Forthcoming events

Once again, apologies for the recent lack of updates. Start of term, and all...

I'll be taking part in a bunch of events to promote my forthcoming book, two of which are now fully confirmed (both titled Genesis Machines: Engineering Life:

November 14, 2006:
Book launch and panel discussion at the ICA, London, in association with the Royal Institution. Martyn Amos, Stephen Emmott, Oliver Morton and Vivienne Parry. Time: 7pm-8.30pm (event details).

December 6, 2006: Panel session organised by the Great Debate, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Time: 7pm (event details).

I'll post details of other events as and when they're confirmed.

New think tank with an interesting back story

Readers who work in the UK education system may have heard the recent news that Ph.D. students at the University of Sussex have formed a "break away" research centre of their own, named the Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society.

When I first heard of this, I was immediately reminded of Margaret Thatcher's famous saying that "There's no such thing as society, there are individual men and women, and there are families". Sure enough, one of the founders of the Centre, Erich Kofmel, is a self-confessed right wing activist. Of course, they're entitled to their views, and I would never dream of using this blog to espouse a purely political agenda.

However, things get a little more interesting when one performs a Google search for "Erich Kofmel". He appears to have been accused by the Evening Standard (and, later, the Observer) of being a rogue landlord who took advantage of vulnerable overseas students.

I happen to agree with him that UK education is woefully underfunded, but I do think that it's rather rich to complain about it whilst (allegedly) ripping off fellow students.

"Here, hare here"

I'm all for describing things in terms that most people can grasp. For example, in my forthcoming book I make the point that if a transistor (the fundamental building block of computer processor chips) were the size of a (UK) postage stamp, then ten years ago, the average chip would be the size of Snowdonia National Park in Wales. With the advances in chip miniaturisation that we have seen in the last decade, the same chip in 2005 would be the size of Iceland.

Readers of the New Scientist will be aware of an ongoing discussion of the use of Wales as a metric (hence my tongue-in-cheek reference in the book). However, I'd like to draw your attention to a far more insidious comparator: the human hair.

There seems to be an unwritten rule of science journalism: any article dealing with micro- or nano-scale technology must, at some point, compare the scientific breakthrough in question with a human hair. Some recent examples are here, here, here, and hair.

I'm not questioning the quality of the science, or even that of the writing, I'm just sick of seeing constant references to hair in popular science articles (maybe because I'm losing mine!)

Japanese edition

Readers in Japan will be able to pick up Genesis Machines at some point, as the Japanese language rights have been acquired by Nikkei BP. I'll post more when I know the regional publication date (of course, I realise that if you're reading this you may have no need of a Japanese language edition, but I just thought I would mention it).

Genesis Machines publication event

Firstly, apologies for the lack of recent updates - we've been busy moving house.

We've arranged an event in London to coincide with the publication of Genesis Machines. This will take the form of a panel discussion at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), and is being organised in association with the Royal Institution.

I'm delighted to say that our publicist, Annabel Huxley, has succeeded in attracting a world-class line-up (and me!). The panel will comprise:

• Professor Stephen Emmott, Director of the External Research Office at Microsoft Research, Cambridge
  
• Oliver Morton, news editor at Nature and author of Mapping Mars
  
• Myself
  

The event will be chaired by the scientist, writer and broadcaster Vivienne Parry, whose previous work includes presenting Tomorrow's World and the Aventis Prize-shortlisted book The Truth About Hormones.

It promises to be an enjoyable evening, hopefully informative and perhaps even a little provocative. Full details are below, and I'll look forward to maybe meeting you there.

Genesis machines: engineering life

Tuesday 14 November 7.00pm

Panel: Dr Martyn Amos, Prof. Stephen Emmott, Oliver Morton and Vivienne Parry.

Venue: ICA, The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH
Tickets cost £10, £9 concessions and £8 RI Members. Call 020 79303647 or visit www.ica.org.uk to book tickets.

In association with the ICA, the Royal Institution and Allen Lane Publishers.

Genesis Machines - available for preordering

Genesis Machines is now available for preordering from Amazon (UK) here.

Korean rights

I'm delighted to report that Atlantic have accepted an offer for the Korean rights to Genesis Machines. The book will be published by Forest of Knowledge, a division of Nexus Press.

Stupidity and the War on Terror

A ridiculous story about a post office in the US that was shut down and visited by agents in hazmat suits, just because a woman reported receiving a letter from India.

I loved this comment in the ensuing Fark discussion thread:

Shortly after 9/11 I filed a police report for a guy who found a "suspicious white powder" in a textbook sent to him by the publisher. As it turns out the "suspicious white powder" is something commonly known as printer's dust. It's harmless.

I'm not sure why this guy thought McGraw-Hill was trying to kill him, but seeing as he works in the Math Department I'm sure he has plenty of enemies.

George Church and constructive biology

There's a nice article by George Church in the latest issue of The Edge.

Genesis Machines preview

As you may know, my popular science book Genesis Machines: The New Science of Biocomputing will be published by Atlantic Books on November 9. I've placed a short sampler excerpt on the book website. It's in PDF, so you'll need a suitable application, such as Adobe Reader.

Blog down-time

The blog will not be updated until after I have moved office to Manchester Met (on June 26). Please check back then for the latest news on the move, as well as other updates.

Synthetic biology - follow-up discussion

Apologies for the lack of recent posts - we've been househunting up north in preparation for my move to Manchester Met.

Anyway, I thought I would point you towards an interesting post on Soft Machines, Richard Jones' always-excellent blog. His most recent post concerns synthetic biology (see below), and a discussion thread has also developed.

Synthetic Biology review

(Subscription may be required).

Synthetic biology: new engineering rules for an emerging discipline

Ernesto Andrianantoandro, Subhayu Basu1, David K Karig and Ron Weiss

Molecular Systems Biology 2 doi:10.1038/msb4100073

Synthetic biologists engineer complex artificial biological systems to investigate natural biological phenomena and for a variety of applications. We outline the basic features of synthetic biology as a new engineering discipline, covering examples from the latest literature and reflecting on the features that make it unique among all other existing engineering fields. We discuss methods for designing and constructing engineered cells with novel functions in a framework of an abstract hierarchy of biological devices, modules, cells, and multicellular systems. The classical engineering strategies of standardization, decoupling, and abstraction will have to be extended to take into account the inherent characteristics of biological devices and modules. To achieve predictability and reliability, strategies for engineering biology must include the notion of cellular context in the functional definition of devices and modules, use rational redesign and directed evolution for system optimization, and focus on accomplishing tasks using cell populations rather than individual cells. The discussion brings to light issues at the heart of designing complex living systems and provides a trajectory for future development.

Moving

I'm delighted to say that I am leaving Exeter to take up a Senior Lectureship in the Department of Computing and Mathematics at Manchester Metropolitan University.

I was very impressed with the vision and ambition shown at Departmental, Faculty and University level, and am very much looking forward to working there. I start there in mid-June, and new contact details will follow once they are confirmed.

Leonardo in Exeter

We took the little 'un to see the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition that's currently running in Exeter. The museum has done an admirable job in securing a loan of the sketches from the Royal collection, and I felt privileged to be able to examine them at such close quarters.

I was particularly taken with "A study of a woman's hands" (possibly for the portrait of Cecilia Gallerani), c.1490. Quite apart from its possible significance as a study for such a well-known piece, it contained, almost as a doodle, a lovely sketch of a grotesque head in its top left corner.

I also loved "A sheet of pictographs", drawn over an architectural plan, c.1490, also known as rebuses or cryptograms. A detailed description of this sheet is given in Charles Nicholl's biography Leonardo Da Vinci: The Flights of the Mind.

The Great Debate

While at a meeting in Manchester this week I had the pleasure of meeting Caspar Hewett of the University of Newcastle, who, in his spare time, runs an organisation called The Great Debate. To quote the website, "The Great Debate is an umbrella title for a series of courses, day schools, public discussions and workshops on topics including Darwinism, human nature, the human mind, consciousness, development, sustainabilty and environmental thought."

I was greatly impressed by Caspar's energy and commitment, and am glad to offer a link here with the strong recommendation that you visit, and even consider getting involved.

Science in the Docks, Art in the Stocks

In the middle of last month I gave the opening talk at an ESRC-sponsored art/science crossover event. There's now an online report of the event. I'm not sure that I was arguing for the use of synthetic biology to create works of art per se, simply that the applications I highlighted used biological systems as the medium, rather than simply as inspiration. Nontheless, the report gives a decent overview of the whole event, which was certainly well worth doing (despite chronic tiredness, my daughter having been born less than a week previously...)

Aventis Prize

Congratulations to fellow Atlantic Books author Vivienne Parry; her book The Truth About Hormones has been shortlisted for the 2006 Aventis Prize.

Bioprinting

"Sitting in a culture dish, a layer of chicken heart cells beats in synchrony. But this muscle layer was not sliced from an intact heart, nor even grown laboriously in the lab. Instead, it was "printed", using a technology that could be the future of tissue engineering."

Authorities approve Airbus result

The EASA and the FAA have both formally approved the result of Sunday's Airbus A380 evacuation trial, and the aircraft is now certificated to carry up to 853 passengers.