Comments on: 24C3 Hacking DNA

By: Sheila Wells

Sheila Wells — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:39:13 +0000

Respectable information, many thanks to the author. It is unexplainable to me now, but in general, the usefulness and significance is strong. Thanks again and good luck!

By: Ugotmyip

Ugotmyip — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 04:09:02 +0000

This is a really interesting growing and expanding field that now seems to be researched only by private investigation centers and colleges but in the near future with the democratization of dna pcr and related technologies will be open to anyone with an average knowledge of basic biology and higher level of programming biological “structures” (u can look it at the function level, the kind of receptors,…),…
It seems that true nanotechnology is available now in the form of programmable biological viruses

By: eruditorum

eruditorum — Sun, 25 May 2008 21:15:53 +0000

There is an enlightening talk on this at TED talks:
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/227

Seems to be a good intro to what's currently going on in the field.

By: capworks

capworks — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 05:15:34 +0000

ZZZZZZ…
Dream on Reality hacks. Efforts to change your DNA source code will probably result in plaguing the entire biosphere (planet earth) with renegade reproducting viral infections. Major problem here is: there’s so many variables in the code that you’ll never be able to firewall yourselves from these viruses – and they won’t be virutual – it’ll be too late once they are unleashed.

By: Suraj

Suraj — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 11:52:21 +0000

I wonder what RMS would have to say on synbio :)

Maybe he'd go onto create the GAS project, for GAS Ain't Synbio because some mega corporation will have a copyright on the term Synbio itself ;)

Will there be perl modules to create bacteria? Anyhow, when I get some slack money to throw around, I'll register dnaforge.net ;)

By: Chris Hayes

Chris Hayes — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 23:36:03 +0000

I know to techies tinkering with everything is the ultimate joy. However do consider the effects, and I do not mean just reading Isaac Asimov stories.

http://geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=3204

By: AF

AF — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 19:22:15 +0000

I’d just like to quote Adam Smith in response to some of the posts here about “greedy corporations” and other sentiments of ridiculous anti-market bias:

“By pursuing his own interest an individual frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the publick good.”

His book (yes, book! not an internet blurb!) and Caplan’s “The myth of the rational voter” are recommended reading for people who read this blog: the very intelligent, noble, and righteous, steeped in unenlightened economics thinking.

By: Johnny B. Goode

Johnny B. Goode — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:32:56 +0000

I was thinking the exact same thing duran, very bioshock-esque.

As far as concerns about certain types of people being able to create genetic weapons, or even accidentally make some form of mutated virus/bacterial strain I'm really not that worried. For one we have to take into account that this happens in nature to a certain extent. Secondly we as a species have already done this with things like the introduction of antibiotics, their widespread use is theorized as the reason for new AB resistant bacterial strains.

My biggest reason for not being worried is because of the people who already do this sort of research. There's a professor(I believe of some type of bio science[it's been a while since I read this article]) at UT@Austin, who is a proponent of wiping out the human race to restore the earth to a "natural" state. With guys like that already in the business, why would I be worried about some "hacker" who just wants to be able to shoot fire and lightning from his hands?

By: Duran

Duran — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 05:50:16 +0000

does this remind anyone else of bioshock?

By: Glyph

Glyph — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:43:25 +0000

Script kiddies making Ebola is pretty scary. The next school massacre could be a lot worse. The kid who killed the world because he got picked on. The safety precaution mentioned in the talk of having synthesis labs think about what they are sending out will work in the near term as long as you put controls on owning DNA synthesizers. Right now you can order them on e-bay though. All that said, fortune favors the bold and I don’t think we should let the risk of our extinction intimidate us, the rewards are as big as the risk.

By: J

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 08:46:30 +0000

Biological hacking creates the risk of infection and epidemics because of the mutations that result through genetic evolution. This field should not be compared to computer hacking and discussed in such a playful manner. Genetic research is important, but must have limits or there will be manufactured diseases and genetic pollution everywhere. BT corn is already prevalent in corn for human consumption. Remember the Taco Bell corn shells with BT corn? It’s in a whole lot more foods now.

By: jack

jack — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 01:13:22 +0000

lol… he has an enjoi shirt on

By: clank-o-tron

clank-o-tron — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 00:55:15 +0000

@dave:
“There was a book about neuro-linguistic hacking published some years back that really grabbed me.”

That was Snow Crash. (SPOILERS) Someone essentially figured out the verbal machine languange of humans and used it to write a ‘virus’.

By: jojmoj

jojmoj — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 23:08:25 +0000

great talk loved it lol

it still seems a little bizarre to try and put copyright and restriction on something as essential and universal as DNA though, although the points he made about regulations and legal point of interception seemed valid

seriously is you havent watched the video its great

there should be more of this kind of hackers/science collaboration, especially in the engineering/biosciences sector

top notch article :)

By: Noodle

Noodle — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 04:30:01 +0000

Open source trees ftw :P.