August 2011
13 posts
Future Science: Essays from the Cutting Edge →
brainpickings.org
From Future Science, a collection of essays from the cutting edge of science, and a good reminder of the amazing places we are going.
This afternoon I received in the post a slim FedEx envelope containing four small vials of DNA. The DNA had been synthesized according to my instructions in under three weeks, at a cost of 39 U.S. cents per base pair (the rungs adenine-thymine or guanine-cytosine in the DNA ladder). The 10 micrograms I ordered are dried, flaky, and barely visible to the naked eye, yet once I have restored them in water and made an RNA copy of this template, they will encode a virus I have designed.” ~ William McEwan
This collection seeks to answer one question: What are the best minds in science thinking about today, and tomorrow?
