A colleague using AI for thematic analysis of some contributions by EBNet WG Leads noticed an interesting sub-heading: ‘Designed biology versus managed natural communities’. The distinction being made was apparently between microbially-mediated treatment systems based on synthetic biology, and those not involving genetically manipulated organisms or components.
This is rather intriguing, because neither phrase appears in the information provided, and the prompt used specified that the analysis should be based strictly on the text. A quick search on Google Scholar also indicated that these phrases are not in common use.
We asked some of the WG Leads, and others attending a recent EBIC event, for their impressions – what do the terms convey? Are they potentially useful? Snap reactions ranged from “It made them up!” to “Well, I quite like them”.
Some more detailed conversations on “managed natural communities” produced the following responses
“Management is about trying to make systems work smoothly. This is not the same as Engineering, which involves practical interventions to direct and control the system operation and performance”.
“I don’t think you can describe the community in an activated sludge plant as ‘natural’: we have deliberately used an engineered environment and large-scale interventions (flow, concentration etc) to optimise it for a particular purpose”.
“Perhaps ‘managed’ is not bad, though it loses the engineering flavour. But combining it with ‘natural’ in this way messes things up completely, as the concept sticks to ‘communities’ rather than to the microbes themselves. And it’s also weighted with nuance: consider ‘natural yoghurt’, ‘natural ingredients’, ‘natural remedies’ etc – these must be good for you, as they are natural”.
“Non-GM treatment systems are also designed; and even nature-based solutions are a combination of natural and engineering components”.
So, AI seems to have invented the terms – and at least some of those we asked who work in the field find them interesting, invidious or both. Do we take the discussion further, as part of our reflections on What is Environmental Biotechnology? Any thoughts or suggestions welcome…
