ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the rhetorical function of metaphors used by scientists and journalists when writing about synthetic biology, but to understand their inherent ethics and the implications this may have for public understanding of this field. Synthetic Biology focuses on the design and fabrication of biological systems through the 'writing' of Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). The chapter combines the metaphor analysis with frame analysis, a combination of tools that has been used successfully in recent years in media studies and in science and technology studies (STS) to reveal hidden agendas, ideologies and beliefs about emerging technologies. The programming metaphor, therefore, may also be embedded within a parallel ethico-legal discourse on the intellectual property status of the output of synthetic biology. The Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) and the media coverage of their reports and comments plays into this metaphorical framing by implicating profiteering motives in the construction of these software/ hardware products.
