Programming DNA : Basics -- One Hour Video

This talk will introduce current best practice in biological engineering, including an overview of how to order synthetic DNA and how to use and contribute standard biological parts to an open source collection of genetic functions. The talk will also discuss issues of human practice, including biological safety, biological security, ownership, sharing, and innovation in biotechnology, community organization, and perception across many different publics.

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If you do not have a technical background, this video may require more than one viewing to get an understanding of most of the basics.

H/T Biosingularity

Once you start to get a feeling for what can be done, what cannot be done--but will be done soon, what cannot be done--and will probably never be done . . . etc., you will begin to understand that a trillion dollars a year is being spent to wage and defend against the last millenium's weaponry.

When the technology described in this video (along with advanced nanotechnology) begins to kick in, all bets will be off. It will be easier for a motivated lone fanatic to commit mass mayhem and murder than it is for you to open a bank account.

In Israel they have bomb shelters and gas masks, because they understand their bad neighbors' tendencies and unneighborly wishes.

We in the west live in a public society, where much is shared commonly. We take such public activity and openness for granted, and assume it is our right. An occasional workplace, school, or shopping mall shooting does not dampen our naive expectation of safety in the public sphere. The new terrorism, when this technology matures, will not allow us this easy confidence. No security force or agency in the world is prepared.

Information about Adventures in Synthetic Biology comic here. Full pdf of Adventures in Synthetic Biology. To view the Adventures in Synthetic Biology Comic go here.