Synthetic biology is developing new hybrid forms of life for industrial applications, attempting to "resurrect" long-extinct species to preserve collapsing ecosystems, and intervening directly in the human germline with CRISPR.
Martin Müller combines approaches from cultural history and theory with those from media studies and design theory as well as the history of knowledge to develop a critique of Promethean biology. In his Genealogy of Zoëpolitics, he formulates a new theory of the "vivification of power" that has occurred around 1800. He shows how the "will to make life" intensified during the molecular revolution in the 20th century and is now escalating with the emergence of synthetic biology. Nature, from atom to atmosphere, has become a field of intervention for rigorous engineering and design.
- First historical-critical monograph about synthetic biology and CRISPR
- New theory of power and life