Technology
Category archives for Technology
Living Factories: How Scientists Engineer Microbes to Make Useful Molecules
Posted by Kevin Bonham on June 12, 2013 Tonight, I’m presenting at the Science In The News (SITN) Spring lecture series. If you’re in the vicinity of Boston, you can come watch at 7pm in Pfizer Auditorium, located in the Mallinckrodt Chemistry Lab, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge MA 02138. If you can’t show up in person though, SITN is now broadcasting live via google…
Union of Concerned Scientists Failing on Farming
Posted by Kevin Bonham on May 14, 2013 Ok, this is a little different, but it’s annoying, so I’m going to talk about it. Let me begin by saying I love the Union of Concerned Scientists. They’ve been wonderful advocates on climate change for decades; they are media savvy, they train scientists to be media savvy, and they push the media and policy makers alike to…
Technology and Intent
Posted by Kevin Bonham on May 12, 2012 No technology is inherently good or evil, it’s the use of that technology that determines its value. A blade can be used in surgery to save a life, or as a weapon to take one. The ballistics that enable missiles to destroy enemies also enables the launch of communication satellites and exploration of other worlds.…
Fuel from Seaweed
Posted by Kevin Bonham on January 26, 2012 I grew up on the coast of California, and I loved to surf. At my favorite break, Pleasure Point, the best waves were often at low tide, but low tide also meant seaweed. Lots of seaweed. [Source] The giant kelp of Monteray Bay is an astonishing organism. It’s not actually a plant, it’s a brown…
Vaccinating Against Semen – Immunity as Contraceptive
Posted by Kevin Bonham on January 18, 2012 I promise, this will be my last semen post for a while. I’ve talked about allergy to semen. I’ve talked about allergens in semen. And I’ve talked about autoimmunity to semen. All of these are problems, leading to discomfort or infertility. But what if those problems could be leveraged for our benefit? [Source: These drawings…
Petroplague – Book Review
Posted by Kevin Bonham on October 15, 2011 Disclosure Note: I was given a free digital copy of this book for review. Thrillers aren’t typically my cup of tea. I most often stick to non-fiction, and when it comes to novels, I tend to favor books that use the plot to develop characters, rather than the other way around. But when Amy Rogers…
Check out the sea floor… live
Posted by Heather Olins on August 23, 2011 Ever wondered what the bottom of the ocean looks like? Well, now’s your chance to check out streaming live HD footage from the ROV ROPOS which is currently working out at Axial Volcano on the Juan de Fuca Ridge. Currently they are checking out a brand new lava flow, but later this evening and tomorrow…
A week of brain biggering
Posted by Heather Olins on February 18, 2011 I got to spend last week in sunny California. I forgot how wonderful it is to sit and eat lunch outside! I was participating in a workshop held at the Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute (JGI). The workshop was entitled Microbial Genomics and Metagenomics. Basically I spent the week learning about different tools that…
There’s no sex in your violence… or is there?
Posted by Kevin Bonham on February 10, 2011 I was going to cover this paper, but Ed beat me to it (and did a far better job than I would have): With a pulse of light, Dayu Lin from New York University can turn docile mice into violent fighters – it’s Dr Jekyll’s potion, delivered via fibre optic cable. The light activates a…
The knock-out punch: Zinc Finger Nucleases
Posted by Kevin Bonham on January 2, 2011 Like so many things, the problem is best explained with an analogy. Imagine a car parked in a dark garage (if you’re a mechanic by hobby or trade, make it a computer). Someone hands you keys to the car, a flashlight and a piece of metal that she says belongs to a car similar to…
