Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Thanks BoingBoing for reminding me about the 33 1/3 series — a collection of small, really personal books, each riffing on a single pop/rock album, edited by David Barker. I can imagine holing up for the winter with the whole collection and the accompanying music. Of course, that’s not gonna happen. But … beautiful packaging, […]
I’ve spent quite a bit of time the past couple of weeks exploring business patents. The original story I was doing the research for, alas, isn’t going to happen, but I sure did come across some interesting stuff serendipitously. Example: U.S. Patent No. 4,259,444, the first patent on a living organism, a genetically engineered variation […]
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Canadian water-rights activist Maude Barlow thinks so, and explains why in this editorial from the San Francisco Chronicle. Barlow also figures prominently in the eye-opening and infuriating documentary Flow, which was released last year and is now available on DVD. She was recently named to be senior adviser on water to the president of the […]
The spiritual father of synthetic biology, Drew Endy, explaining the basic concepts at Long Now Foundation event, via Wired News.
My college buddy Jake Reiner did a bunch of interesting things after graduating, from living in a treehouse in the Hawaiian rainforest to …. well, let’s say he’s done lots of things. But quite a few years ago, he found his way to Japan, and has made a home for himself in the area around […]
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Just found video of the segment on synthetic biology and iGem. Also, from the website of Medical Technology Business Technology Europe, news that the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is launching an initiative to study the societal issues associated with synthetic biology, now that the focus is shifting from merely reading the genetic code to writing […]
As the AP reported earlier this week, the EPA has changed rather dramatically, announcing that it will not make a final determination on regulating perchlorate in drinking water until the National Academies of Science have had a chance to review the data. From the article: “The decision on perchlorate has been pending for years, as […]
On January 1, Felicity Barringer reported in the New York Times that the EPA’s own inspector general has concluded that the agency failed to follow its own guidelines and made a basic error in evaluating how perchlorate, a rocket-fuel ingredient that has contaminated surface and groundwater supplies throughout the U.S., harms human health. Good studies […]
Synthetic biology, biohacking, et al. seems to be hitting a kind of critical mass. Whatever DIYBio is doing in terms of a PR “strategy” — if indeed they have one — is working. Seed magazine recently did a story on founder Mac Cowell, and the AP mentions Cowell in a recent “trend piece” on the […]
Mark Bittman seems to be spending a lot of time up in these parts lately. He’s mentioned a few places he likes in columns and on his blog over the past year, and in the NY Times Travel section last weekend, he wrote in some depth on a few favorites. He loves Hen of the […]