Comments on: Provocation: The Implications of Synthetic Biology

By: CoMixed- Remixing thoughts on Science and the Future « MakingSerendipity

CoMixed- Remixing thoughts on Science and the Future « MakingSerendipity — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:04:46 +0000

[...] Dr. Martyn Amos (Principle Investigator on Nano-Info-Bio, Manchester Metropolitan University) on the implications of synthetic biology [...]

By: Martyn Amos

Martyn Amos — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:32:16 +0000

Erinma: “computational substrate” = “stuff out of which computers are built”.

By: Sam

Sam — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:35:45 +0000

Great points Julian, talking of checks and balances I’m interested in the whole Prometheus / Frankenstein thang…how long will it be before I can produce my own army of superhuman beings?

By: julian

julian — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:59:44 +0000

I have read that the reason why the Earth is habitable in the first place and one of the reasons that there is so much iron in the ground is that there was a microbial process that sequestrated toxic gases in the atmosphere in the first few billion years of the Earth’s existence and these microbes don’t exist anymore except perhaps around the ‘hot smokers’ in the ocean floors. So I can see the argument for creating a biological solution to eradicate certain pollutants. But these primordial bacteria existed in a time where there was no complex life forms. What checks are in place before something is released into the wild?

By: Erinma

Erinma — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:44:54 +0000

computational substrate – what’s that in layman’s terms?

By: Martyn Amos

Martyn Amos — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:33:57 +0000

Thanks for the comments so far.

Firstly, Alex, cells and bacteria already self-replicate, and I see no sign of grey sludge. The bacteria we’re using won’t have “super powers”, as it were – they will still be constrained by fairly rigourous physical limitations. They’ll just be doing stuff that they didn’t evolve to do, but which we can engineer in to them.

Liz – biomimicry is relevant, and my group at MMU works quite heavily in this area (google “novel computation group” + mmu). However, that’s using nature as INSPIRATION; what we’re doing with SB is DIRECTLY USING nature as a computational substrate.

By: Comixed Event Live Blog | Comixed: A Networked Conversation

Comixed Event Live Blog | Comixed: A Networked Conversation — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:23:50 +0000

[...] Provocation: The Implications of Synthetic Biology [...]

By: Liz

Liz — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:27:07 +0000

Is this anyway linked to Biomimicry? A very interesting area of work. If it’s not maybe it should be.
http://www.biomimicry.net/

By: Erinma

Erinma — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:54:07 +0000

Hope to hear more about the challenging problems that could be solved – and how close some of this technology is to solving those challenges

By: Alec

Alec — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:33:26 +0000

I have heard that some of this technology would be able to self replicate. If this is the case how do we stop the world being overcome by a grey sludge