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IN 2010 J CRAIG VENTER got whimsical and "brought a bacterium with synthetic DNA to life. That organism was still mostly a copy of one in nature, but as a flourish, Venter and his team wrote their names into its DNA, along with quotes from James Joyce and J. Robert Oppenheimer and even secret messages. As the bacteria reproduced, the quotes and messages and names remained in the colony’s DNA."" " http://lnkd.in/m_9BCq View in LinkedIn

iTUNES DNA for new life? "(If) a perfume company could design a bacterium to produce an appealing aroma; rather than running this in a large-scale fermenter, they would upload the DNA sequences onto the future equivalent of iTunes... Then, customers could simply synthesize the bugs at home and grow them on their skin. They could transform epidermal ecosystems to have living production of scents and fragrances. Living perfume!”" " http://lnkd.in/m_9BCq View in LinkedIn

BIOMIMICRY. "Nature works with ...only five polymers. In the natural world, life builds from the bottom up and it builds in resilience and multiple uses. What would it be like to use only five polymer classes to build everything?”" " http://lnkd.in/Q_kyhu View in LinkedIn

SYMBIO = PARADIGM SHIFT of enormous proportions, rare in several lifetimes. "But the possibility of designing a new organism, entirely from synthetic DNA, to produce whatever compounds we want, would mark a radical leap forward in biotechnology and a paradigm shift in manufacturing."" " http://lnkd.in/m_9BCq View in LinkedIn

SHIFTING WORKFORCE. "The prevalence of lean management teams, the postrecession drive to cap costs, and the accelerating pace of change combine to make temporary solutions compelling. These new arrangements have also spread because the surge in outsourcing and consulting in recent years has accustomed managers to thinking about work, including high-end work, in modular ways". " " http://lnkd.in/PXCAn5 View in LinkedIn

J CRAIG VENTER is a rare visionary-scientist with a stunning track record. "He dreamed of mapping the human genome, and he did it. He dreamed of creating a synthetic organism, and he made it. In 2003, he scrawled a line across a map of the world, hopped on his boat with a small team and sailed around the planet in search of new forms of life. By the time they returned, two years later, they had discovered more species than anyone in history." WOW. " " http://lnkd.in/m_9BCq View in LinkedIn

INVASIVE SPECIES hysteria is akin to the 1016 English King Canute (Cnut), who failed to command the rising East Anglian tide to stop. Species have always migrated and found new competitive niches. Ecosystems are dynamic. The fact that they hitch-hike on boats is a mere historical footnote. Marin County CA has an invasive French Broom solution (that is more than fire control): glycophosphate herbicide. King Canute in all his mad glory? " " http://lnkd.in/8xffRc View in LinkedIn

SYNBIO made artemisinin, the anti-malarial drug in bugs not in plants, whose production swings wildly annually. This recent dazzling success story involved OneWorld Health (IOWH, first non-profit Pharma company) and was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: 35 tons treating 70 M people is the fruit of this project. I was on the IOWH board during this memorable achievement. " " http://lnkd.in/6UrJ74 View in LinkedIn

PRINTABLE LIFE FORMS that can be emailed around the world and printed into life? A JC Venter Life Teleporter are likely to become widely available in the foreseeable future. Beyond extraordinary. Is this a new cloning method on the horizon? Currently only the simplest creatures can be replicated this way, but it is inevitable that higher life forms may be emailed and printed, including humans. Rock my boat! View in LinkedIn

SYNBIO GREEN FUELS." ""Imagine if we replaced a third of our transportation fuels and made them renewable. That would be a huge benefit." Here is the dream. Reality may be harder?" " http://lnkd.in/6UrJ74 View in LinkedIn