igargoyle

Programming DNA

Drew Endy presents on MIT's genetic reverse-engineering, developing a human-readable, high-level programming language, and leading a worldwide academic effort to develop open-source bio-objects. He proposes reprogramming bacterial DNA as one form of nano-engineering. Video documentation, found here, also covers a brief history of genetic decoding in terms of Accelerating Returns, safety protocols, and a speculative future of bio-hacking communities.

link via Hackaday

Tissue Workshop update

Boing Boing TV covered the TC&A cloned tissue cultures at Machine Project.

Tissue Culture & Art (TC&A) this weekend

Here's a brief blast of some of this weekend's LA haps, with details below:

Saturday-
1pm: Dorkbot SoCal @ Machine Project
8pm: The Tissue Culture & Art project (TC&A) talk @ Machine Project
8pm-1am: Censor This Show @ Basswerks [I'm exhibiting a video installation there!]

Sunday-
11am to 5pm - Mini Tissue Engineering workshop and lecture @ Machine Project

From Machine:
"
Dear friends,

We have an ambitious weekend planned. Saturday night at 8pm, tissue culturing pioneers SymbioticA will be on hand to discuss how to grow ears, minature leather jackets, and other fascinating biological experiments. Sunday afternoon they will be leading a workshop in tissue culturing (or meat cloning as we like to call it). Saturday afternoon we are hosting a meeting of Dorkbot, featuring HDR photography, self organizing robots and super efficient vehicles. Details below.

Love,

Machine

-------------------------
Saturday Dec 1st 8pm - Oron Catts & Ionat Zurr, SymbioticA, University of Western Australia:
Free

The talk covers the work of The Tissue Culture & Art project (TC&A) that began in 1996 as an R&D project into the use of tissue technologies as a medium for artistic expression. Some of TC&A’s projects include the Pig Wings, Semi-living Worry Dolls, Disembodied Cuisine (the first time that tissue engineered meat have been grown and eaten), victimless Leather, Extra Ear 1/4 Scale (in collaboration with Stelarc) and NoArk. The talk will also discuss SymbioticA, A unique laboratory dedicated to the research and critic of the life sciences form an artistic perspective, located at the School of Anatomy & Human Biology, University of Western Australia.

more information > http://machineproject.com/2007/11/25/symbiotica/

———————–
Sunday Dec 2nd 11am to 5pm - Mini Tissue Engineering workshop and lecture
Oron Catts & Ionat Zurr, SymbioticA, University of Western Australia:
$55 materials included, space limited. Registration now open

Tissue engineering enables researchers to grow three dimensional living tissues constructs of varying sizes, shapes and tissue types. This half-day hands on intensive workshop will introduce artists and other interested people to basic principals of animal tissue culture and tissue engineering, including its history and the different artistic projects working with TC and TE. The workshop will involve a demonstration for how to extract and cultivate stem cells from bones bought at the butcher. These advanced techniques can be done with homemade equipment and kitchen gear.

registration > http://machineproject.com/2007/11/25/tissue-engineering-workshop-and-lecture/

---------------------
Dorkbot SoCal 25 - Bullock (HDR Photography), Hoetzlein (Intelligent Things), Hertz Sr. (Supermileage Vehicles)
Saturday, December 1st 2007, 1pm
Free

Three awesomely diverse and diversly awesome presenters for Dorkbot's triumphant return to Machine Project.

1. Today's digital cameras have a limited dynamic range compared to film. If you shoot a photo of a landscape with a beautiful cloudy sky, your landscape will be properly exposed, but your clouds will be washed out or vice-versa. High-Dynamic Range photography allows you to circumvent your sensor's limitations by taking multiple photos with different exposures and combining them on your computer. All you need is a camera capable of manual exposure settings, a tripod and a computer and you'll be on your way to HDR mastery. Presented by Dave Bullock.

2. Rama Hoetzlein will present a range of projects, including videos of mechnical and robotic sculptures, self-organizing systems and systems for knowledge organization. Themes will include the relationship between physical (embodied) and non-physical (mental) activity, knowledge representation, and systems of belief. The relationship of these projects to the interdisciplinary questions raised by intelligent systems will be introduced with the intention of engaging in an open discussion.

3. Professor Barry Hertz will be presenting on the development of ultra-fuel-efficient vehicles developed from 1980 to 1988 at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. The distinctions held by the U of S engineers include winning every SAE Supermileage event entered during nine successive years, breaking three amateur world records, and shattering the absolute world fuel economy record on May 29, 1986 with a vehicle that got 4,738 miles per US gallon (5691 MPIG, 49.6 mL/100 km).

For more information > http://dorkbot.org/dorkbotsocal/

Machine Project
1200 D North Alvarado
Los Angeles, CA, 90026
213-483-8761

[via Machine Project Events list]

Censor This Show!
29 artists, 3 bands, a comic, and no cover
Saturday, December 1 8pm-1am
Basswerks Gallery
5411 W. Adams Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90016
http://www.basswerks.net

Stem Cells, Hold the Huevos

An end to the embryonic stem cell controversy is now increasingly likely. Although further such research may need to continue for now, scientists just announced a promising alternative. The successful reprogramming of human skin cells towards various human tissue types implies a major step towards a slew of therapies genetically matched to patients with a wide range of conditions.

At last week's LA Life Extension Workshop, the upcoming challenge of initial breakthroughs, followed by the Law of Accelerating returns, was gospel. Days later, it seems we are on our way to transitional research that can leave major ethical debate behind for a while, and catalyze funding and treatment that will prolong and save lives.

[MSNBC links via Propeller, and a sidebar of related articles]

Life Extension Workshop datablast

In this quick digest about my attendance of the Life Extension Workshop yesterday, I will drop a lot of names and links on you while I attempt to digest the profound content of the day. Thanks to everyone whom I met for being so cool and sharing your passion for your interests; even when you could not talk about certain things for various reasons.

The presenters and panelists included Doctors Stephen Coles, Aubrey de Grey, and Michael Rose, followed by David Kekich and Peter Voss. I will be helping Dr. Coles post video online; I'll post when and where that will be available.

Gerontology Research Group
Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS)
M Prize
Methuselah Foundation
Benford & Rose
Gregory Benford
Persona Foundation
GTCbio
Mediox

There were various plugs for books, which will reach you through links, slides, and video of the workshop. I want to mention a book that was not part of the day's official proceedings, which I learned of when I met Gregory Benford. He and Elisabeth Malarte have authored Beyond Human: Living with Robots and Cyborgs, and I'm excited to check it out.

Life Extension Workshop- new schedule

Now beginning at 2PM:

2:00-2:30 Steve Coles
2:30-3:30 Aubrey de Grey
4:00-4:30 Michael Rose
4:30-5:30 Coles, de Grey, Rose (moderator: David Kekich)

location unchanged
seats are still available
[internal link]

Life Extension Workshop in LA 11/16

"Aubrey de Grey will be giving a Life Extension Workshop on Friday Nov
16th from 3pm to 5:30pm. Specifically, he will be giving an update on
SENS and the MPrize (more on that below).

Aubrey is a computer scientist, biomedical gerontologist, editor of
Rejuvenation Research and author the book "Ending Aging'..."
RSVP

[via Chuck Esterbrook on the BarCampLA mailing list]

Yes, you read that correctly: "Ending Aging"

Amazon lists it as #1 in some categories, including Physiology.

Location:
Embassy Suites LA - Int. Airport/South
1440 E. Imperial Ave, El Segundo, CA 90245
310-640-3600

*** To reserve a seat, forward this message to bruce@novamente.net
with your name and the names of any guests.

Adapted from the book description and Wikipedia pages:

MUST WE AGE?

A long life in a healthy, vigorous, youthful body has always been one
of humanity's greatest dreams. Recent progress in genetic
manipulations and calorie-restricted diets in laboratory animals hold
forth the promise that someday science will enable us to exert total
control over our own biological aging.

Nearly all scientists who study the biology of aging agree that we
will someday be able to substantially slow down the aging process,
extending our productive, youthful lives. Dr. Aubrey de Grey is
perhaps the most bullish of all such researchers. As has been reported
in media outlets ranging from 60 Minutes to The New York Times, Dr. de
Grey believes that the key biomedical technology required to eliminate
aging-derived debilitation and death entirely—technology that would
not only slow but periodically reverse age-related physiological
decay, leaving us biologically young into an indefinite future—is now
within reach.

Aubrey has created a detailed plan called Strategies for Engineered
Negligible Senescence (SENS) which is aimed at preventing age-related
physical and cognitive decline. He is also the co-founder (with David
Gobel) and chief scientist of the Methuselah Foundation, a ...
nonprofit organization. A major activity of the Methuselah Foundation
is the Methuselah Mouse Prize, a prize designed to accelerate research
into effective life extension interventions by awarding monetary
prizes to researchers who extend the lifespan of mice to unprecedented
lengths.

Regarding this, de Grey stated in March 2005 "if we are to bring about
real regenerative therapies that will benefit not just future
generations, but those of us who are alive today, we must encourage
scientists to work on the problem of aging". The prize reached US$4.2
million in February 2007. de Grey believes that once dramatic life
extension of already middle-aged mice has been achieved, a large
amount of funding will be diverted to this kind of research, which
would accelerate progress in doing the same for humans.

Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, pledged $3.5 Million to the
Methuselah Foundation for SENS research. Justin Bonomo, professional
poker player, has pledged 5% of his tournament winnings for SENS
research.

There is more at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey_de_Grey
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategies_for_Engineered_Negligible_Senescence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mprize

Again, it's on Friday Nov 16th from 3pm to 5:30pm.

*** To reserve a seat, forward this message to bruce@novamente.net
with your name and the names of any guests.

Hope to see some of you there,
-Chuck

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BarcampLA Wiki: http://barcamp.org/BarCampLosAngeles
BarcampLA Blog: http://www.barcampla.org/
BarcampLA Group: http://groups.google.com/group/BarcampLA?hl=en
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Transhumanists & Society

Transhumanists, the group of intellectuals who desire to use new sciences and technologies to increase the human existance both cognitively and physically are very interesting to me, not just because of the advances that they're pushing, but also because of the social backlash to those goals.

When I was younger, I was occasionally called a nerd, mostly because when I wasn't able to become wildly social with my peers, I turned to computers- one thing I could control and completely own mentally. Like most others who had similar experiences, I'm no longer called a nerd, but instead the more favorable term, "geek". I get this respect because this social group has grown through the dot com boom, and the push of the world wide web. I no longer wish to hide my interests as a geek, but stand tall.

Transhumanists though, while a subset of geeks, are less understood. In fact the idea of modifying oneself seems outright alien to many. The idea of pushing one's human shell to the limits to improve performance, and lifespan is even threatening to some. I myself have had conversations with people where I've expressed my desire to live for centuries instead of just one, and found myself in an argument about playing god. Nevertheless the goals of the transhumanist movement are appealing to many, which Stacy Robinson addresses in her book Transhumanism Reloaded:

...It may be a mistake to dismiss the transhumanists as a harmless group of under-socialized techno-geeks. Their vision of a world in which atomized individuals use technology and free markets to achieve dominance over others differs in degree, and not kind, from much of the real world today. At a time when many people feel powerless to influence social conditions, their message—don’t worry about society; technology will make you smart, strong, and attractive—could seem compelling.

It may seem foreign and strange right now to wear head mounted displays and want to put impant electronics under our skin now, but I think like theg geeks and the world wide web, transhumanism and cyborganics are going to become more and more accepted as this group of individuals excels beyond others. I will stand tall with my desire to augment myself because the idea of improving myself is compelling, and I believe while the transhumanist movement is young, the work being done now will be the foundations for years to come.

Mouse Grows Back Limbs

Ellen Heber-Katz, professor of immunology at the Wistar Institute, an American biomedical research centre has created a mouse that regenerates amputated limbs or badly damaged organs. Imagine the potential possibility for human regeneration.

The experimental animal is unique among mammals in its ability to regrow its heart, toes, joints and tail.

The researchers have also found that when cells from the test mouse are injected into ordinary mice, they too acquire the ability to regenerate.

The discoveries raise the prospect that humans could one day be given the ability to regenerate lost or damaged organs, opening up a new era in medicine.

Now there's a medical trial that would be exciting, however dangerous it might be.

[ Link via del ]