I studied piano ten years, played saxophone in a high school punk-jazz band, then composed electronic music for a class. I DJed Neue Deutsche Welle, punk, ambient, industrial and wrote and published reviews and interviews. Today, my guitar sits unplayed at the foot of my bed. (5.100)
In seventh grade my reading partners were ninth grade girls who were more developed than the girls in my grade. Getting close to them became my only mission. I let them turn me on to Edgar Rice Burroughs, Agatha Christie, and a slew of adult books which I read only so I could spend a […]
The 1979 Powell ad stuck to my 14-year-old self’s brain and still sticks the way a good song does. There’s Ray “Bones” Rodriguez, big grin on his face, holding his signature model skateboard in front of a burning car. “Is it functional or just another high-gloss, high-hype rip off…? Provocative question, isn’t it? “Now scrutinize […]
To make biotech a game, as suggested by Freeman Dyson‘s essay, Our Biotech Futures, requires a deep understanding of cellular processes and enough artificial intelligence to accurately translate DNA in real time. Even if faulty, inaccurate, or dangerous, the game must make it fun to play with a DNA sequence that is translated into amino […]
Sacramento-born to Panamanian parents from different sides of Volcan Barú.. Raised in Ventura. Educated in Riverside, and Boulder and Boston. Settled and built a family in Brooklyn, where I write science fiction about emerging biotechnologies, drugs and cures, the business of improving human health and engineering life. (1.100)
I was just in Panama for the unveiling of this monument.That’s my grandfather’s name, Karl Schmieder, right there on the plaque. And here’s the mass grave he’s buried in along with nine other victims of the 1941 massacre. It’s a complicated story that I’ve never written about but David Fishlow has. I’ll write about this […]
Q. What are the ways you can tell a good event from a great event? A. The people. The presentations. And the fact that no one wants to leave. Early in December, I attended the first Biofabricate conference at Microsoft’s NYC office. Organized by Biocouture’s Suzanne Lee, SynBioBeta’s John Cumbers, and Microsoft’s Tereza Nemessanyi, the event […]
I spent last Friday at SynBioBeta’s annual synthetic biology conference. I attended to meet company founders for a book I’m writing and to help my existing clients better understand this field and how it might impact them. Here’s my notes from the conference: According to Rob Carlson, author of Biology is Technology, total biotechnology revenues […]
I love it when my boys are exposed to the next generation of biotechnology in fiction. So I was surprised and very happy when I came across a mention in Dav Pilkey’s “eleventh epic” Captain Underpants and the Tyrannical Retaliation of the Turbo Toilet 2000. This section even involves DNA extraction and replication, with mention […]