Wired Magazine: A Marked Man.

Man suffers for decades with cancer of the kidneys. Nothing helps. Gets tumor sequenced. Discovers the cancer in his kidney is actually pancreatic cancer. Man changes cancer treatment regimen, and lives. Full story in Wired.

How To Use MyGenomeBox

See the YouTube video here. 

De-Extinction

Add to the list of undreamed possibilities: bringing species back from the dead, or de-extinction. Stewart Brand talks about the possibilities in his Ted Talk. This is only one angle in the larger promise that Biotechnology will enable the reversal and/or repair of some of the more unfortunate impacts of the Anthropocene, along with proprietary crops to sequester CO2, proprietary algae to metabolize organic waste into more carbon-neutral fuels, etc. Hunted Species X into extinction? Oops -- our bad. Here -- we brought back Species X. Let's have a do-over, okay? (Link)

Stewart Brand TED Talk on De-Extinction

My Genome Box: An app model for your genomic data

For those of you who don't understand how Biotech and genomic sequencing applies to you, here's a start: For $2500 (reduced from $1BB price tag in the year 2000) you can send a spit kit to Diagnomics, Inc. They will load your genomic data into the My Genome Box service, where you can browse a selection of genomic apps that will tell you a bunch of things, from the frivolous (how much Neanderthal DNA you contain, cost=$0) to your BRCA gene profile for breast cancer (for $19 -- compare to Myriad Genetics' $3000+ price tag for this relatively simple test). Heredity, predisposition to various diseases, tendency toward/away from various psychological traits, etc., most of these studies costing in the $5 range. I'm also pretty sure they'll have an interface app for your phone or tablet soon, too.

It's a new world.

Here's a screen snapshot:

DNA Is The Meaning Molecule.

We are made of sequenced, folded protein. 

That’s the machinery of life. It’s the machinery of the planet. 

If the White Cliffs of Dover are the trace residue of millions of years of warfare between microscopic sea organisms, and if the very atmosphere we breathe is the accretion of respiration of living organisms, then DNA is literally the machinery that can transform a planet. DNA is something that you can’t see, but can literally move mountains and fill oceans and populate the sky with clouds.

DNA is the machinery that animates the world. 

If the only observable point of DNA is the replication of itself, then DNA is the ultimate wellspring of all meaning. Meaning comes from culture which comes from people who come from organic life that comes from DNA, and time. DNA plus time equals meaning. 

DNA is the meaning molecule.