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I usually tend to downplay worries about research in genetics, but I was quite concerned after reading this article. The researchers surely have plans to keep whatever they create contained. But adding a fifth base to the DNA of bacteria with a genetic mutation rate 10,000 times that of normal bacteria seems unnecessarily dangerous. I guess my concerns were primed by “Quick Fix: How invasive seaweed repairs its wounds” (SN: 4/2/05, p.