Biopunk
DIY Scientists Hack the Software of Life
Marcus Wohlsen 2011 Beaverton Library 660.6 WOH
This book is interesting, but it has not aged well. Wohlsen is busy with non-writing projects, perhaps he can find a collaborator to rewrite a second edition,
- index and notes
p006 vaccines made without millions of chicken eggs, Scientific American 2004 more recent
p010 2001 anthrax attacks, likely perpetrator USAMRIID researcher Bruce Edwards Ivins
p032 one of only five non-royal British subjects ... state funeral Guardian article mentions nine, wikipedia lists 13
p041 Meredith L. Patterson https://maradydd.livejournal.com/496085.html | Biopunk Manifesto ]]
p051 ELISA enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
p062 pearlbiotech.com gel boxes, seemingly gone 2017
p065 OpenPCR thermocycler
- p072 Navbharat 151, Monsanto BT seed, Gujarati farmers crossed with other varieties to produce even better seed
- p077 2010, judge throws out Myriad Genetics patents on BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes (related to breast cancer)
p084 Andrew Hessel Pink Army Cooperative, seemingly hijacked in 2020
p100 Aubrey de Grey, dead links: scathing review response
probable links: Science fact and the SENS agenda
de Grey response: Like it or not, life-extension research extends beyond biogerontology
p102 Eri Gentry BioCurious
- p105 John Schloendorn meets researcher willing to share research cancer cells. He calls Eri Gentry from a Subway sandwich shop "Eri, Eri, I'm so excited! I have colon and prostate cancer!", disturbing other customers.
p123 Grim Sleeper serial killer traced through son's DNA
p123 cost of human genome sequence will close in on zero - no, the cost dived three orders of magnitude between 2006 ( $10M ) and 2011 ( $10K ), but has gone down "only" 20X (to $500 or so) by 2021, 35% per year. On the same graph, Moore's Law is depicted as a straight line 1000x drop in 20 years, 41% per year, 2x per 2 years. Both are impressive improvements, and they will likely continue, but trees do not grow to the sky, and most trendlines hit physical limits eventually.
p130 F Raymond McCauley
- p138 Folic Acid B₉, MTHFR gene, homocystinuria
p140 different folic acid vitamin ( L-methylfolate? )for people with absorption troubles
p141 SNPedia Promethease
p143 mrgene.com dead link
- p144 J. Chris Anderson in Stanley Hall at UCB (not the TED guy or the Wired editor)
p148 Clotho synthetic biology software (clothocad.org in notes NFG )
p150 CoolBot
p152 iGEM BioBricks
p155 biofab dead link after 2013
p156 Synthia subset of Mycoplasma mycoides, JVC1-syn3.0
p158 Living Root Bridges
p159 Artemisisin antimalarial drug extracted from Artemisia annua herb around 1980. Market price varies wildly. Synthesized in 2006, marketed by Sanofi in 2014, goal is to tackle a disease that kills 500K people per year. Wohlson whinges about reduced income to farmers ... but what about the millions of lives saved per decade by a stable and affordable supply of life-saving medicine?
- p167 2004, art professor Steve Kurtz arrested and prosecuted for years because of a molecular biology art exhibit.
- p169 2008, government indictment dismissed by federal judge as "insufficient on its face".
p179 FBI's Edward You, Special Agent Bioterrorism Prevention, arranges booth at iGEM 2009 and the 2010 Outlaw Biology conference
p180 Eric Drexler gray goo, later disvowed.
