Fifty years after ‘Asilomar,’ scientists meet again to debate biotech’s modern-day threats

^{Photo by Wonderlane on Unsplash}

On a nearly still and moonlit night last week, some 75 people formed a circle on Asilomar State Beach around a sand pit ringed by seaweed. Four dancers swayed around the pit to the sound of the crashing waves. One by one, people stepped into the circle, scooped up some sand, and tossed it into the pit.

Passersby might have thought they were witnessing a pagan ritual or a hippie gathering. But in fact this was a “burial ceremony” at the start of a meeting marking the 50th anniversary of the Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA. Participants were invited to bid a symbolic farewell to that hugely influential gathering, held at the same place in 1975, and turn to the most vexing issues facing biology today.

Half a century ago, molecular biologists came together up the hill from the beach in a conference center—made up of exquisite Arts and Crafts buildings that date back to 1913—to discuss the benefits and dangers of what was then a revolutionary technique: stitching together DNA from different species, creating...