SynBioWatch

Category: Corporate Wheeling & Dealing

  • Life on Mars? Scientists hope to find it by decoding Martian DNA

    Note: Aside from our many concrete concerns with the emergence of synthetic biology — questions of accountability, corporate-driven science research, ethics, security, ecological leakage, and so forth — one of our driving concerns is the priority being given to investments in far-flung, high-risk research, at a time when fully one-sixth of the human population is […]

  • Hacking the President’s DNA

    Cross-posted from The Atlantic The U.S. government is surreptitiously collecting the DNA of world leaders, and is reportedly protecting that of Barack Obama. Decoded, these genetic blueprints could provide compromising information. In the not-too-distant future, they may provide something more as well—the basis for the creation of personalized bioweapons that could take down a president […]

  • Algae biofuel not sustainable now-U.S. research council

    Cross-posted from Thomsen/Reuters, by Roberta Rampton and Deborah Zabarenko WASHINGTON | Wed Oct 24, 2012 6:48pm EDT (Reuters) – Biofuels made from algae, promoted by President Barack Obama as a possible way to help wean Americans off foreign oil, cannot be made now on a large scale without using unsustainable amounts of energy, water and fertilizer, the U.S. National […]

  • Biohacking: The next great wave of innovation

    NOTE: in this post, another observer thrilled by the apparently limitless horizons of synthetic biology makes the point that the DIY biohacker ‘revolution’ is where the real innovations will happen, beyond the corporate sphere of influence. Of course, the computer revolution spearheaded by guys in garages in the 1970’s would never have taken off if […]

  • Sugar Makers Bunge to Sao Martinho Try Biotech: Corporate Brazil

    By Stephan Nielsen – Oct 9, 2012, cross-posted from Bloomberg Sugar-cane growers from Bunge Ltd. (BG) to Sao Martinho SA (SMTO3) propose building plants in Brazil to convert crops into chemicals for products as varied as face cream and industrial lubricants. A joint venture between Bunge and U.S. biotechnology company Solazyme Inc. (SZYM) will start late next year to produce oils from sugar. […]

  • How synthetic biology will change us

    Note: The future they talk about is just like the horizon — the closer you get to it, the further away it grows. To place bets on what’s over the horizon is called, aptly enough, speculation. — ed. By Alan Boyle, from NBC News In the future, genetically modified organisms could be making our medicines, […]

  • The Sweet Smell Of Microbes

    NOTE: Well, all you patchouli lovers out there — your synthetic ship is coming in! Synthetic fragrances coming your way. Just what the world needs…  — ed. Flavor and fragrance molecules made by fermentation promise abundance regardless of the weather By Melody M. Bomgardner, from Chemical & Engineering News ORANGE YOU SMART Richard Burlingame of Allylix […]

  • Thinking Big, or, If We Can Think it, We Can Sell It

    Have a look at this promotional dreck from Fidelity Investments, on the wonders of synthetic biology. It sounds fantastic until you realize, their fictions are spun as thin as goat-milk spider silk. As microbiologist Ignacio Chapela has said, “They believe that if they can take an organism with wings, and combine it with a creature […]

  • DNA construction technology makes genetic engineering cheaper, faster

    Cross-posted from: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-dna-technology-genetic-cheaper-faster.html#jCp  October 2, 2012 by Julie Chao  Sequencing, splicing and expressing DNA may seem to be the quintessence of cutting-edge science—indeed DNA manipulation has revolutionized fields such as biofuels, chemicals and medicine. But in fact, the actual process can still be tedious and labor-intensive, something Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) scientist Nathan Hillson […]

  • Weird Science: The Promise and Peril of Synthetic Biology

    By Jeff Conant, from Earth Island Journal, Autumn, 2012 In 1971, a microbiologist named Ananda Chakrabarty patented a bacteria genetically engineered to degrade and destroy crude oil. The next year scientists created the first synthesized gene, a bit of yeast RNA ushered into existence virtually from scratch. These discoveries, among others, raised the curtain on the science of […]