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 […]
Category: What’s Your Bio Strategy?
Career Advice to a Molecular Biologist Starting to Write
Write and write some more. Read the science media. Fill your head with the best writing you can find. Read The New Yorker. Read annual anthologies of the best writing — not just science writing either. Here’s The Best American Essays of 2016. Practice generating ideas on what to write every day. Especially after you read […]
How to Create 10,000 Jobs?
How do you create 10,000 jobs? Train 500 brewers. Originally, I was going to write: Train 10,000 teachers. Despite the overwhelming need for teachers [1], the profession currently is looked down upon in the United States and people don’t understand that if you don’t invest in education, you’re not investing in the future. (Cynically, I […]
Who Takes iGEM Seriously?
This past week iGEM startup PvP Biologics closed a $35 million round with Takeda. Last year, in June 2016, Ginkgo Bioworks raised $100 million. The company was founded by a team that participated in the first iGEM competitions. The iGEM startup page lists some 19 startups that originated from the competition. While Christopher VanLang is […]
You Need 1000 True Fans
That’s the number of True Fans Wired founder Kevin Kelly suggested any creator needs to make a living. “A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author—in other words, anyone producing works of art—needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.” These True Fans, “Will purchase anything […]