Engineering biology, through the application of engineering principles to biological systems to create new products, has caused a fundamental paradigm shift in our thinking about biology. The old paradigm of using what is pre-existing in nature and continually evolving has been replaced. This new paradigm involves applying engineering principles to biology to design new biological systems for a particular purpose, often making multiple changes in parallel. This paradigm shift is creating new opportunities for technology development and products in industries ranging from life sciences to specialty chemicals to bioenergy.