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Notes, thoughts, and news on synthetic biology by Christina Agapakis.
Category: synthetic biology
There's a terrific new article about synthetic biology in SEED by James King, go check it out! Here's a little taste: "Synthetic biology" is a catch-all label liberally applied to a host of methods for designing and constructing living things....
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 9:52 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: synthetic biology
There is an interesting and very thoughtful piece by Craig Venter and Daniel Gibson in today's Wall Street Journal going through what their breakthrough is and what it isn't, where they see the project going in the future, and why...
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 10:40 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: synthetic biology
The reaction to the Venter Institute's synthetic genome transplantation has been decidedly mixed. Is this the beginning of something new and wonderful, the ability to really design organisms from scratch? Is it something more sinister, the beginning of a dark...
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 11:10 AM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: artificial life
This is a pretty old video we made about Craig Venter that I've shared before on Hydrocalypse, but I think now is a good time to share it again. When Craig isn't creating synthetic bacteria, he's sailing the world, searching...
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 2:39 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: artificial life
The J. Craig Venter Institute has just announced the creation of the first bacterial cell controlled by a genome that is entirely chemically synthesized (PDF). The group has been working towards this goal for several years now, first working out...
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 1:25 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: music
I've written before about artificial life researchers from the 18th and 20th centuries working to create robots that attempt to recreate the human voice. I recently saw this terrifying video over at the PopSci blog of a recent robotic voice...
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 3:23 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: synthetic biology
Light interacts with and controls biological systems in diverse and fascinating ways. Our eyes are made up of thousands of cells that respond to light, sending signals to our brain as light in different colors and shapes moves across them....
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 9:43 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: biosafety
An interesting paper in BioEssays last month looks at the potential future of xenobiology, totally orthologous biological systems made out of synthetic nucleotide and amino acid bases, new cells that use XNA instead of DNA. The author, Markus Schmidt, argues...
Posted by Christina Agapakis at 1:10 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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
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
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