The new new thing (synthetic biology)
It’s fairly clear that nanotechnology is no longer the new new thing. A recent story in Business Week – Nanotech Disappoints in Europe
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Biotechnology
Engineered Virus Attacks Bacteria
Scientists have engineered viruses to attack and destroy mega-colonies of potentially harmful bacteria called biofilms. The work is one of the latest potential
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The Case Against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering
Three years ago in The Atlantic, the Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel wrote a critique of genetic engineering titled “The Case Against Perfection.” Now
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Cell-transistor interface clears biolectronics hurdle
PORTLAND, Ore. — Researchers at the Max Planck Institute (Munich, Germany) have developed a cell-transistor interface that they believe will usher in a
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Brain Boosters
Two days from now I’m planning to further tweak my mind by taking a brain-boost pill. Called Provigil, it differs from its predecessors
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Human therapeutic cloning moves closer to reality
Human therapeutic cloning has moved one step closer to reality. Stem cells have been extracted from cloned monkey embryos for the first time
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Craig Venter succeeds in ‘genome transplant’
Call it bacterial alchemy: using a “genome transplant”, researchers have turned one species of bacterium into another. The transformation is the latest feat
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The Ideal Gene Delivery Vector: Chromallocytes, Cell Repair Nanorobots for Chromosome Replacement Therapy
The ultimate goal of nanomedicine is to perform nanorobotic therapeutic procedures on specified individual cells comprising the human body. This paper reports the
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Molecular holograms are coming into focus
3D images of individual molecules may soon be possible thanks to a breakthrough in holography by Swiss scientists. The technique would be useful
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Patent sought on ‘synthetic life’
Scientists working to build a life form from scratch have applied to patent the broad method they plan to use to create their
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