Minecraft could be the ultimate biotech learning tool. Kids that play the game are already used to crafting – taking blocks of stone, wood, ore and creating novel tools and materials on a crafting table – and brewing – creating potions by adding ingredients to water bottles in a brewing stand. It would only take a […]
Category: synthetic biology
Minecraft for Teaching Biotech | Minecraft Biotech
Head-Mounted Display DNA Synthesis
How will virtual reality change our view into DNA synthesis? With a head-mounted display interface to mixed reality, you will not only hold DNA in your hand, you will watch the way your modifications are translated into proteins. As amino acids are added to your protein, separate algorithms will tell you whether your product folds correctly […]
NSA Art Project
With the National Security Agency’s new open source face recognition API, take a selfie, upload it to their database and begin searching for your twin(s). Armed with a series of matches, create photographs and profiles based on available online data and post to your heart’s content. Bonus points for using genomic information to find your twin(s). […]
Games in Our Biotech Future
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 […]
Biofabricate 2014
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 […]
Notes from SynBioBeta SF 2014
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 […]
What!? DNA Extraction and Replication in Captain Underpants? Yes, It’s True.
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 […]