After heated debates over potential terrorist use of new tools to synthesise viruses and other pathogenic materials that can be ordered by gene synthesis firms scientists at an international conference on synthetic biology in Berekely rejected a concept of self governance that had been criticised by environmental organisations.</p><p><a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9211-synthetic-biologists-reject-controversial-guidelines.html">New Scientist: Synthetic biologists reject controversial guidelines</a></p><p><a href="http://syntheticbiology.org/SB2Declaration.html">Draft declaration of scientists</a>