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"For the majority of the world’s population, that means making it available on a cell phone, and not a fancy iPhone or Android with a Web browser either. I’m talking about $10 cell phones with not much more than voice and SMS capabilities. If Google can reach people, especially in developing nations, with SMS, it can reach everyone with a cell phone. " [via mattmiz]
links for 2009-06-21
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Hmm. Free Genome Scanning (SNPs). [via @LaBlogga]
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Great comic on what kind of comments a science paper might get.
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A nice little discussion on commenting on scientific articles"
"A discussion broke out recently on Friendfeed about online commentary on scientific articles. The discussions were interesting because, for the first time in recent memory, there was disagreement about something fundamental. I view this as an extremely positive sign that out community is starting to grow and incorporate people outside of our core group. In fact, if there’s no disagreement, it’s probably a sign you’re doing something wrong."
links for 2009-06-20
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"I’ve been poking around Microsoft’s Bing. The short answer is that it’s not going to move me off of Google. Of course, my Google inertia is pretty much sleeping-hippopotamus-like at this point. Plus, Bing’s ripping off of Kayak.com (see below) has me pretty cheesed."
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"On Tuesday, Genzyme reported that it discovered a virus in one of six bioreactors at its Allston plant, where it makes Cerezyme and Fabrazyme. The drugs, made using genetically engineered Chinese hamster ovary cells in large vats filled with nutrients and other chemicals, are used to treat about 8,000 patients around the world with rare genetic disorders. "
links for 2009-06-16
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Hand-wringing at Harvard.
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A few comments by Reshma on the Biobrick standard and variations on it.
"We only have to look to the VHS vs. betamax format wars followed by the HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray wars to know that it’s not simply the first standard or even the technically superior standard that gets adopted."
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Hm. Mobile science comes to the iPhone.
"Just a quick post to let you know that Cesar from Drew’s lab has released the first version of his BioBrick Studio app for the iPhone on the iTunes Store. It lets you do some basic browsing of BioBrick parts from the Registry of Standard Biological Parts."
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"Join us to celebrate the launch of the FRONTLINE: A Broadsheet.
FRONTLINE: A BROADSHEET aims to be a high-quality, quarterly publication, in some ways radical; in others resurrecting traditions lost from the British market.
FRONTLINE will address major events and themes in international and domestic British politics, culture, conflict and lifestyle.
FRONTLINE will be political, but party-politically-allergic, irreverent and iconoclastic in equal measure.
FRONTLINE will offer international coverage in the best traditions of the Frontline Club and its membership, which includes some of the most esteemed reporters in the world.
FRONTLINE has been put together by a team of Club members whose work is entirely voluntary.
Annual subscription for £15 inc. postage. Please email broadsheet@frontlineclub.com for further inquiries." -
Is this the start of p2p social networks. (heck, phones with voice and sms are p2p networks, right?)
links for 2009-06-11
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"Coca-Cola doesn't think its customers have enough drink choices. So starting this summer, diners at some California, Georgia, and Utah fast-food joints will get to try a self-serve drink dispenser that pours more than 100 varieties of sodas, juices, teas, and flavored waters."
links for 2009-06-02
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"City" A weary traveller arrives in yet another generic, bleak and impenetrable city. Lonely in his business hotel room, he discovers a pair of magic goggles. As he tries them on the city transforms into a vibrant, organic place filled with the unexpected, including a mysterious girl wearing a pink bow…Drawn in Flash and SketchUp, coloured using scans of found materials. 2mins 15secs; Music: Noah Scanlan; thanks to: Lorelei Pepi, Terah Maher and Ruth Lingford. [CS – wicked]
links for 2009-06-01
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Images of the amazing contraption.
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It's the Atomic Kindle!
"It's not elegant and it's not sexy – it looks like a large photocopier – but the Espresso Book Machine is being billed as the biggest change for the literary world since Gutenberg invented the printing press more than 500 years ago and made the mass production of books possible. Launching today at Blackwell's Charing Cross Road branch in London, the machine prints and binds books on demand in five minutes, while customers wait."
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Holy moly. So want to check this out.
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"An amateur is full of wonder and speculation, tinkering towards the truth but suffering from a lack of knowledge and idleness; he's not even sure if someone else has already made these discoveries. "Is this a worthwhile pursuit?"
"A scientist performs experiments to confirm or disprove a hypothesis, and in that way he grinds out the truth.
"A genius has three abilities, which are actually the union of amateur and scientist: 1. to know the state of the art, what is known and what is not known. 2. To be able to think "out of the box". 3. To be disciplined enough to concentrate on the tedium of a formal investigation of his wondrous speculations."
[via @mrgunn]
Molecular Playground: Architectural Scale Interactive Molecules
I just found out that my thesis advisor is working on a cool project.
There's a new science building going up at UMass Amherst (where I got my PhD) and Craig T Martin (my thesis advisor) thought it would be cool to do an art installation where molecules are projected on the walls. He also realized that it would be cool if folks could interact with these molecules.
As he says on the project's site, molecules and chemicals are sort of "inaccessible and uninteresting" to the general public. His vision is to develop a large scale "molecular playground" where folks can actually go and manipulate the molecular projections.
Craig received a grant from the Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation to "develop and install in a prominent public space a
system for displaying large scale interactive molecules." The molecules will be animated and artistic, so that they can be appreciated even without direct manipulation.
Craig is collaborating with Allen Hanson from the UMass Amherst Computer Science Department.
Cool. I'm looking forward to seeing it.
And check out the video of a demo of the concept (below). The protein is HU, found in the bacterial nucleoid and involved in chromosome compaction. It makes a dramatic kink in DNA, and does some funky things. Check out the tongues going down the grooves on the opposite surface of the DNA. That's a tight grip. There more to it, though. You can manipulate the molecule yourself (with some explanations) on Craig's site.
What can we learn from Asilomar?
There was a flurry of indignation recently on the DIYbio discussion group over an article in the Wall Street Journal over the safety of bio hackers (with added aggravation from Fox News' dramatic title to the exact same article).
Interestingly, this kind of alarm is not new, especially to biology. In the early days of molecular biology, there was a sudden panic that recombinant DNA was inherently unsafe. There was no basis to understand what was possible, what was ethically permissible, and what was unsafe.
Asilomar
In a landmark event, that went on to change the nature of science policy and public outreach, Maxine Singer and Paul Berg, pioneers in molecular biology, assembled about 140 scientist, lawyers, and politicians to discuss the future of recombinant DNA.
The Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA, named after the place it was held at, addressed the principles for safely conducting recombinant DNA experiments, listing potential risks and outlining containment principles. The discussions also involved assessment of organisms, principles for choosing bacterial hosts, and what constituted good microbial practices. And finally, it explored the need for proper education and training of research personnel to carry out the recommendations that came out of the discussions.
There were a few interesting, non-science, aspects to this conference, as well. There was a desire to be transparent in the discussion and involve the public, to allay any fears non-scientists might have. Also, the Asilomar scientists drew up a series of voluntary guidelines rather than a regulatory body.
What can we learn?
Asilomar is part of the culture and history of any molecular biologist (at least it was for me, I learned about it early in my career). Therefore, the precautionary thinking, the openness and public discourse, and the self-organizing regulation is part of molecular biology.
DIY biology is part of all this, and the same culture is part of a community that already is a cautious as it is curious and open. I am not sure if there's a need for an Asilomar for DIYbio, but with calls for licensing and calls from the FBI, clearly something definitive needs to be established.
It's been great to see the discussions around this by the DIYbio enthusiasts. They clearly understand the situation, now it's a matter of getting the message across.
Image from MIT archives.
Video: The Future of Science Publishing
In February, in a Barcelona restaurant, Mark Kramer caught up with me and asked me what I would be speaking about at the 3rd WLE Symposium (notes from the talk are in a preceding post).
He was kind enough to give me the video, so check it out below.
(and, no, I don't lisp like that – it's the audio quality)