Tuesday, June 22, 2010
The First Self-replicating Cell with a Computer for a Parent - Synthetic Life.
"Craig Venter and team make a historic announcement: they've created the first fully functioning, reproducing cell controlled by synthetic DNA. He explains how they did it and why the achievement marks the beginning of a new era for science." It took about 15 years for the team to complete the work on this project, which was funded by Synthetic Genomics, Inc.
Craig Venter is known for his role in the private effort to sequence the human genome.
RELATED
Press Release 5/20/10: First Self-Replicating Synthetic Bacterial Cell
First Self-replicating Synthetic Bacterial Cell (Overview)
J. Craig Venter Institute
Synthetic Genomics|Options for Governance
Colonies of the transformed Mycoplasma mycoides bacterium. Image Credit: J. Craig Venter Institute
More TED Talks: Chip Conley's discussion about measuring what makes life worthwhile
"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." Albert Einstein
The above quote was used during Chip Conley's 2010 TED Talk about measuring what makes life worthwhile.
Chip Conley is a hotelier who focuses on creating habitats of happiness. In this talk, Conley discusses how he adopted the psychologist Mazlow's hierachy of needs and applied it to create a business model that focuses on intangible higher needs of his companies employees, customers, and investors. He also shares how he gained insight about metrics and happiness during a trip to Bhutan to study the Gross National Happiness Index (GNHI), which is something he recommends that business leaders and governments to focus on. He points out how the metrics behind the GDP may not be sufficient for monitoring or measuring the state of today's complex world.
RELATED
PEAK: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Mazlow
(Chip Conley)
Direct link to Chip Conley's TED Talks video, with an interesting discussion.
Note: During the weeks of my summer break, I thought I'd catch up on some of the TED Talks that I missed, and I'll share a few of my favorites on this blog.
