
Blogging cells tell their stories using CRISPR gene editing - brahmwg
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2090527-blogging-cells-tell-their-stories-using-crispr-gene-editing/?utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=SOC&utm_campaign=hoot&cmpid=SOC%7CNSNS%7C2016-GLOBAL-hoot
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mmastrac
Biotech is "borrowing" a few tricks from embedded development. Trying to get
an LED to light up to prove your code is running - similar to what they've
done with triggering fluorescing genes. This is sort of like writing sentinel
values when interrupt routines get called and reading them out after the fact.

Once you have these tools in place, building the fundamental blocks to bring a
system up is much easier.

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jerf
Yes, when I first saw the fluorescing genes, I couldn't help but think "Ah,
they're up to printf debugging. Awesome." (No sarcasm. It is awesome.)

Genetics strikes me as a lot like computer vision or AI. A lot of really wild
promises about 20-30 years too early, then when the real stuff starts to
happen everyone is long since tired of all the hype.... but that's when the
real stuff starts to happen.

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daemonk
I work in bioinformatics and have a reasonable amount of experience in the
lab. In my perspective, scientific fields like computer science and biology
progress in opposite directions. We are starting to see the intersection of
the progression.

In computer science, a strong artificial foundation is built and we abstract
from that foundation to get complex and useful results. In life sciences, we
have the complex results and we are trying to reduce it to get at the
foundational elements.

Computer science fields like computer vision or neuro-networks are progressing
towards complexity that biologists might regularly see in their research. And
genome editing technologies are progressing towards the fundamental building
blocks computer scientists might normally expect in a system.

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CoryG89
So like console.log for cellular biology?

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astazangasta
Except the only thing you can log is '.'

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Joof
Is there a reasonable way to start playing with crispr? Can I order stuff to
do it with?

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patall
Sure, you can do it. Many things are available on Addgene or a friendly
researcher might share genetic material. You still need lab equipment, so you
need either a public science lab or quite a bit of money.

