Category: interviews

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 […]

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 […]

Organism Design. Minecraft Chemistry.

Organism or microbe design is an emerging industry. It’s analogous to the semi-conductor industry. Companies design and manufacture the semi-conductors found in computers, phones, cars, and televisions. Today, end-users rarely make semi-conductors themselves. They hire the expertise and apply what is manufactured to create a product. Organism design companies are reprograming yeast and bacteria to produce […]

2017: A Year Wraps and Good Riddance

Good Riddance 2017 It was a good year, but not without its challenges. The TL;DR is: mL grew more than 10 percent but is still down from its 2015 high. I co-authored and published What’s Your Bio Strategy? I moderated a panel at SynBioBeta SF17 and keynoted at Biofabricate 4 and enjoyed it. I now […]

My Futuretech Podcast Appearance

I recently appeared on a podcast talking about messagingLAB, the work we do to translate science for specific audiences, my book What’s Your Bio Strategy?, and how life sciences companies are using the blockchain. Listen on Spreaker. Listen on iTunes.

First Drafts: The Ugly, The Bad and The Good

Writing first drafts sucks. For the past few months, I’ve been co-writing What’s Your Bio Strategy? with SynBioBeta founder John Cumbers. We just completed the first draft. It feels monumental. The process of writing a first draft is an epic like Sergio Leone’s classic spaghetti Western The Good, The Bad and The Ugly – one of […]

Tim Gardner: “There Is Almost No Physical Problem That Can’t Be Solved With Biology”​

I’m co-author of a book called What’s Your Biostrategy? With SynBioBeta’s John Cumbers, we’re writing about the impact of biotechnology on ALL business. Over the next few months, I’m going to publish interview summaries from the book. For more information, scroll to the bottom of the post. In 2000, Tim Gardner wrote one of synthetic biology’s seminal […]

iGEM is the Future of Biotechnology

Jennifer Lopez and Zachary Quinto. Biotech is going mainstream in a big way. That was the message to the more than 5,600 high school and college students crowded into Boston’s Hynes Convention Center for the 2016 International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition. Lopez’s production company is producing CRISPR, a near-future crime drama named after the […]

I Wanted To Be Right But Synthetic Yeast News Proved Me Wrong

I was wrong. On Quora, someone asked: How far are we from engineering a completely synthetic, self-replicating cell or organism? My original answer was three years. 2020. My answer was based on research I’ve been conducting for What’s Your Bio Strategy? Then last week, Science ran an issue on the creation of synthetic chromosomes. Scientists […]