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CRAIG VENTER dreams of making synthetic life forms to do useful work, on distant planets, and to chew up earthly CO2and make food, fuel, plastics, and much more. Think big!" " http://lnkd.in/iBHmP2 View in LinkedIn

THE SELFISH GENE or ancient jumping gene transposons (TE) from other species was likely carried by viruses or parasites. "The staggering evolutionary success of TEs is attributed mostly to their ability to out-replicate the host genomes in which they reside, as opposed to any selective advantage that they might provide to their hosts. Indeed, TEs can spread within and among genomes, even when there is a selective cost to their hosts". " " http://lnkd.in/d8w3aj View in LinkedIn

SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY APPS AND GAMES. "Recently, two projects are in progress. The first, is a mashup app of all synthetic biology related softwares, to find everything you need to do your synthetic biology computer work. The other is a synthetic biology related game modeled after FoldIt. Teams can play online together to solve real world problems with help of synthetic biology."" " http://lnkd.in/frBre3 View in LinkedIn

JUMPING GENES, "Junk DNA", transposable elements (TE), or the selfish genes. "Transposable elements (TEs) can be seen as selfish genetic entities, the spread of which can be deleterious to the host cell due to the genomic instability that is induced by a massive increase in copy number. As a result of the conflicting interests of TEs and the host genome, the cell has developed various processes to control retrotransposon activity."" " http://lnkd.in/FekDZi View in LinkedIn

OPEN SOURCE SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY and gamification as an approach to big world problems. Time for out-of-the-box thinking and a bit of craziness. Put on your thinking hats and choose a project. Change the world!" " http://lnkd.in/frBre3 View in LinkedIn

GEORGE CHURCH backs an initiative to make trees glow in the dark with a firefly enzyme insertion. I was involved in such a frivolous dream 29 years ago; today it is not a big deal, and glowing goldfish have already been engineered. It is symbolic of SynBio. This was using crowd funding and open source innovation. It has the potential to solve lots of problems today. " " http://lnkd.in/ymR7Zs View in LinkedIn

TOP BIG GLOBAL PROBLEMS (and opportunities) we can think about solving with our new synthetic biology tools. Our overpopulated world needs solutions to problems, and there are expansive issues to tackle. " "1. Clean water; 2. Hunger; 3. Disease; 4. Pollution; 5. Antibiotic resistance; 6. Global warming; 7. Clean fuels; 8. Recycling resources; 9. Higher intelligence; 10. Resources on other planets, and the issue of extraterrestrial life; 11. Enhanced living. View in LinkedIn

CREATION OF NEW LIFE FORMS by synthetic biology is the stunning opportunity of this century. I have gone to some trouble to show that nature has been involved in this same project since the start of life, on a massive scale, and with every possible mechanism. Our efforts will be small by comparison but rational. By definition we will start with preexisting genes and by definition, it will be a hybrid new life form. The key question is what big human or global problem do we wish to solve with this amazing new technology? View in LinkedIn

TISSUE-ELECTRONIC HYBRID grown in test tube. "The next step is to find a way of talking to the individual cells, to “wire up tissue and communicate with it in the same way a biological system does."" " http://lnkd.in/shNXZ8 View in LinkedIn

DNA PARASITES jumping genes, ("junk DNA", transposons) have a strongly beneficial aspect that probably outweighs their rarer pathological effects, and the host can borrow this invasive machinery for its own purposes. "transposable elements play an important role in the evolution of eukaryotic chromosome structure. Recruitment of transposable elements by the host for specific structures to perform novel functions is one of the structural functions."" " http://lnkd.in/qafMef View in LinkedIn