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Hacking Biology
taatacgactc writes: "DARPA (DoD) is now supporting the development of a SPICE equivalent for biological circuits (aka BioSPICE). Best of all, it's to be "open source". Given the hyperexponential improvement in biological technology and the bioengineering efforts getting off the ground, fun stuff should be happening. Of course, there is the "dark side"." More information here. The submitter may be overstating the bit about "open source": the proposal says "All software developed as a part of the program will be open, in the sense that program performers and other DARPA authorized users will have the right to view, use, modify, and distribute code within the program authorized community. All derived works including revision, enhancement, modification, translation, abridgement and expansion of code will also remain open in this sense. ... The DARPA Director reserves the right to approve and exercise licensing arrangements depending on the context and the relevance to national security."
Definitely a good point, but I wouldn't underestimate the usefulness of simply being able to sequence better.
DNA Sequences alone can be/are useful for a lot of different research. Archaeologists and Anthropologists can use DNA sequences to help determine, for example, the relationship of one population to another and/or help trace migration of a population. Medical types can not only check for genetic diseases, but could also use DNA sequences to quickly check the identity of a pathogenic organism, if the sequencing technology becomes readily available enough. (Running a few PCR cycles is still much faster than trying to isolate and culture a pathogen from a swab). Zoologists and Paleontologists can use DNA sequences for similar purposes to what I mentioned for anthropologists and archaeologists, and can be handy for environmental research.
Until we understand the *function* of the proteins that are derived from these genes, all biotechnology can do is recombine the already existing technologies.Again, this is true...but don't forget that "recombining already existing technologies" can be pretty powerful and useful all by itself. (Heck, "recombining existing technologies" is, basically, a fundamental design principle of Unix-based systems, isn't it? I know MY Unix-based systems are extremely useful... I love my "|" key...)
I'm confident we'll be getting plenty of use out of DNA while we work on the harder problems of protein functions and chemistry
P.S. Thanks for reminding me...I've been meaning to download the folding@home client and throw some of my meager computing resources at helping out...
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I don't think it has been proven that knowing the
genome or pronome "code" allows to to manipulate
life to a serious degree.
Sure there have been results in some genetic
diseases, franken-food, and bio-identity.
But serious bio-hacking may require more than
just information sequences.
Jaron Lanier's recent "Half a manifesto" suggests
that information may not explain everything
and other aspects of reality may be acting there.
John Searle, the Berkeley philosopher has a similar
complaint toeards those who try to digitally emulate the mind.
Thinking that "information manipulation" explains
and controls everything may limit our understanding
of phenomena and ability to control it.
Don't get locked into this box.
Remember, DARPA are the folks who came up with DARPANET, which begat the Internet, which begat the Web, which begat /. and many other wonderful things. Mindless paranoia just because the military is involved would mean turning our back on a whole lot of very cool things. And when it comes to biotech, it's not just cool; it may very well be the thing that saves your life somewhere down the line. (In a related vein, e.g., anyone who's been in a serious accident any time in the lastt few decades has the military to thank for their care, because the modern EMS system is the direct descendant of the military medevac system, which was first developed in its modern form in Korea and was perfected in Vietnam.) Yeah, it's perfectly reasonable about the government doing Eeevil Things with the knowledge -- but on the whole I'm a lot _more_ worried about cancer and diabetes and heart disease and AIDS and all the other killer diseases which may be cured with the knowledge this project creates.
Also, as a former military medic (and current biotech worker) I can tell you that the military is often _directly_ interested in doing good things for people, not just seeing spin-off benefits (e.g., the way the personal computer can trace its lineage directly back to NASA and the USAF.) The military population -- active duty, retirees, and family members -- constitutes a large, diverse patient population with health problems ranging from arthritis to (obviously) bullet wounds. DARPA, USUHS, and other military research institutions have a strong and legitimate interest in medical advances -- which will first help soldiers, and then their families, but which will inevitably propagate to civilian medicine as well.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
Apparently many people are not familiar with electronics.
SPICE is a program used in electrical engineering to simulate electrical circuits. As with any other simulation, it can be used to evaluate correctness, find logical and physical failures, test performance, find bottlenecks, verify timing properties, and other things.
The submitter may be overstating the bit about "open source": the proposal says "All software developed as a part of the program will be open, in the sense that program performers and other DARPA authorized users will have the right to view, use, modify, and distribute code within the program authorized community
Whew. The last thing we want is a bunch of B10-5kr1pt k1dd135 running around h4x0ring the neibourhood pets...
/bluesninja
just for your information
Rating the advances in biotechnology simply by looking at DNA sequencing improvements is not very smart..
We will not advance in understanding biology by simply looking at genes. That is like deciphering german ENIGMA codes, only to find out that you don't speak german. At the moment the advances are made in protein function (very difficult, and relatively slow progression).
Until we understand the *function* of the proteins that are derived from these genes, all biotechnology can do is recombine the already existing technologies.
If an experiment works, something has gone wrong.
Just wait till you get sued by the RIAA et all for having a program in your bodily fluids that extracts and decrypts DVDs ....
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Court: You are hereby ordered to cease and desist any and all Semen production. Failure to do so will result ...