Synthetic biology and Howard Hughes
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute has
announced its latest set of investigator appointments. Awards are made to
individuals, as opposed to the usual mode of funding, where money is assigned to a
project, and the field of synthetic biology is represented by two of its leading figures in the current crop.
Jim Collins at Boston and
Michael Elowitz at Caltech both had papers in the important 2000
issue of Nature, which reported some of the first experimental results in the area (specific papers are
here and
here.)
I'm pleased to report that
Genesis Machines has just been published in the USA by
The Overlook Press. The book is available
via Amazon, and I'm delighted to be associated with another
independent award-winning publisher (after Toby Mundy's
2005 triumph with Atlantic at the 2005 British Book Awards).
Apologies once again for the recent lack of updates...
I'm pleased to be giving a lecture on
Genesis Machines to the
Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society this Wednesday (21st). From their website, "The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society (Manchester Lit. and Phil.) has been in existence since 1781 and is one of the oldest learned societies in the country. It has been at the leading edge of knowledge in many fields, and making that knowledge accessible to all. Important past members have been
John Dalton, the 'father of modern chemistry';
James Prescott Joule;
Peter Mark Roget, originator of the Thesaurus; William Fairbairn, the engineer; Henry Roscoe, the chemist;
Ernest Rutherford, the nuclear physicist, and
Joseph Whitworth, the precision engineer.
Professor Tom Kilburn was the designer and builder of the world's first functioning
stored programme electronic computer."
The event starts at 19:00, and it's being held in the MANDEC Dental School on Higher Cambridge Street in Manchester (there's a map
here).
Quake!
I'd just like to reassure readers that, yes, were were affected by
yesterday's earthquake, but we're ok. We're still in the process of clearing up; if you'd like to get an idea of the scale of the damage, there's a picture
here.
Engineering biology, with Drew Endy
There's a
fascinating essay by/interview with
Drew Endy on the
Edge website, which appears to be the latest in a series to have emerged from an event they organised last August. I've written about Endy
in the past, and he features prominently in the final chapters of
Genesis Machines; indeed, I wish I'd had such an illuminating transcript available when I wrote the book.
Endy is an Assistant Professor of
Biological Engineering at
MIT, and one of the leading figures in synthetic biology. In one particular paragraph, he captures the excitement of this emerging new discipline:
"Programming DNA is more cool, it's more appealing, it's more powerful than silicon. You have an actual living, reproducing machine; it's nanotechnology that works. It's not some
Drexlarian (Eric Drexler) fantasy. And we get to program it. And it's actually a pretty cheap technology. You don't need a FAB Lab like you need for silicon wafers. You grow some stuff up in sugar water with a little bit of nutrients. My read on the world is that there is tremendous pressure that's just started to be revealed around what heretofore has been extraordinarily limited access to biotechnology."
I've spend all week running simulation experiments for our ongoing work on
ant-based computing, so when I came across the
Insect Lab it seemed strangely appropriate.
The artist takes real (dead) insects and customizes their bodies with parts taken from watches and other mechanical devices, to create "cybernetic sculptures".
I'd like to see him do an ant, though... Which train of thought lead me circuitously to Bill Bailey performing his wonderful song
Insect Nation (if you just want the lyrics, they're
here).
Dr Who
A wonderful present arrived in today's post, courtesy of our equally wonderful friend Eventhia; a signed photograph of
Tom Baker! He is, of course, best known for playing the
fourth Dr Who, but is probably most familiar to a younger generation as the narrator of
Little Britain (and even the delightfully barmy
Stagecoach adverts).
Most people of sound mind would name Baker as the best ever Dr Who, despite
ludicrous polls to the contrary. A case can be made that the choice of favourite depends on which Doctor a person grew up with, and since Baker's tenure extended from 1974-1981, I would certainly agree.
Anyway, he recently did a signing in Norwich, attended by our friends Kris and Eventhia. They very kindly got Tom to sign the photo "For Martyn," (eventually, I think he had it down as "Martin", and you can see where he's corrected it at E's prompting) "Genetically yours, Tom Baker"
Sigh!
