XNA is synthetic DNA that’s stronger than the real thing
New research has brought us closer than ever to synthesizing entirely new forms of life. An international team of researchers has shown that artificial nucleic acids - called “XNAs” - can replicate and evolve, just like DNA and RNA.
We spoke to one of the researchers who made this breakthrough, to find out how it can affect everything from genetic research to the search for alien life.
The researchers, led by Philipp Holliger and Vitor Pinheiro, synthetic biologists at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, say their findings have major implications in everything from biotherapeutics, to exobiology, to research into the origins of genetic information itself. This represents a huge breakthrough in the field of synthetic biology.
This is amazing.
Microsoft’s Would-Be iPhone — From 1991
In our May 2012 issue, contributing editor Joe Hagan profiled Microsoft veteran Nathan Myhrvold, who retired in 1999 after serving 14-years as Bill Gates’ personal tech visionary. Since leaving Microsoft, Myhrvold has lived a nerd fantasy, digging up T. rexes and producing a cookbook only a mad scientist could love.
During his years at the computing giant’s Redmond, Washington headquarters, Myhrvold described in precise terms what the future of computing would look like. More often that not, he was pretty damned accurate: In 1991, while serving as the company’s chief visionary, Myhrvold predicted the emergence of an iPhone-like device down to the smallest detail, describing a “digital wallet” that would consolidate personal communication — telephone, schedule manager, notepad, contacts, and a library of music and books — all in one.
Rarely seen outside of Myhrvold’s inner circle, this sketch of Microsoft’s would-be iPhone portrayed a gadget that could record and archive everything you asked it to, he surmised. “The cost will not be very high,” wrote Myhrvold. “It is pretty easy to imagine a $400 to $1,000 retail price.” Microsoft, however, was too cost conscious and risk averse to execute his vision. “Hey, it was better than predicting the wrong thing,” Myhrvold says now.
For more information about Myhrvold, his tenure at Microsoft, and his newfound passion for molecular gastronomy, read Joe Hagan’s “How a Geek Grills a Burger” here.
MICROSOFT CAN TOTALLY SUE APPLE NOW. PATENT FIGHT!
Somebody must do a Sean Bean / Andy Lau “I know that feel” thing.
I did try not to kill him in The Lost Future, but I think we lost him in the rewrite. Must check.
Posting repeated religious updates onto Facebook is akin to shouting slogans in a mall.
It’s tacky, and a little bit weird.
I don’t care if you’re religious, that’s entirely your own business. But when you spam me with your religion I WILL unfriend your ass.
Doctor Who Intros 1963-2010
The top three and the final two are the ones that produce actual visceral emotional reactions in me. The top three give me a combination of nostalgia and delight, the final two just happiness.
(Although I never saw the top right one in colour when it was being broadcast.)
