Hacking the President’s DNA
Almost a year ago, I collaborated with Future Crimes visionary Marc Goodman and bestselling author and writer Steven Kotler to speculate how the advances in personalized medicine could be co-opted for less than altruistic purposes. We submitted the article to the Atlantic Magazine. The article appears in November 2012 issue, on your newsstand now. (Here’s the online...
Synthetic Biology Scorecard
In December 2010, the Obama administration published New Directions: The Ethics of Synthetic Biology and Emerging Technologies, a report from the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. Within the document were recommendations aimed to minimize risks from the technology while ensuring that social and economic benefits are realized. It suggested revisiting the topic...
Biology and Military Funding: A bad mix?
The field of synthetic biology got a big shot of adrenaline last summer when Alicia Jackson of DARPA, the Q-branch of the US military, at the SB5.0 conference held at Stanford, announced program called Living Foundries aiming to speed the development of new tools for the field. I attended the Living Foundries Industry Day held...
First Bird Flu human case since 2010 leads to death
Bird Flu is back in the news. First scientists report work to make it spread more easily in human populations, sparking a debate on scientific censorship, now the first reported case since 2010 appears in China. The man, surnamed Chen, fell ill shortly before Christmas and was diagnosed with pneumonia. He tested positive for H5N1,...
US Biosafety Board Asks Journals to Censor Details on Virus Work
For the first time ever, a government advisory board is asking scientific journals not to publish the details of certain biomedical experiments, for fear that the information could be used by terrorists to create deadly viruses and touch off epidemics. Full article at the New York Times. The article describes work that was done to...
Biological Weapons Under Review
Biological Weapons Under Review at the BTWC The Seventh Review Conference of the Biological and Toxins Weapons Convention (BTWC) is currently underway in Geneva, Switzerland, through December 22. At this meeting, countries are discussing a range of issues concerning the BTWC, which is one of two treaties that govern efforts by the international community to...
