This is the sort of thing that made me decide to write a whole book about these bugs…

LS9 Inc., a company in San Carlos, Calif., is already using E. coli bacteria that have been reprogrammed with synthetic DNA to produce a fuel alternative from a diet of corn syrup and sugar cane. So efficient are the bugs’ synthetic metabolisms that LS9 predicts it will be able to sell the fuel for just $1.25 a gallon.

Synthetic DNA on the Brink of Yielding New Life Forms – washingtonpost.com 

Originally published December 17, 2007. Copyright 2007 Carl Zimmer.

I’ve got a new conversation up at bloggingheads.tv. This time around I talk to University of Washington paleontologist Peter Ward about the mass extinctions that wiped out millions of species in the past, and how disturbingly difficult it is to rule out the possibility that we’re sending ourselves into another great die-off. 

Originally published December 16, 2007. Copyright 2007 Carl Zimmer.

Some of the blogs that I find most interesting are also the most sporadic. Fortunately, RSS feeds mean their occasional utterances don’t disappear off my radar. Rob Carlson’s blog, synthesis, is an excellent, deeply considered blog on the rise of synthetic biology. (Full disclosure–I interviewed Carlson for a recent article in Discover.) Even though a week or two may pass between posts, they’re always interesting. His latest entry, on the hype around Craig Venter’s development of artificial chromosomes, is like a very sharp needle poking a very fat balloon:

Continue reading “Artificial Life: Please Breathe in This Paper Bag” →

In my latest column for Wired, I take a look at the ever-fascinating intersection between engineering and biology. An electrical engineer-turned-ecologist uses the principles of circuits to track the flow of genes in endangered species. Remarkably, it works. Take a look. 

Originally published December 12, 2007. Copyright 2007 Carl Zimmer.