When microbiologist Emmanuelle Charpentier and RNA expert and biochemist Jennifer Doudna met at a conference in 2011, their shared passion for science led to a profound discovery; a new technique to engineer genomes known as CRISPR-Cas9. The technological and economic revolution that ensued still reverberates through labs around the world. CRISPR-Cas9 has created a seismic shift in how science operates making genome editing fast, flexible, inexpensive and easily accessible to anyone with a modicum of lab equipment. But is CRISPR-Cas9 a bio-hacker revolution or a potential scientific nightmare? Based on a bacterial CRISPR-associated protein-9 nuclease (Cas9) from Streptococcus pyogenes, CRISPR-CAS9 allows researchers to edit parts of a genome, using the same adaptive immune system mechanism bacteria use to recognize viral DNA and trigger its destruction. The CRISPR-CAS9 kit allows sections of DNA sequences to be snipped out and replaced, giving scientists the ability to essentially mutate the DNA. Further complicating the issue are synthetic elements which can now be added to … [Read more...] about Designer DNA: Will CRISPR-Cas 9 Create a BioHacker Revolution or a Nightmare?
Future Shock: Writing Sci Fi, Drones & Paranoia
Dystopia. The word hisses off the tongue with sibilant ease, a slow slide into the dark cellar of the collective psyche. The black regimes of our fears, the fascism, the rage, the oppression which mirrors our inner shades, often realized in nightmarish reality. Conversely, Utopia sounds so hopeful, so inclusive, like a suspended note of a celestial choir. A future where technology is used compassionately to further creative pursuits, knowledge and collective awareness. What's it going to be? One of the great tasks of Science Fiction is to explore humanity in the context of earth shattering change. In the case of Ray Bradbury's Farenheit 451 with its mechanical hound or George Orwell's 1984, the startling portrait of the darker probabilities of the future, shaped the minds of a generation. The word "Big Brother" is now part of our lexicon of ideas. On the Utopian side, Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek inspired cell phones, interactive computers and has scientists noodling over the possibility of matter transfer and warp drive. Because I'm writing a dystopian novel, I … [Read more...] about Future Shock: Writing Sci Fi, Drones & Paranoia
