During the covid pandemic, we got a taste of biotechnology’s incredible potential. Only days after the virus was identified, the genetic code had been read and shared with scientists worldwide. Four weeks later, the mRNA vaccine was ready for testing. That it saved millions of lives worldwide in record time is thanks to an increasingly advanced biotechnological toolbox that allows us to decode, program and design biology. But the pandemic was also a foretaste of the threats posed by biotechnology: When the genetic recipe for the smallpox virus or the Spanish flu can be ordered on the internet, it does not take much imagination to realize that biotechnology can also be used in ways that are harmful to society. In the worst case, technology can threaten our existence. At the crossroads we now face, we must navigate both opportunities and threats. On par with nature in the green shift The opportunities lie, among other things, in the green shift, where biotechnology allows us to work with, not against, biology. In food production, we can replace chemical pesticides, antibiotics and artificial fertilizers with sustainable biological solutions. Examples are genetically edited plants and livestock that are not infected by disease or genetically edited bacteria that fertilize plants with nitrogen from the air. Such products are now at full speed onto the world’s markets. Biotechnology is also our best defense in the face of climate change. With gene editing, we can accelerate the development of food plants that better withstand drought, floods and other demanding climate conditions. At the same time, we can also use biotechnology to prevent climate change, for example by making photosynthesis – a 3 billion-year-old carbon storage technology – even more efficient. In California, genetically edited trees with optimized photosynthesis grow 50 percent faster than normal trees because they absorb carbon from the atmosphere much more efficiently. As a bonus, these trees are also “programmed” to soak up heavy metals from the soil in the old minefields they grow on. In the coming years, these could become a significant contribution to the US’s climate accounting and the restoration of nature. AI and biotechnology in combination This is just the beginning. At the intersection between biotechnology and artificial intelligence, we can take biological design to unimaginable heights. You may be impressed by the thank-you-for-food speech ChatGPT wrote for you for the Christmas table, but just wait until you see what such AI models can do with the language of life: genetics. Fed with genetic information from hundreds of millions of species, they can design new biological molecules that have never before existed. This is how synthetic biology will give us the medicine, food and industrial raw materials of the future. The importance of this crossroads – that we can take control of the very matter of life, biology – cannot be overstated. Analyzes show that 60 percent of everything we physically consume can potentially be made with biology. And it is predicted that by 2030 the bioeconomy – value creation from biological resources – could grow to around $30 trillion, a third of the world’s GDP today. It is perhaps no surprise then, that countries such as the USA, China and Great Britain have high ambitions to become world leaders in this area. Norwegian leadership There is no reason why Norway should not be equally ambitious. We have access to world-class knowledge, capital and renewable biological resources. Genetically edited potatoes that are not attacked by dry rot, salmon louse-resistant salmon and genetically modified microorganisms that convert CO₂ into acetone with a positive climate contribution are examples of biotechnological concepts under development in this country. Here are four measures to put Norway at the forefront of the biorevolution: Build good value chains for bioinnovation in both medicine, food and industry in Norway, so that the good ideas are not left in a drawer or sold out of the country to get to the market. Make the regulations more accurate. Today, the regulatory obstacles are so great that many of the best innovations in practice will never be realized in Norway. We must relax where the benefits are obviously greater than the disadvantages, while at the same time we should tighten up in areas where the threats are really great, especially related to bioweapons. Establish a solid knowledge-based political management foundation. An interdisciplinary strategy group can give politicians advice on how to position Norway in the global bioeconomy, and a biosecurity council can keep an eye on threats on the horizon and strengthen preparedness for the worst possible scenarios. Perhaps Jonas should do like his Swedish colleague and establish a new unit for national security and future analysis at the Prime Minister’s office? Last but not least; think long term. The biggest opportunities and threats from paradigm shifts like this materialize over a much longer period of time than a single election period. Biotechnology is the next technological revolution, and it will turn society upside down.
ttn-69
The next technology revolution – Speech
