Michelle Khine makes high tech out of children's toys. Doing medical nanotech with Shrinky Dinks and a toaster oven.
posted by idiopath on Nov 8, 2009 - 10 comments

Inscentinel uses trained bees to sniff out drugs, explosives, and spoiled food.
posted by contraption on Oct 14, 2009 - 38 comments

The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence has put up a some interesting media, including a variety of talks from the Singularity Summit 2006 and 2007, about the possibilites and progress of technological development. For an overview of the issues Ray Kurzweil talks about the ideas and promises of the singularity, while Douglas Hofstadter calls for deeper exploration of the implications and hazards of coming technology.
posted by MetaMonkey on Jan 21, 2008 - 44 comments

Bionic contact lens invented. That is all. [more inside]
posted by caution live frogs on Jan 18, 2008 - 44 comments

Stem Cell Treatment in China. A site showcasing Beike Biotech, a company that seems to be getting more attention nowadays, with a very straightforward approach. Meanwhile, some recent hard science.
posted by StrikeTheViol on Nov 1, 2007 - 14 comments

The fight over an experimental cancer therapy gets ugly. The FDA's decision to delay approval of Provenge, an experimental therapy for advanced prostate cancer, has incensed patients and advocacy groups, who have launched a sophisticated lobbying effort calling for the drug's approval and questioning the motives of critics. Of course, investors in Dendreon, the creators of Provenge, have a strong financial interest in seeing Provenge approved. The New Yorker covers the complicated issues surrounding patient access to experimental therapies in this story.
posted by myeviltwin on Jul 6, 2007 - 28 comments

Dr. Craig Venter, known for his role as a pioneer in the human genome project, has taken a major step towards creating life from scratch: transplanting the entire genome from one bacterium cell to another. Commence the ethics wars.
posted by charmston on Jun 28, 2007 - 32 comments

"Someone messed it up bad. The world went to pieces. It was dog eat dog and everyone for himself. Along came an unlikely hero. You....The future can be saved. The knowledge is inside the Four Rooms of Kharon." From the info page: "Kharon 4a is an online adventure game dealing with biotech issues. The makers of the game have worked closely with the Norwegian Biotechnology Advisory Board during the creative process - to ensure the scientific validity of the game content. So, having played Kharon 4a, you will be left with not only an interesting and entertaining online experience, but you will also be familiar with the most imporant aspects of bio technology." They also warn that it's "the hardest Flash game ever made" and that you'll probably give up after five minutes.
posted by Gator on Jan 26, 2006 - 12 comments

DNA: frightening government privacy invasion tool of tomorrow or beautiful source of personal art today?
posted by mathowie on Sep 11, 2005 - 18 comments

In a surprise move, Anheuser-Busch has gone up against some of the biotech firms that would like to grow genetically-modified (GM) rice containing human DNA. The biotech firm that grows it says that their rice contains synthetic human genes which the company hopes to harvest and refine for use in medicines to fight diarrhea and dehydration.

Anheuser-Busch's concerns are not with the science of biotech, but rather the risk of crop-contamination, as has happened with farmers not only in the U.S. and Canada, but all over the world. The USDA has issued rice-tweakers Ventria Bioscience and 300 other biopharmers permission to plant various augmented plants around the country since 1995, but Anheuser-Busch is the first large corporation to threaten a boycott - unusual, because poultry and beef stock (PDF) are fed this kind of thing every day, and have been for the past 20 years. I guess the Budweiser brewers just don't want to see 'dead people' in their suds...

On the flip-side of this occurrence, the response of the anti-stem cell activists has been nothing short of sensory-deprivation. Shouldn't six-packs, cornfields and Porky be given the same human rights as the unborn?

Also related: Contaminated: The New Science of Food (quicktime movie)
posted by vhsiv on Apr 14, 2005 - 31 comments

Biojewelry : Now you and your betrothed can exhange ring made of bone. Your own bone. I, for one, welcome the day when consumer biotech makes our lives.....weirder. (Some pics not safe for the squeamish.)
posted by gnutron on Feb 25, 2005 - 15 comments

U.S. Denies Patent for a Too-Human Hybrid - what happens when your DNA violates a patent? Not sure where to begin on this one.
posted by FormlessOne on Feb 13, 2005 - 12 comments

Evolution is so last two billion years... I just love this guy's beautiful mind.
posted by Finder on Feb 3, 2005 - 40 comments

Viva la Biotech Revolution! Embargo or no, Castro's socialist paradise has quietly become a pharmaceutical powerhouse.
posted by dov3 on Jan 18, 2005 - 16 comments

The failure of biotech. "In June 1996, the University of California, Davis, began an unprecedented effort to help the West African nation of Mali, using the promising and controversial new tool of agricultural biotechnology... Eight years later, no help whatsoever has arrived... In the hopes that inspired the effort - and the missteps that stifled it - lies a drama larger than the sum of its parts, one that shows both the promise and pitfalls of the largest technological leap in American agriculture since the tractor: biotechnology." The start of a five-part series in the Sacramento Bee: long, but well worth it. (Via MonkeyFilter.)
posted by languagehat on Jun 6, 2004 - 17 comments

Two of his children dying from a rare genetic disorder, Dad -- with no science background whatever -- starts a biotech company for the sole purpose of developing a drug that will cure them. Heartrending conflicts ensue. "Many times, I'd be talking aloud about programs and budgets, and at the back of my mind be thinking, 'Oh my God, this is not good for Megan and Patrick.' "
posted by stupidsexyFlanders on Aug 26, 2003 - 25 comments

Required Reading from the President's Council on Bioethics. Each of the readings that follow - which include poetry, short stories and more - is accompanied by a brief introduction and questions about the bioethical implications of the work. The new booklist includes James Watson, Tolstoy, Shakespeare and Ovid. Via the WSJ.
posted by turbodog on Apr 18, 2003 - 2 comments

They're farther along than I thought... You may have heard about Nexia Biotechnology, who have put spider genes into goats to get milk with spider silk protein in it. I thought it was still in the research phase, but Nexia have apparently gone to market with the stuff. They've signed agreements with several manufacturers to produce spider silk protein-based products such as lightweight ballistic armor (like Kevlar, only lighter and non-toxic to produce) for the armed forces and super-strong sutures and prosthetic ligaments for medical supply companies.
posted by RylandDotNet on Jul 21, 2002 - 7 comments

A major advance in genetically modified foods. Developed with government funding, and intended eventually to be given away to farmers, there has been a major success in the use of salt water to irrigate crops. They've developed a tomato which grows fine in salt water or on salty soil. Thousands of lives will be saved in parts of the world where fresh water for irrigation is scarce, including up to one third of the arable land in India where salt has been accumulating. Interestingly, these tomatoes are so good at what they do that they remove salt from the soil, improving it. The genetic modification which was done to these tomatoes should be possible with many other crops, including especially rice (on which major effort in Egypt is underway now).
posted by Steven Den Beste on Jul 30, 2001 - 39 comments

"GMO free" labelling set to become illegal in the US? "The U.S. regulatory system is a model around the world because it is grounded in science, not superstition or uninformed emotion." So says the president of a biotech lobby group. Ahem.
posted by holgate on Jan 18, 2001 - 20 comments

Concerned About Frankenfood? Ralph Nader has some ideas.
posted by snakey on Jan 8, 2001 - 25 comments

If computer engineering defined the last half of the twentieth century, then biotech will surely define the first half of the twenty-first century.
posted by Steven Den Beste on Jan 5, 2001 - 5 comments

The ethical problems of biotech patents have been noted here before. Now the New Scientist reports that those patent applications are on the brink of crippling the world wide patent system to the detriment of real inventions and to the disadvantage of poorer countries (and what is the PC term for those now that 'third world' and even 'less developed countries' have fallen out of favor?)
posted by norm on Dec 12, 2000 - 6 comments

True or not?! One of the weirdest things I've ever seen on the web. I was sure this was a hoax and kept digging for confirmation and never found it.
posted by norm on Nov 3, 2000 - 11 comments