Did Craig Venter create life?
There has been a huge amount of media attention and a torrent of breathless commentary concerning Craig Venter’s recent publication, “Creation of a Bacterial Cell Controlled by a Chemically Synthesized Genome”.
Much of the fuss stems from the assertion that the Venter group has created synthetic life – created a new living organism from inert materials. Is this really true?
DNA Part II, courtesy of Toronto
One surprising finding from the Human Genome Project was that our genome is of a relatively modest size compared to some lowly organisms (e.g. the marbled lungfish and the amoeba Polychaos dubium have genomes 40-200 times the size of ours). How is it that we can make do with a fraction of the genes of these more simple species? We are important after all!
Driven by gene envy, scientists the world over have tried to figure out just how we can generate sufficient complexity from such a (ahem) puny genome.
Canada to the rescue! The results of a pivotal research study that sheds light on this puzzle has recently been published in Nature. The work was conducted at the University of Toronto by a team led by Ben Blencowe and Brendan Frey.
3D for the masses
How would you like to play a 3D video game with your family as the main characters? Or how about walking around a 3D virtual city of Toronto that shows all the details of the city as you know it?
Sound like technology that you’d expect in the next 15 to 20 years? Thanks to award-winning Toronto start-up Verold, we may have to only wait a few years to get there.
Got a computer? Help map space
“Contribute to real science by helping classify galaxies with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey’s Galaxy Zoo.”
In March, a world record was set for the most explosive man-made collision between two particles (3.5 TeV for all you physicists). Such experiments, conducted at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, are expected to yield valuable insights into the early moments of our Universe.
The LHC has heralded some other firsts, namely the first paper authored by over 1000 people. The paper represents a new way of conducting science that allows for unprecedented, rapid collaboration.
BIO: A close-up on the biotech industry
Just got back from the 2010 BIO International Convention in Chicago – the Superbowl of the biotech industry.
Last year’s BIO was a decidedly gloomy affair as investment dropped to levels not seen since the mid-90s, but this year there was a cautiously optimistic tone as the industry adapts to the “new normal” of capital constraints.
Here are some take home messages from the event.
