I had thought that Rothemund’s DNA origami was enough to make this an unusually good year for advances in molecular nanotechnology, but now there are more advances that look possibly as important.
Ned Seeman’s lab has inserted robotic arms into specific locations in DNA arrays (more here) which look like they ought to be able to become independently controllable (they haven’t yet produced independently controlled arms, but it looks like they’ve done the hardest steps to get to that result).
Erik Winfree’s lab has built logic gates out of DNA.
Brian Wang has more info about both reports.
And finally, a recent article in Nature alerted me to a not-so-new discovery of a DNA variant called xDNA, containing an extra benzene ring in one base of each base pair. This provides slightly different shapes that could be added to DNA-based machines, with most of the advantages that DNA has (but presumably not low costs of synthesis).
Archive for December, 2006
Making Complex Things from DNA
Saturday, December 16th, 2006
Shaming versus Prison
Monday, December 11th, 2006I’m wondering why the use of shame and humiliation isn’t used more often as an alternative to jail sentences.
The most plausible objection I’ve found seems to be that there are other alternatives that are better than those two choices. But even if that’s true, there are enough doubts about public acceptance of those possibly better alternatives that it seems odd not to give some encouragement to an alternative to prison that seems to have some political feasibility.
New blog
Monday, December 11th, 2006I have starting blogging on Overcoming Bias. I plan to blog there somewhere between once a month and once a week, and I hope to still find time to blog here once a week on topics that don’t fit there.
And note that if you want to see all my book reviews, see Amazon; I sometimes don’t blog reviews of less interesting books.
Fiji Coup Postponed due to Rugby
Friday, December 8th, 2006I normally don’t repeat things that are reported on Marginal Revolution since I assume it would be redundant for most readers of my blog, but this story about the relative importance of sports and coups in Fiji is amusing enough that I can’t resist.
Asteroid Risks
Saturday, December 2nd, 2006A recent report that the dangers of a large asteroid impact are greater than previously thought has reminded me that very little money is being spent searching for threatening asteroids and researching possible responses to an asteroid that threaten to make humans extinct.
A quick search suggests two organizations to which a charitable contribution might be productive: The Space Frontier Foundation’s The Watch, and FAIR-Society, Future Asteroid Interception Research. It’s not obvious which of these will spend money more effectively. FAIR appears to be European and doesn’t appear to be certain whether contributions are tax-deductible in the U.S., which might end up being the criterion that determines my choice. Does anyone know a better way to choose the best organization?