Name: Biology is technology
ISBN: 9780674035447

Biology is technology

"Technology is a Process and a body of knowledge as much as a collection of artifacts. Biology is no different - and we are just beginning to comprehend the challenges inherent in the next stage of biology as a human technology. It is this critical moment, with its wide-ranging implications, that Robert Carlson considers in Biology Is Technology. He offers a uniquely informed perspective on the endeavors that contribute to current progress in this area - the science of biological systems and the technology used to manipulate them." "In a number of case studies, Carlson demonstrates that the development of new mathematical, computational, and laboratory tools will facilitate the engineering of biological artifacts - up to and including organisms and ecosystems. Exploring how this will happen, with reference to past technological advances, he explains how objects are constructed virtually, tested using sophisticated mathematical models, and finally constructed in the real world." "Such rapid increases in the power, availability, and application of biotechnology raise obvious questions about who gets to use it, and to what end. Carlson's thoughtful analysis offers rare insight into our choices about how to develop biological technologies and how these choices will determine the pace and effectiveness of innovation as a public good."--Jacket.

What Hacker News says

billswiftAug 2011

There is a problem with patent thickets in pharmaceuticals and biotech interfering with innovation, see Carlson's book Biology Is Technology for a good discussion of the problems there. A better alternative for pharmaceuticals may be for whoever puts it through trials to get a patent or license since that is by far the most expensive part for drugs. To an extent that is what has been happening with biotech startups inventing possible pharmaceuticals then their being purchased by large companies that develop them further and run the trials. If you are interested in drug development, http://pipeline.corante.com/ is an interesting blog to follow.

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billswiftApr 2011

This is a review of a book about biohackers by a journalist. If you want a better take on it read Rob Carlson's Biology Is Technology, http://www.amazon.com/Biology-Technology-Promise-Business-En..., and his website http://www.synthesis.cc/ , including for example, Garage Biology in Silicon Valley from a year ago, http://www.synthesis.cc/2010/03/garage-biology-in-silicon-va....

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JustinSeriouslyDec 2010

Politics and current affairs

Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime. By John Heilemann and Mark Halperin

The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama. By David Remnick

The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers. By Richard McGregor

Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory. By Peter Hessler

Molotovâs Magic Lantern: A Journey in Russian History. By Rachel Polonsky

Curfewed Night: One Kashmiri Journalistâs Frontline Account of Life, Love and War in his Homeland. By Basharat Peer

The Fear: The Last Days of Robert Mugabe. By Peter Godwin

The Watchers: The Rise of Americaâs Surveillance State. By Shane Harris

The Rule of Law. By Tom Bingham

The Pinch: How the Baby Boomers Took Their Childrenâs Futureâand Why They Should Give it Back By David Willetts

Biography and memoir

The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance. By Edmund de Waal

Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Familyâs Feuds. By Lyndall Gordon

Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) With Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes. By Stephen Sondheim

The Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece.By Eric Siblin

History

Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin. By Timothy Snyder

Why the West RulesâFor Now: The Patterns of History and What They Reveal About the Future. By Ian Morris

Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962. By Frank Dikotter

Red Plenty: Industry! Progress! Abundance! Inside the Fifties' Soviet Dream. By Francis Spufford

A World on Fire: An Epic History of Two Nations Divided. By Amanda Foreman

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of Americaâs Great Migration. By Isabel Wilkerson

Pearl Buck in China: Journey to the Good Earth. By Hilary Spurling

A History of the World in 100 Objects. By Neil MacGregor

Economics and business

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. By Michael Lewis

More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of the New Elite. By Sebastian Mallaby

High Financier: The Lives and Time of Siegmund Warburg. By Niall Ferguson

Science and technology

A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming. By Paul Edwards

Biology is Technology: The Promise, Peril, and New Business of Engineering Life. By Rob Carlson

The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves. By Matt Ridley

Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation. By Steven Johnson

What Technology Wants. By Kevin Kelly

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. By Siddhartha Mukherjee

Culture, society and travel

Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages. By Guy Deutscher

Sweetness and Blood: How Surfing Spread from Hawaii and California to the Rest of the World, With Some Unexpected Results. By Michael Scott Moore

Showtime: A History of the Broadway Musical Theatre. By Larry Stempel

McGilchristâs Greek Islands. By Nigel McGilchrist

Fiction

Freedom. By Jonathan Franzen

To the End of the Land. By David Grossman

Parrot and Olivier in America. By Peter Carey

The Unnamed. By Joshua Ferris

Mr Peanut. By Adam Ross

The Imperfectionists. By Tom Rachman

Selected Stories. By William Trevor

Poetry

Human chain. By Seamus Heaney

White Egrets: Poems. By Derek Walcott

(lets hear it for perl one-liners.)

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jayunitAug 2012

> Does anyone have any good ideas on how we might mitigate the negative consequences of this technology? (...) The genie is definitely already out of the bottle so I guess the only solution is better defences.

Agreed. Rob Carlson [1] argues in "Biology is Technology" [2] that regulation can't form an effective means to mitigate threats by limiting access to skills or materials, and that we should instead invest in the ability to develop rapid responses.

Further, he argues that the costs imposed by regulation on skill and material acquisition would weight most heavily on small firms, where most of the industry's innovation originates, thus slowing the very progress we need.

I highly recommend the book, as a review of recent (as of 2010ish) SB developments, comparison to other engineering disciplines, and for a treatment of how the regulatory/IP landscape could best support innovation in biotech.

[1] http://www.synthesis.cc/ [2] http://www.amazon.com/Biology-Is-Technology-Business-Enginee...

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