When rockstar geneticist Craig Venter announced this past May that he and his team had created the first living cell controlled entirely by synthesized DNA, he drew the attention of pundits, experts, and even President Obama. It’s a radical development, since standardizing life’s smallest elements could make it easier to create all sorts of much needed technologies, from life-saving drugs for humans to bacteria that could turn plants into fuel. But few know that the Bay Area has its own Cricks and Watsons at the Biofab Project, in Emeryville, which, in a parallel effort, is set to release its first set of standardized DNA parts by the end of the year. What’s more, in a uniquely local twist, Biofab has hired an in-house ethicist, Gaymon Bennett, who holds a Ph.D. in theology and is working toward another in anthropology. We asked Bennett, who doesn’t balk at being compared to the professor on Gilligan’s Island, to explain the dilemmas that might arise from this revolutionary science.

Why does a synthetic-biology lab need an ethicist on staff? Do any of the scientists resent your being there? I can think of 100 different ways in which enhancing bioengineering might lead to real-world dangers. You’d think that would make life in the lab quite awkward, but the scientists here are actually quite happy to have someone else worrying about these issues.

Give me an example of one of those dangers. Biofab might create the toolset for a bug that turns switchgrass into gasoline, ending our dependency on oil. How do we know that China—or the U.S., for that matter—won’t cut down its remaining forests to plant switchgrass? Do you think nation-states with arable land won’t become just as nasty as the oil-baron states?

Just how bad could things get? My colleague Dr. Endy calls it the Nerd Rapture. Yeah, we do not want to bring about the end-time with biology.