parts that can be swapped in and out of a cell — like a hard drive, as Keasling puts it. However, some of what is proposed, namely creating new forms of life or designing children, gives people pause. Why? "Because it's scary as hell," Endy says. "It's the coolest platform science has ever produced, but the questions it raises are the hardest to answer."