Synthetic Aesthetics is a unique and compelling look into synthetic biology and how design, art, and science will likely work together as we start to build things with biology. The first few chapters provide an accessible introduction to the field of synthetic biology and the impact it will have in the coming years as we learn how to engineer biology. Although not a textbook, these chapters bring readers new to the field up to speed and provide a solid reference for those working in the area. Drawing analogies from nature, the industrial revolution, early biotechnology, and Silicon Valley, the possibilities from custom-writing DNA and creating a "biotechnology version 2.0" are clear.In the subsequent section, the concept of design as it applies to engineering biology is presented with viewpoints from an artist/designer, a social scientist, and a bioengineer together building the motivation for thinking about how layers of expertise --- artist, designer, engineer, synthetic biologist, scientist -- can interact effectively to design nature. The authors make a strong case, supported with numerous examples, for synthetic biology as a field that can be explored on many levels and by people that come together from many other disciplines.Following the above introduction and background, the rest of the book focuses on individual collaborations in the Synthetic Aesthetics project. Each chapter is a standalone exploration of how an artist/designer working with an engineer/scientist can produce unique and often surprising results. These sections are the heart of this book -- with beautiful photography and illustrations, they explore topics ranging from cheese-making (using microbes from people's skin) to biofabrication (using bacteria to make building materials), to music (using DNA sequences as a musical score). I enjoyed reading these as individual stories about how an artist and scientist can communicate and create something new that depends upon contributions from both sides.As both an artist and an engineer, I found myself alternating between admiring the aesthetics of this book's photography and design, and absorbing the impact of the interplay of these fields to create a new revolution in designing and crafting living systems. Together they made this a book I recommend highly to my friends.