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Notes, thoughts, and news on synthetic biology by Christina Agapakis.
March 31, 2010
Category: artificial life
Because of my recent interest in autonomous, biologically inspired robots, my friend Tami sent me some fascinating links about designs and concepts for future flesh eating robots. From New Scientist, furniture that captures vermin and uses the biomass to power...
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 11:38 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 29, 2010
Category: video
Another Hydrocalypse Industries original production, the Beard-ome presents imaginary work on the genomics of the beard. What's lying beneath your beard?...
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 9:23 PM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 25, 2010
Category: design
Cellularity is a new project by James King, a speculative designer working on biotechnology and interaction design. The project focuses on the potential future of smart pharmaceuticals, drug molecules surrounded by membranes that over time as technology advances may...
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 10:10 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 24, 2010
Category: culture
Happy Ada Lovelace Day! Today we blog to celebrate women in technology and science and remember Ada Lovelace, the woman considered to have written the world's first computer program back in the 1840's. So to celebrate, here's a clip of...
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 1:41 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 23, 2010
Category: DIYbio
"Intellectuals in their self-flattering wish-fulfillment say that knowledge is power, but the truth is that knowledge further empowers only those who have or can acquire the power to use it."
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 9:21 AM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 17, 2010
Category: cyborg
Synthetic biology deliberately equates genetic networks to electronic circuits, cells to machines, organisms to factories. In synthetic biology, every living can be thought of as a cyborg, a living machine that can be manipulated, changed to meet our needs, parts...
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 11:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 13, 2010
Category: bacteria
Carboxysomes are small compartments inside photosynthetic bacteria where the machinery for capturing carbon dioxide is concentrated. You can see carboxysomes and their characteristic virus-like shape when you look at slices of these bacteria under an electron microscope: Until recently, no...
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 12:10 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 11, 2010
Category: biosafety
The fight over genetically modified foods, whether they're safe, healthy, good for the environment, or just plain "unnatural," has been going on for a long time now. Most people in the scientific community agree that genetic modification in general is...
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 10:50 AM • 16 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 10, 2010
Category: bacteria
Animal cells are made up of many smaller membrane-bound compartments called organelles that perform highly specialized functions necessary for life. Incredibly, several of these organelles have been shown to be evolutionarily related to free-living bacteria, captured and incorporated inside a...
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 8:07 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 4, 2010
Category: papers
My paper, "Insulation of a synthetic hydrogen metabolism circuit in bacteria" just came out in the Journal of Biological Engineering! And it's open access! We designed a metabolic circuit in bacteria that produces hydrogen (a potentially useful fuel) from natural...
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 9:40 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
