BOOK REVIEW SOPHIA ROOSTH, Synthetic: How Life Got Made, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2017, 256 pp, $35 Thomas Bonnin 1 Ó Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018 This recent monograph by Harvard anthropologist and historian Sophia Roosth presents the birth and embryonic development of synthetic biology. It tracks the emergence of a new scientific discipline that took off in the early 2000s. The conceptual and methodological promises held by the unprecedented ability to construct new forms of life will, according to Roosth, ‘‘soon cease to be remarkable’’ (p. 178). That is, they are likely to be a central focus of the science of the coming century. In this study, Roosth offers six chapters and six interludes that weave together a wide array of resources into an astonishingly seamless narrative. The main thread is formed by the author’s 8-year ethnographical study. Personal anecdotes meet philosophy of biology; interview quotes meet history of architecture; anthropolog- ical theories meet popular culture references. It surprises no-one to find, in the conclusion, a thorough discussion of the interpretation of Rene ´ Magritte’s Clairvoyance proposed by Drew Endy, synthetic-biologist-turned-art-critic. In a way, this book can be seen as an encouragement, for anybody studying the sciences, to integrate as many areas as possible in their analyses. At the same time, it presents a daunting challenge: is this what it takes to get a grasp on the social and epistemic issues of contemporary scientific practice? The first chapter provides an origin tale to introduce readers to the mindset driving one of synthetic biology’s foremost research groups at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It presents these scientists as designers, aiming to ‘improve life’. Here, both terms are ambiguous. The improvement sought is the & Thomas Bonnin tb391@exeter.ac.uk 1 Egenis, the Centre for the Study of Life Sciences, University of Exeter, St Germans Road, Exeter EX4 4PJ, UK 123 HPLS (2018)40:53 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-018-0214-1