Jigsaw Codex

5 hours ago

Recombineering/Lambda red-mediated gene replacement (via Openwetware)

I had a bit of talk with Tom Knight with DIY-ing a minimal cell. According to him this is the process to watch out for if I’m doing top-to-bottom approach.

2 days ago

-via smbc-comics

3 days ago

ofxOpenCL for openFrameworks 1M Particle Demo

1 week ago

Ares I-X going transonic.

via http://dsc.discovery.com/space/big-pic/ares-i-x-launch-transonic.html

Looking at the space program in and outside of NASA these days (CoLabs, $8000 tube sats, and etc.) makes me think about how diybio came to be. There were diy movements in both aerospace/electronics and biology around the same time yet diy-biology tend to get more media spotlight, which translates into more funding. There are numerous labs dedicated to synthetic biology, not so for low cost space launch platform. It’s not really a cost issue… Launching a semi-decent LEO object costs about a thousand US dollars, much less if you’re willing to do some hacking. Real LEO satellite costs $8000 US which include the price of launch platform and all the logistics necessary. So why the discrepancy? Are we just rats caught in accidents of history we can only dimly comprehend?

1 week ago