Realizing the promise of biotechnology: Infrastructural-icons in synthetic biology

► Synthetic biology attempts to practically realise the promise of biology as technology. ► Gaps between promise and realisation of promise in synthetic biology are complicated. ► Oscillators and DNA assembly techniques are infrastructural-icons of realisation. ► Infrastructural-icons show what synthetic biology might do. ► Infrastructural-icons also seek to do what synthetic biology promises.