[DIYbio] Re: query from PBS NewsHour

I was at SYNBERC this week and even the world's leading PI's are not churning out breakthroughs at a breakneck pace....it ain't gonna be happening in DIY groups anytime soon.  The mood was a bit somber actually...very concerned about what happens NSF funding runs out in 2016 and finding follow on $$ to continue building infrastructure for the emerging field.  Really, we are just barely seeing the fruits of next generation sequencing start to come on line.  12 years after the human genome project and the technology will probably hit the clinic/consumer in a big (economically/medically significant) way only in 2015....about a 15 year time lag.  A lot more citizen science and DIY projects could layer on top of the infrastructure that is coming online in this space.  

Synthetic Biology, if you date the "official" birth of the field to the creation of SYNBERC in 2006, is only 6 years into its existence.  Keasling is doing his best to lobby NSF for another 5 yrs post 2016....taking this out to 2021 when SYNBERC may have accomplished its mission to build a mature infrastructure to support the formation of industry around this.  DARPA is talking in terms of 2030s for their horizons....so about an 18 year time frame for the fruits of "Living Foundries."

With all the hype fest about SynBio, it is in danger of going the route of "Nanotech."  Remember at the turn of the century...1999-2000 when nanotech was going to change the whole economy and everyone was worried about grey goo.  We ended up with nano particle sunscreen....a mundane consumer product that is a fry cry from the idea of molecular manufacturing.  Science/Tech seems to go through these hype cycles (everyone familiar with the Gartner Hype Cycle  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_cycle)

We will eventually get to the promised land of synthetic biology, nanotech, etc etc but in the mean time, a lot of people need to take a damn chill pill.  Silicon Valley in particular, tends to get swept away and I see a certain amount of this in my neck of the woods *cough cough LOL.  Too bad we can't brew up said Chill Pill using synthetic biology.      

On Friday, 30 March 2012 14:09:05 UTC-7, Bryan Bishop wrote:

From: Lee Koromvokis <lkoromvokis@newshour.org>

Date: Fri, Mar 30, 2012 at 3:44 PM
Subject: [diybio-boston] query from PBS NewsHour
To: "diybio-boston@googlegroups.com" <diybio-boston@googlegroups.com>

Hello,

I am a producer for the PBS NewsHour.  Correspondent Paul Solman and I are looking to interview a group of bio hackers--and also hopefully see some bio hacking!--for a story we are doing about the potential benefits and risks of synthetic biology. (Actually, it is part of a larger story about all the scientific and technological breakthroughs that could happen sooner than most people realize because of Moore's Law and DIY innovators). Anyone interested?

Lee Koromvokis | Producer, PBS NewsHour 

T 914.241.6220 | M 914.282.1498

LKoromvokis@newshour.org

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "diybio-boston" group.
To post to this group, send email to diybio-boston@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to diybio-boston+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/diybio-boston?hl=en.

--
- Bryan
http://heybryan.org/
1 512 203 0507