Friday, June 05, 2009

Genomics - Upgrade the software that runs the hardware

Fascinating talk by Barry Schuler on Genomics. What struck me most was the part on how you can change the software or write a plug-in and if its compatible, you can run it on the same organic hardware.
 Not only does it do that; if you took the genome -- that synthetic genome -- and you plugged it into a different critter, like yeast, you now turn that yeast into Mycoplasma. It's, sort of, like booting up a PC with a Mac OS software. Well, actually, you could do it the other way. So, you know, by being able to write a genome and plug it into an organism, the software, if you will, changes the hardware. And this is extremely profound.

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