August 2009
38 posts
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Freeman Dyson: When Science & Poetry Were Friends →
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“I don’t laugh by doing a PCR”
– Team:Paris/Brainstorm ideasecondweek - 2009.igem.org
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“Tom Knight, often called the “father” of biohacking, tells a joke:...”
– At home with the DNA hackers
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Control Theory
Synthetic biology is about control. Control of cells, control of biological systems, control of genes; understanding how cells control themselves so that we can do it too, in ways that we find useful. As such, synthetic biology isn’t particularly a new idea (we’ve been trying to control our “animal nature” for quite some time…), it’s just that recent...
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“Sustaining life beyond Earth either on space stations or on other planets will...”
– PLoS ONE: Detrimental Effects of Microgravity on Mouse Preimplantation Development In Vitro
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News: UCSF researchers identify 2 key pathways in... →
Synthetic biology as basic research tool! Cool!
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“In physics the truth is rarely perfectly clear, and that is certainly...”
– - Richard Feynman, Letter to the Editor of the California Tech, Feb. 27 1976
(via Adaptive Complexity)
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Synthetic Biology and the Scientific Analogy
Scientists love analogies; they make it easier to discuss and understand complicated systems in terms of things that are familiar to many people. Synthetic biology is still trying to define itself, but the analogy that prevails thus far is synthetic biology:biology/life::electrical engineering:physics. With the data from decades of biological research, we can put together novel biological pathways...
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British news report on barcoding plants →
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“Whether we are conscious of it or not, much of the direction taken in labs isn’t...”
– Who is killing science on the Web? Publishers or Scientists? | Mendeley Blog
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Synthetic Biology 1's and 0's
I’m fascinated by the ways that people discuss biological engineering, the language that they use to talk about what cells, proteins, and DNA do. Often, these words come from computer engineering: DNA is the code, proteins are machines, cells can interact to form networks, etc.
A recent article in the UK version of Wired points out that even though we like to talk about biology as machines,...
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“If you can read a popular-science publication (and enjoy it), then you most...”
– In the Future, Doing Science Is Like Blogging | Computers | DISCOVER Magazine
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Synthetic Genomics | Options for Governance →
I just got back from the FBI Conference on Synthetic Biology. To whet your appetite for all things biosafety/biosecurity, here is the JCVI policy report on synthetic genomics.
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BioMorph
Vague Terrain 14: BioMorph
Can an art project be synthetic biology? What “counts” as science vs. art?
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“While he hopes that his work will lead to new and better medical treatments,...”
– Wall Street Journal: Programming Cells to Do the Work
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“As for the language of communication, the participants commented that, due to...”
– The Great Beyond: Shiny Happy Biology
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The March of the BioEngineers by The Mammalian...
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