“Investors are now asking for off-take agreements, meaning that a brand needs to sign something that guarantees a purchase order of a certain quantity at a certain price for a certain duration. That’s the sort of thing you would normally expect in series A or series B, and now pre-seed startups are being asked for […]
Author: karlschmieder
Science Fiction Ideas Can Change the World
The Sci-fi Idea Bank is a spreadsheet of 3,567 sci-fi ideas, that proves, if you choose to believe it, that ideas for new technologies appear in science fiction first, and, can serve, for the ambitious, as a catalyst to bring Sci-fi to life. Vintage (like 1634 vintage!) and post-modern, it includes: bio-energy (1726), food tablets […]
There Will Be Dragons. Imagine. (Full Review)
So, here it is. And the question that might occur to you before you read or as you finish “How to Build a Dragon or Die Trying: A Satirical Look at Cutting Edge Science” is, Can we do it? Because when you get around a group of synthetic biologists, talk often turns to de-extinction projects […]
There Will Be Dragons. Imagine.
Excerpt from an unpublished review of “How to Build a Dragon or Die Trying: A Satirical Look at Cutting Edge Science.” There is enough in HOW TO BUILD A DRAGON OR DIE TRYING to obsess the true, mainlining dragon-builder for a godly amount of time. The Knoefplers do a good job considering, for example, all […]
My Coronavirus Experience
This morning, I walked out of our apartment at 930am, running late. I reached the corner and was about to turn onto Fourth Avenue, when a guy looked at me and held his gaze for longer than comfortable. He was staring at my chin. I stared back, realized I had walked out without a mask. […]
The $100 Million Science Media Fund
For this year’s SynBioBeta conference, Data Collective founder and investor Matt Ocko hosted a panel on Abundance and Scarcity. Matt backs entrepreneurs attacking trillion-dollar problems to “amplify capitalism’s benefits and reduce its costs to society.” In Matt’s own words, his team is creating a future of “abundance, comity, and amity.” Matt invited artist and storyteller […]
Please Kill Me (Review)
Pedro Paramo is the book I’ve most given away. It’s a thin, easy to read, very influential novel. It will haunt you. The second book I’ve most given away is Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain’s Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk. Through a series of alternating interviews, PKM traces the history of punk. From New […]
Brewing Stories to Drive the Bioeconomy
When I speak with non-technical, non-biotech audiences, I’m always looking for a place where we can start the conversation. These days, it’s with brewing. Most people, remember, know little-to-nothing about the way biology is impacting their lives. Most people, I believe, want to know. So these days, I start the conversation with beer and wine. Both […]
Devo
“You’re into Devo?” he asked. “Aren’t you?” His tone mocking. As if there was something wrong with it. Because for him, Yeah. Devo was too mainstream. Fake alternative. He was above that, and what he thought they stood for. “Of course I am,” I answered, thinking, Whatanasshole. “How could you not be?” Because at the time […]
Yeast Engineering and Apple Clinics
This week I’ve been thinking a lot about this MIT Technology Review article on writing the yeast genome. The article profiles NYU’s Jef Boeke, one of the founders and leaders of Genome Project write (GP-write). Writing a genome, which is still expensive, will drive advances across many fields (I’ve written about this project in the […]