aphexddb.com

The first sentence in this presentation (well, other than “can I have a beer please” in German) rocks my socks off.

[Drew Endy]‘s Programming DNA talk was by far the most interesting talk we saw at Chaos Communication Congress. No, DNA doesn’t have much to do with computers, but he points out that hacking principles can be applied just the same. Right now engineers are reversing genetic code and compiling building blocks for creating completely arbitrary organisms. This talk was designed to bootstrap the hacking community so that we can start using and contributing standard biological parts to an open source collection of genetic functions.

via Hackaday

Looks like we understand a little better how to optimize our biology, check out this article on mice that are basically Lance Armstrong on crack:

The mice over-express a gene responsible for the enzyme phosphoenolypyruvate carboxykinases (PEPCK-C). Normal expression is in the liver, in the production of glucose.

The scientists found their new mice would eat twice as much as normal mice – but weigh half as much. They could also give birth at three years old – which in human terms is akin to an 80-year-old woman giving birth.

via BBC NEWS