Adam Bluestein

DARPA Puts $30 Million into “Living Foundries”

adblue — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:13:42 +0000

DARPA has aleady been investing selectively in academic synthetic biology projects. This is a big new investment that should give a boost to research across the field. Science Insider reports that the first phase of the Living Foundries efforts “will support work that advances the tools needed to make synthetic biology more efficient and cheaper” — namely, the ability to generate synthetic DNA more cheaply and quickly. That should benefit researchers broadly. A second planned phase of the project will focus on integrating these foundational advances into new bio-production processes. One can only imagine what sort of “useful products” the big brains at DARPA are imagining this technology might one day produce. The story on Science Insider also discusses NASA-funded research aimed at using synthetic biology to terraform the Moon or Mars.

Rats!

adblue — Thu, 19 May 2011 16:38:07 +0000

Check out the June issue of Fast Company for my story on SAGE Labs, a division of Sigma-Aldrich, and their groundbreaking work engineering rats for medical research. Rabbits, pigs, and even monkeys are next. Sigma also recently announced plans for the commercial development of genetically engineered silkworms that spin high-strength spider silk, for which there is growing demand in medical and industrial applications. Between Sigma and Monsanto, headquartered nearby, there’s a strong case to be made for St. Louis as the unlikely center of post-natural evolution today.

This Is Your Art on Drugs

adblue — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 20:53:06 +0000

This slide show from the Good website documents work by artist Bryan Lewis Saunders, who for years has been executing rather intriguing self portraits while under the influence of various illicit drugs and prescription pharmaceuticals, and combinations thereof. Below, cocaine. Yikes!

A Life of Their Own

adblue — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 20:43:36 +0000

Autonomous, kinetic beach creatures — strandebeests – constructed by Dutch artist Theo Jansen, from a new BBC One show called Wallace & Gromit’s World of Invention. Wow, wow, wow.

What Is a Hackerspace?

adblue — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 21:29:04 +0000

Hard to say exactly, but “you know when you’re in one,” says Mitch Altman of Noisebridge in San Francisco’s Mission District. They have one rule: Be excellent to each other. Video by KQED Quest, via Boing Boing.

The Art and Craft of Real Chinese Noodles

adblue — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 16:18:46 +0000

Now I’m hungry. Great article from New York Times food section today. Cool video at Times’ site.

Let There Be Light

adblue — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 16:33:50 +0000

The new issue of MIT’s Technology Review includes this proposed design for Shenzen Airport in China, an example of the sort of undulating biomorphic structure made possible by parametric design software. This beautiful digital rendering is by New york architecture firm Reiser + Umemoto.

Space Biology

adblue — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 14:04:58 +0000

Craig Venter discusses biological tool kits for future space exploration and more in this recent talk at NASA Ames Center.

Update: Previous link was changed to password-protected. This video works for now, though is not as good quality.

A Place in the Trees

adblue — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 16:03:02 +0000

Amazing writing studio, for a writer who’s doing rather well for herself, I’d say. Gorgeous.

Private Library from A Space In Time on Vimeo.

iGem 2010

adblue — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:48:45 +0000

Another interesting iGem event this year, which will be the last super-sized jamboree held at MIT. Starting next year, iGem director Randy Rettberg announced during his introductory remarks, iGem will consist of several regional events, with winners going on to compete in a smaller final event in Cambridge. Charlie Schick and I spoke with Randy about the reasoning behind this tough decision, which I’ll discuss in a later post.

For now, just a couple notes on “trends” at this year’s event: (1) A continuing push into biological chassis beyond E. coli and the few other usual suspects — several teams this year worked in plants (including Harvard’s terrific iGarden project), and at least one team developed some new tools for working in worms. (2) Better, flashier “marketing” of projects — including video and other multimedia and more plain English explanations of the work — and a growing interest in the intersection of art and design with pure science. (See also Synthetic Aesthetics, a pre-iGem event that included iGemmers like Christina Agapakis, as well as rock stars such as Drew Endy.)

Art from Team Bangalore

Will post much more soon, but here, the “plain English” video produced by this year’s winning team from Slovenia. Also, check out Charlie Schick’s compilation of links to other team videos.