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As a synthetic biologist, the question I get most frequently is—what is synthetic biology?

Let’s break it down. First, “synthetic”. “Synthetic” might sound like “fake” or “artificial” but its etymological origin is to bring things together. Synthesis is about finding harmony between different things. In synthetic biology, we bring together engineering and the living world. We bring together different types of cells and DNA sequences to design something new.

What about “biology”? Biology might give you flashbacks to having to memorise that the mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell. Biology is the way we understand life—our bodies, our food, our medicine, our environment. Biology is more powerful than the greatest human technologies because biology grows, adapts, and evolves. Biology is regenerative, sustainable and carbon neutral. Biology is everything.

Together, synthetic biology is the practice of engineering life. Today, a lot of the applications of synthetic biology focus on transforming cells into manufacturing hubs. Inside cells, enzymes move atoms and reshape molecules. They take simple sugars and they turn them into an incredible array of different molecules. Synthetic biologists patch and tweak the enzymes inside of a cell by changing its DNA. With DNA encoding new enzymes, instead of converting sugar into alcohol, modified yeast can produce medicines, materials, and more. At Ginkgo, our organism engineers use a range of technologies to do this on behalf of our customers, who want to work with biology to make everything from textiles to gene therapies, from perfumes to vaccines.

I believe that synthetic biology is one of the most important technologies of our century. Two centuries ago, chemistry remade our world by learning to transform crude oil into nearly everything around us. But biology is the native language of our environment and our planet. Biology grows and decays to keep flows of carbon and nitrogen moving, it forms our air, cleans our water, it makes structures of astonishing complexity that fit inside of some of the tiniest nanofabricated technologies we can create with human engineering.

In the future, we will need to consider whether we can remake our industrial ecosystems to be as regenerative as living ecosystems. We need to design, together with nature, biological processes to grow what our bodies need–the materials that make our buildings and soften our spaces; the fabrics and dyes that delight our senses; the foods that fill our stomachs and fuel our cells. We must bring together the natural world and our human constructions, synthesising something new.

3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing (AM) has been part of the manufacturing consciousness for around 10 years now, but the materials, processes, control systems and software are evolving at a rapid rate. Given the initial promise of the technology, we are starting to see a second wave of activity based on technical capability rather than hype. New markets are opening up with a wave of new applications showing that the sector is not a done deal. It needs continual investment to open up new opportunities for designers and future products.

As a broad manufacturing technology, the sectors that can be impacted by AM are wide and varied. Any products where complexity and performance add value, AM is a go-to technology. Advances in the available materials across these methods, such as a wide range of metallic materials, higher performance polymers with increased mechanical properties, and materials designed for specific functions (biocompatibility, for example) are resulting in the use of AM in high-value manufacturing across harsher environments with a high degree of novelty. Examples span from the space and satellite sector through to consumer products and healthcare, where organ printing has become a significant goal.

The future of AM surrounds the continued drive to have mechanisms that can process high-value and high-performance materials. Rather than just structural performance, we are now entering a phase of developing functional materials, with different properties such as piezoelectric, magnetic, cellular or optical properties. Through the development of these capabilities, AM is moving into application areas such as novel sensing and smart, adaptive structures where products can sense, process and change in response to external stimuli. AM systems that can combine these materials to produce systems rather than individual components are the next stage of development for this disruptive technology.

Ultimately, to address financial inclusion we should consider two things. First, who is building these technologies? We cannot ignore the biases or assumptions that come from the builder. If the builder assumes the existence of certain infrastructure, they will build for such. Second, what pain points are they solving? If the builder is not solving the pain points outlined above (and more), then the personas of those in need of inclusion, such as the unbanked shea butter maker or the neighbourhood shop in need of capital to grow, are lost in the innovation.

The inclusivity of blockchain begins with how it is built and the environments it is built to thrive in.

Ubiquitous low-latency satellite internet is now a probable future. With some offers now in trial mode and others announcing services or launches, internet users and telco clients around the globe can hope for universal connectivity anywhere on Earth in the next few years. If you have a clear view of the sky, it isn’t raining heavily and your power supply is stable, a modern satellite internet connection should enable you to do all the things we now consider essential in the new normal.

Yet it remains to be seen whether all this connectivity will benefit the millions of people who can’t afford internet data—be it as basic or heavy users. Businesses in rural areas often struggle with unstable connections, impacting their ability to sell their products and services, or access even basic cloud-based services and keep abreast with digital development. A deep digital divide still separates young people in remote communities from education and employment opportunities. Lack of access remains a problem in many parts of the world. Fishermen lose mobile connectivity when at sea, forest wardens lose signal when entering unpopulated areas, emergency services lose their ability to communicate when the fixed network infrastructure is disrupted.

At the Asian Development Bank, we are excited about the technological advances and investments made in satellite technologies and their prospect for development. We plan to help our partners in public and private sectors to innovate on business models and technology solutions, strengthen investments that benefit users who might otherwise be left out, and promote policy and regulation that will bring the benefits of satellite connectivity to our developing member countries in Asia and the Pacific.