5 ms·

So you created a living organism engineered to produce a specific molecule for an intended use?

10 points by pierrefar 19y ago

timr 19y ago
What amazes me about this, is not the science (old news; undergrads are doing this stuff today, and I imagine a fair number of his bio-science readers were yawning at the description), but the fact that he's so shocked about it. Much of the described method relies on technology that is 10-20 years old. Has biomedical research done such a poor job of marketing itself that people are basically clueless about what's possible, or is this just another example of routine technological illiteracy?
- mechanical_fish 19y ago
  This is the tragic fate of scientists and technologists. You work like a dog for your whole life to achieve a seemingly impossible goal -- eradicating polio, cloning sheep, storing the Library of Congress inside a cigar box, traveling to the moon. Against the odds, you succeed. Ten years later... everybody just yawns. Custom-designed organisms are, like, soooooo boring. What's on TV? It's like Feynman said: "Mathematicians can only prove trivial theorems, because any theorem, once proved, is trivial." And he thought he was kidding!
  - timr 19y ago
    Well, of course...taken from the broadest possible perspective, it's obviously amazing that we can engineer living things to do our bidding. Whoopty-doo. From that perspective, it's also freaking amazing that we can keep our food fresh in mechanical ice boxes, that we can flush our onesies and twosies into oblivion at the flick of a lever, and that we can fly around the sky in our giant metal birds. I don't think it's particularly unreasonable to expect people to be familiar with a technology that is almost old enough to drink.
    - mnemonicsloth 19y ago
      I'm in school now, and this is new information to me. Where do you go to learn about the envelope of what's possible in biotech? EDIT: Preferably without having to digest the whole curriculum. Also, how do I get one of those giant metal birds, and what do you feed them?
      - rms 19y ago
        http://www.biologynews.net/ http://www.biologynews.net/
      - timr 19y ago
        If you just want to read, there are a few books that are detailed, but still accessible. Any one would give you a much better understanding of what's possible: * Human Molecular Genetics by Strachan and Read -- this is a tome, but it's a great introductory reference to the field. (A lot of first-year grad students read this book when coming to molecular genetics from engineering and CS, incidentally.) * Molecular Biology of the Cell, by Alberts et al. -- an even bigger tome, but one you'll find on every researcher's bookshelf. * Genes NN by Lewin (where NN is an ever-increasing roman numeral; you can estimate the amount of time someone has been in the field by the size of the roman numeral on their copy) -- this is more of an undergraduate introduction to molecular genetics. The other books (especially MBC) are more useful as references, but this book is fairly accessible to newcomers. * Recombinant DNA by Watson et al. -- I hesitate to include this in the list, because it's now sadly outdated (written in 1992), but I still think it's one of the best-written, most accessible introductions to things like transgenics, genetic engineering, etc. Describes everything in a friendly, Scientific American style. It's also small. If you want a quick, friendly introduction to what was state-of-the-art 15 years ago, this is a great book. I know that most of these books are kind of thick, and that you said you didn't want to digest the whole curriculum, but I don't tend to read pop-science books in this field. I don't have much of an opinion on any particular popularization of molecular genetics. But if you want to gain a real understanding of molecular biology, these are the books you'd most likely be told to buy for molecular genetics 101 at your local university. PS: the giant metal birds eat Acme brand exploding bird seed, naturally....
whacked_new 19y ago
I don't get it... was this supposed to be funny?
car 19y ago
The technique described in the comic is the creation of hybridoma cells to make monoclonal antibodies. Wikipedia has a nice introduction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoclonal_antibodies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoclonal_antibodies Jerne, Koehler and Milstein got the Nobel prize for this in 1984: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1984/ http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1984/

10 points by pierrefar 19y ago

timr 19y ago

What amazes me about this, is not the science (old news; undergrads are doing this stuff today, and I imagine a fair number of his bio-science readers were yawning at the description), but the fact that he's so shocked about it. Much of the described method relies on technology that is 10-20 years old. Has biomedical research done such a poor job of marketing itself that people are basically clueless about what's possible, or is this just another example of routine technological illiteracy?

mechanical_fish 19y ago
This is the tragic fate of scientists and technologists. You work like a dog for your whole life to achieve a seemingly impossible goal -- eradicating polio, cloning sheep, storing the Library of Congress inside a cigar box, traveling to the moon. Against the odds, you succeed. Ten years later... everybody just yawns. Custom-designed organisms are, like, soooooo boring. What's on TV? It's like Feynman said: "Mathematicians can only prove trivial theorems, because any theorem, once proved, is trivial." And he thought he was kidding!
- timr 19y ago
  Well, of course...taken from the broadest possible perspective, it's obviously amazing that we can engineer living things to do our bidding. Whoopty-doo. From that perspective, it's also freaking amazing that we can keep our food fresh in mechanical ice boxes, that we can flush our onesies and twosies into oblivion at the flick of a lever, and that we can fly around the sky in our giant metal birds. I don't think it's particularly unreasonable to expect people to be familiar with a technology that is almost old enough to drink.
  - mnemonicsloth 19y ago
    I'm in school now, and this is new information to me. Where do you go to learn about the envelope of what's possible in biotech? EDIT: Preferably without having to digest the whole curriculum. Also, how do I get one of those giant metal birds, and what do you feed them?
    - rms 19y ago
      http://www.biologynews.net/ http://www.biologynews.net/
    - timr 19y ago
      If you just want to read, there are a few books that are detailed, but still accessible. Any one would give you a much better understanding of what's possible: * Human Molecular Genetics by Strachan and Read -- this is a tome, but it's a great introductory reference to the field. (A lot of first-year grad students read this book when coming to molecular genetics from engineering and CS, incidentally.) * Molecular Biology of the Cell, by Alberts et al. -- an even bigger tome, but one you'll find on every researcher's bookshelf. * Genes NN by Lewin (where NN is an ever-increasing roman numeral; you can estimate the amount of time someone has been in the field by the size of the roman numeral on their copy) -- this is more of an undergraduate introduction to molecular genetics. The other books (especially MBC) are more useful as references, but this book is fairly accessible to newcomers. * Recombinant DNA by Watson et al. -- I hesitate to include this in the list, because it's now sadly outdated (written in 1992), but I still think it's one of the best-written, most accessible introductions to things like transgenics, genetic engineering, etc. Describes everything in a friendly, Scientific American style. It's also small. If you want a quick, friendly introduction to what was state-of-the-art 15 years ago, this is a great book. I know that most of these books are kind of thick, and that you said you didn't want to digest the whole curriculum, but I don't tend to read pop-science books in this field. I don't have much of an opinion on any particular popularization of molecular genetics. But if you want to gain a real understanding of molecular biology, these are the books you'd most likely be told to buy for molecular genetics 101 at your local university. PS: the giant metal birds eat Acme brand exploding bird seed, naturally....

whacked_new 19y ago

I don't get it... was this supposed to be funny?

car 19y ago

The technique described in the comic is the creation of hybridoma cells to make monoclonal antibodies. Wikipedia has a nice introduction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoclonal_antibodies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoclonal_antibodies Jerne, Koehler and Milstein got the Nobel prize for this in 1984: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1984/ http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1984/