[Scottish] Edlug tomorrow: Synthetic Biology, Free Software and Everything

[Dan Shearer]

Hello all,

Tomorrow night at Edlug Alistair Marshall will be presenting on
"Synthetic Biology". I had the opportunity of seeing this talk elsewhere
and can highly recommend it. Biological Engineering goes where Computer
Science never boldly went, but the analogies and crossovers are
startling, as are the legal and ethical dilemmas. Every bug is a wee
beastie, and they are actually building real machines today. Nifty.

Usual Edlug place, refreshments and good company and those who choose to
find a local watering hole afterwards.  Faye has updated the talk page,
where you'll find all the details:

   http://www.scotlug.org.uk/wiki/EdlugMeetings

and adds: "Some of us will meet at the Auld Hoose for food first.
Afterwards we'll repair to Mai Thai bar/restaurant."

Alistair's blurb:

Whilst this may not initially sound like this has much to do with Linux 
and open source code, however there are many similarities.

Genetic engineering is now at the stage where we can manipulate 
individual bits of DNA, so instead of programing with 1&0s we are 
programing with 'base pairs' or A, C, G and Ts. The possibilities of 
this are seemingly unlimited. imagine planting a seed and coming back a 
year later to see your dream house made out of a tree with excellent 
insulation, heating and utilities already in place or making a bacteria 
that will sit on your skin and produce sun screen when impacted with UV 
light.

This emerging science has is in a unique position of learning from the 
computer open source revolution. The ability to program individual bits 
of DNA is only a few years old and so new standards have to be made and 
refined, new 'devices' are being produced and published in a public 
registry. This licencing decisions being made now and in the next few 
years will have major effects on the science in future.

I am an engineering student at the university and am taking part in the 
IGem (International Genetically Engineered Machines) competition over 
the summer.

Alistair Marshall

---

do go there please leave in time to reach the venue.

----

Afterwards we'll repair to Mai Thai bar/restaurant.
Special thanks to Joe Barnett for arranging this.

www.mai-thai.co.uk

-- 
Yours
Faye

This time she's the lesser of two evils.

http://www.morpheux.org





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-- 
Dan Shearer
dan at shearer.org