Biotechnology
“What if a technology's safeguards could directly enhance its capabilities to address our global problems? Ironically, this may be the case for one of the most feared and misunderstood advancements in recent years: biotechnology.” — George Church
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On Discovering Life
March 14, 2011
Two separate quests, one to discover habitable worlds, the other to synthesize artificial organisms, now unite to redefine “life” and its place in the universe.
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On Biotechnology Without Borders
March 03, 2011
Biologists have become engineers of the living world. By making their bioengineered solutions to global problems openly available, we can transform the developing world.
biotechnology, commons, development, engineering, global reset, information
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On Curing Everything
March 02, 2011
Nobel Prize-winning chemist Kary Mullis offers a radical new way to treat infectious diseases as the effectiveness of our current antibiotics wanes.
biotechnology, disease, global reset, health, medicine, research
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The Silk Renaissance
September 17, 2010
From its origins in the Far East thousands of years ago, silk has now infiltrated the realm of scientific research, offering breakthrough applications that could change the world.
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Ebbs and Flows
August 27, 2010
Alien-yet-familiar worlds are discovered around distant stars, extreme weather batters the Earth, stimulus spending energizes renewables, and the stem-cell debate reignites.
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Slippery Cellularities
June 21, 2010
Synthetic biology can mean reconstructing organisms, redesigning biology, or recreating life—and each of these uses has different implications.
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The Stunning Diversity of Plants
February 22, 2010
Kirsten Bomblies, MacArthur genius and Harvard biology professor, answers our 10 questions, discussing the immune system of plants and how young scientists can keep inspiration alive.
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Life Imitating Life
January 28, 2010
Life, as the expression goes, isn’t always pretty. But with a few tricks of the lab, life in its simplest, single-celled forms can be manipulated into a thing of preternatural beauty.
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Everything Is Illuminated
December 03, 2009
Martin Chalfie, the Nobelist who helped transform biology with a glowing protein, talks with us about his lab and his favorite animal—the roundworm.
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Benign by Design
November 24, 2009
With toxic compounds turning up in animals, food, and people all over the world, scientists are calling for green chemistry: a sustainable ethos of product design.
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Hair Raiser
November 20, 2009
Malcolm Gladwell and Steven Pinker duel over balancing scientific rigor with relatable narrative, while the future of personal genomics goes under the microscope.
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A Natural Obsession
October 26, 2009
Organic foods are exploding in popularity. But fears of biotechnology—and a widespread mistrust of science—won’t help efforts to create a truly sustainable agriculture.
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Folding Our Way to a Revolution
October 12, 2009
With a few strands of nucleic acids and some ingenious programming, DNA origami is remaking nanotechnology, from drug delivery to chip design.
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Blueprinting Biology
September 28, 2009
Scientists develop a visual language for mapping biological systems that they hope will become “the circuit diagrams of biology.”
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Monkey See, Monkey Juice
September 18, 2009
An elegant gene therapy trial “cures” colorblindness in monkeys and new film about Darwin attempts to drum up some controversy.
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The Rorschach Paintings
August 18, 2009
In creating her new series, Pareidolia, artist and chemist Vesna Jovanovic detected biomorphic and medical forms in blots of ink.
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Cash for Eggs
July 22, 2009
There should be no question about researchers paying for egg donations.
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New York’s Stem Cell Coup
July 22, 2009
Now that new national stem cell guidelines are in place, New York’s recent policy shift could make it the stem cell capital of the country.
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Scientific Flip-Flop
June 18, 2009
Five experts debate the roots of GM opposition, the role of big agribusiness, and whether we’ve achieved real scientific consensus.
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What the Cow Genome Tells Us
June 08, 2009
The recent sequencing of the bovine genome will dramatically transform more than just the cattle industry.
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Light Mind Control
May 18, 2009
Light-sensitive proteins from algae illuminate the brain, providing a more sophisticated view of neural circuitry.
biotechnology, cognition, neuroscience, research, synthetic biology
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After the Fall
April 02, 2009
Alexis Rockman’s latest exhibit portrays a psychedelic, posthuman natural world where our failings horrify but ultimately inspire us.
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Design and Being Just
March 23, 2009
At some point during the show, VL started growing too fast. It was time to stop it. But did that mean killing it?
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Scientific Integrity and Stem Cells
March 12, 2009
President Obama signs two key documents to help ensure America's continued global leadership in scientific discoveries.
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Getting Our Nitrogen Fix
March 04, 2009
Our ability to pull nitrogen from the air fed a growing human population. Can 21st century biotechnology refine the process while reducing environmental impact?
Now on SEEDMAGAZINE.COM
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Ideas
I Tried Almost Everything Else
John Rinn, snowboarder, skateboarder, and “genomic origamist,” on why we should dumpster-dive in our genomes and the inspiration of a middle-distance runner.
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Ideas
Going, Going, Gone
The second most common element in the universe is increasingly rare on Earth—except, for now, in America.
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Ideas
Earth-like Planets Aren’t Rare
Renowned planetary scientist James Kasting on the odds of finding another Earth-like planet and the power of science fiction.
