October 2009
40 posts
2 tags
Oct 1st
September 2009
50 posts
1 tag
Sep 30th
3 tags
The Aesthetics of Synthetic Biology
What does it mean for something to be “well designed”? What does it mean for a living system to be “elegant” or “beautiful”? How do taste, culture, and subjective opinions about aesthetics mix with the “objective” nature of science and technology? These questions are really important to me, and I’m fascinated by how they are being addressed by...
Sep 30th
1 note
3 tags
Sep 29th
4 tags
Sep 29th
2 tags
Sep 28th
3 tags
Sep 24th
3 tags
“As scientists understand very well (and as Watson has written in his own...”
– Back Issues: Biotechnology: Back Issues : The New Yorker
Sep 24th
3 tags
Sep 23rd
4 tags
Exactly what I was thinking
about the article “A Universal Truth”, but more thought out and well-reasoned. Sheila Jasanoff’s response, “Lessons for Science Envoys”, makes many excellent points about the traps that we can fall into when discussing a “universal” anything in the context of diplomacy. One of the best I think focuses on the misconception that more science necessarily...
Sep 23rd
1 note
1 tag
Sep 22nd
2 tags
“It is imperative that we give up the idea of ultimate sources of knowledge, and...”
– The Future of Science…Is Art? § SEEDMAGAZINE.COM
Sep 22nd
2 tags
“Dr. Endy answered the question of what synthetic biology is, and whether...”
– Drew Endy uses tools of synthetic biology to construct new genetic material | EarthSky
Sep 19th
3 tags
Sep 18th
2 tags
Sep 17th
1 tag
Sep 15th
2 tags
“Summers was deservedly castigated, but not for the right reasons. He claimed to...”
– Women in Science
Sep 14th
1 tag
Sep 14th
1 note
1 tag
Sep 13th
1 tag
Sep 13th
2 tags
Sep 13th
3 tags
Sep 12th
2 tags
Sep 12th
1 tag
Sep 12th
3 tags
Sep 11th
2 tags
Sep 11th
4 tags
Truth and Beauty
Paul Krugman’s recent NYTimes Magazine article, “How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?” starts with criticizing economists for confusing beauty for truth in the simplified mathematical models of market economies. I’ve been thinking a lot about “beauty” and “elegance” in science since overhearing a discussion of synthetic biology where someone said that...
Sep 11th
3 tags
September programme of the VivoArts School for... →
There is a lot of discussion about transgenic ethics, but what about transgenic aesthetics? Are genes beautiful? How is the notion of beauty different in science and in “real life”?
Sep 11th
1 tag
Sep 10th
2 tags
Sep 10th
2 tags
New regulations aim for stricter enforcement over... →
Sep 9th
2 tags
Solazyme Signs U.S. Department of Defense... →
Sep 9th
3 tags
Sep 9th
1 tag
Sep 9th
3 tags
Sep 8th
3 tags
BIOart →
“The [Havard Medical School] Department of Cell Biology invites submissions of scientific and/or artistic value. The BioArt, generated by academic members and staff in the department, can be anything from images captured on a confocal microscope to a watercolor painting on canvas.”
Sep 8th
5 tags
Sep 6th
2 tags
Sep 5th
1 tag
Sep 5th
3 tags
the preservation of favoured traces | ben fry →
Amazing visualization of the “evolution” of the text of “On the Origin of Species” by Ben Fry.
Sep 4th
2 tags
Sep 4th
1 note
2 tags
“After all, the resulting life forms now being discussed will still rely on a...”
– Adam Bluestein › “Life from Scratch”? Not So Fast.
Sep 4th
3 tags
Sep 3rd
1 note
4 tags
National Science Foundation awards $1.4 million... →
The GenoCAD point-and-click user interface guides the user through the process of designing new sequences. By successively clicking on icons representing structural features or functional blocks, complex DNA sequences composed of dozens of functional blocks can be designed in a matter of minutes. Upon completion of the design process, the sequence can be downloaded for synthesis or further...
Sep 3rd
2 tags
“I strongly believe that it is the destiny of Nature to develop consciousness and...”
– This quote is part of the welcome to a cool blog about learning biology, DIY BIO 4 Beginners. I think that this idea is very interesting as a premise for wanting to study biology, and I think it brings up a lot of important and unanswered (unanswerable?) questions. What is the goal of studying...
Sep 3rd
4 tags
JBEI Registry →
The Joint BioEnergy Institute has created a new registry for BioBrick parts. While it remains to be seen if this registry will have some of the same problems as the original, I am happy to see that the pages for individual parts have comments fields, where users can presumably share their experiences and data. With enough of this kind of data on how these genes work together, and enough parts that...
Sep 3rd
2 tags
Sep 2nd
3 tags
Sep 2nd
4 tags
“It will be a long, long time” before synthetic biology produces bugs more...”
– ‘Synthetic biology’ holds promise, but doubts simmer - USATODAY.com
Sep 2nd
2 tags
Keeping genes out of terrorists' hands : Nature... →
Sep 1st