A thousand days. That’s how long the United States has to get serious about emerging biological threats spurred by advances in biotechnology and AI, or so argues Drew Endy, a Stanford University professor of bioengineering and one of the country’s leading experts in synthetic biology. Endy co-authored a Hoover Institution report released earlier this month on what policymakers need to do to ensure the country’s future biosecurity as the “biorevolution” picks up speed in the coming years and decades. Researchers predict that a combination of breakthroughs in biosynthesis and AI computing is poised to make what sounds like the stuff of science fiction a reality—everything from using biomanufacturing to grow or “brew” explosives to creating computers that replace the constraints of processing hardware with exponentially more efficient bioprocessors known as “wetware.”

Full opinion : Researchers see a limited window for America to prepare for the risks of the next biotechnology revolution vis-a-vis China.