Table of Content

Blog Roll

A list of blogs regarding our field.

Book Summaries

• A Life Decoded: My Genome: My Life — In A Life Decoded, J. Craig Venter traces his rise from an uninspired student to one of the most fascinating and controversial figures in science today. Here, Venter relates the unparalleled drama of the quest to decode the human genome, a goal he predicted he could achieve years earlier and more cheaply than the government-sponsored Human Genome Project, and one that he fulfilled in 2001. A thrilling story of detection, A Life Decoded is also a revealing, and often troubling, look at how scienc
• Arrival of the fittest - How nature innovates — “Natural selection can preserve innovations, but it cannot create them. Nature’s many innovations—some uncannily perfect—call for natural principles that accelerate life’s ability to innovate.”
• BioBuilder — Today’s synthetic biologists are in the early stages of engineering living cells to help treat diseases, sense toxic compounds in the environment, and produce valuable drugs. With this manual, you can be part of it. Based on the BioBuilder curriculum, this valuable book provides open-access, modular, hands-on lessons in synthetic biology for secondary and post-secondary classrooms and laboratories. It also serves as an introduction to the field for science and engineering enthusiasts.
• Biology Is Technology: The Promise, Peril, and New Business of Engineering Life — He offers a uniquely informed perspective on the endeavors that contribute to current progress in this area--the science of biological systems and the technology used to manipulate them. 
• Life at the Speed of Light: From the Double Helix to the Dawn of Digital Life — On May 20, 2010, headlines around the world announced one of the most extraordinary accomplishments in modern science: the creation of the world’s first synthetic lifeform. In Life at the Speed of Light, scientist J. Craig Venter, best known for sequencing the human genome, shares the dramatic account of how he led a team of researchers in this pioneering effort in synthetic genomics—and how that work will have a profound impact on our existence in the years to come. This is a fascinating and au

Discussion Forums

Journals

• BioCoder — BioCoder is a free, quarterly newsletter about biology as it moves from research labs into startup incubators, hacker spaces, and even homes. It’s about a very old programming language that we’re just beginning to understand, and that’s written in a code made up of organic chemicals. It’s the product of a sharing community of scientists that stretches from grade school to post docs and university faculty.
• Journal of Commercial Biotechnology — Please say briefly why this is an interesting article
• Nature Biotechnology - SynBio Focus — The latest iteration of genetic engineering offers the prospect of the design and construction of new life forms from biological parts, devices and systems. Although still in its infancy, this focus discusses some of the progress in synthetic biology toward practical applications.

LinkedIn Groups

Press Coverage

• How to speak about SynBio? — This explains well the pitfalls and general public perception to the SynBio. Though there are some things they say which sound wired to me.

Videos

• CrispR Simpleshow
• iGEM Team Documentation — A synthetic biology documentary by Kelly Neaves and Dominic Rees-Roberts, following the Imperial College IGEM team (International Genetically Engineered Machine), as they discover how to engineer bacteria to perform specific tasks, and consider the implications of their work.
• Interview with Andrew Hessel — Please say briefly why this is an interesting video
• Utopia — Spoiler-Alert: Utopia is a story constructed around a mad scientist, who wants to save the world from overpopulation by releasing a engineered, deadly flu virus. A vaccine produced by a huge cooperation can stop this flu, however this one is constructed to make people infertile and thus stop the population growth.