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1 turn, to generate strict rules for this research. 
2 Like many scientists, I have made myself avail- 
3 able to citizens' groups, and we have had nany informal 
4 discussions of recombinant DNA over the years, and the 
5 controversy. And there is always the implicit assumption 
6 amongst lay people that there must be something dangerous 
7 in recombinant DNA, or otherwise, why all this publicity? 
8 Why all this fuss? Why have so many people spent so many 
9 hours of their time working out these guidelines and these 
10 rules? 
11 In fact, every new, raore strict guideline, every 
12 response to the demand for more safety really makes the 
13 public more fearful, because then that simply assures them 
14 that there must be something really dangerous about this 
1 5 research. 
15 The fact is, though, that the vast majority of 
l 7 informed microbiologists, public health specialists 
10 geneticists, and experts in the field, who have really 
19 considered the dangers of recombinant -- the supposed 
2Q dangers of recombinant -- DNA have come to feel that there 
21 is negligible risk of producing a dangerous bacteria in 
22 the laboratory by accident. And the existing NIH rules 
23 are really exceedingly strict. I would like to somehow 
24 explain to you what I mean by that. 
25 These existing NIH guidelines have really slowed 
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