

A Programming Langauge for Genetic Engineering of Living Cells - silkodyssey
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/gec/

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mikedmiked
I demoed an early version of this about a year ago. It had an intuitive UI
that any biologist without programming experience could understand even back
then.

The two main time-drains for synthetic biologists are 1) Lab work creating
(which will be phased out when cheap synthesis gets going in 1-3years) and 2)
designing the sequence (which this program helps automate). So the rate of
progress in the field is definitely going to accelerate...

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seasoup
A programming language for creating living things? Developed by Microsoft?
_shudders_

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jeffbarr
The objects can be programmed to turn blue when they die. They call it the
Blue Death of Screen.

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jpatte
_Synthetic biology aims at producing novel biological systems to carry out
some desired and well-defined functions. An ultimate dream is to design these
systems at a high level of abstraction using engineering-based tools and
programming languages, press a button, and have the design translated to DNA
sequences that can be synthesised and put to work in living cells._

Why do I have a bad feeling about this? I can't help to wonder: "Will the
world necessarily be a better place when this will be possible?"

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pigbucket
I don't see this as Pandora's box, in part because we've already got that; I
think you have a bad feeling about this because you're insufficiently worried
about things that are actually really scary: cancer, heart disease, HIV,
malaria, and so on.

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jpatte
I'm actually more worried by the fate of the planet while we let the world
population explode and keep suppressing possible causes of human death. We
should first get concerned about how these trillions of people will live in a
dying world.

I sincerely hope these technologies will be used in the purpose of preventing
the planet's doom, although I'm pretty sure they will only serve for more
human selfishness, as you seem to suggest it.

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Groxx
I don't know that the super-population-explosion that people keep fearing will
really happen. For that to happen, a LOT more food will have to be created,
which implies a more prosperous world as a whole. But more highly developed
nations tend to have _negative_ growth rates.

Reducto ad absurdem (maybe), but this implies that the solution to
overpopulation is to bring the whole world's standard of living up. At which
point we slowly allow ourselves to die off.

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zebra
How do you press Ctrl-Alt-Del on a cellular level? First function for
Microsoft to implement.

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sailormoon
I am more interested in how to save memory to disk and restart...

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jared314
Down for everyone or just me?

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zitterbewegung
Just you.

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danielnicollet
Not sure I want to meet the human genetic incarnation of Windows Vista ;-)

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lkrubner
jpatte, there is absolutely no need to worry about over-population. If we
abolish all diseases and discover a method that allows biological immortality,
such that the world ends up with a lot more people then it has now, then we
will always have war, which in the past has allowed for a wonderful
restoration of lower population densities. Just think how quickly a bad
situation could be improved through the use of just a few nuclear weapons.

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what
On the creation of the first synthetic cell:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHIocNOHd7A>

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gojomo
The headline made me think of this 2002 Cory Doctorow story:

[http://www.salon.com/technology/feature/2002/08/28/0wnz0red/...](http://www.salon.com/technology/feature/2002/08/28/0wnz0red/index.html)

