Genetically Engineered Machines Competition 38
aqkiva writes, "This past weekend, 33 schools from around the world gathered at MIT for the international genetically engineered machine competition. Teams consisting of mostly undergraduates had designed, built, tested, and characterized biological parts, devices, and systems over the course of the summer and came together to present their work. The competition is helping push the field of synthetic biology and opening access to the tools to engineer biological systems by providing standard biological components. The team from Slovenia won first prize overall for their engineering of mammalian systems and won the 'BioBrick,' a large metal Lego brick. The MIT team won the top prize for the best system with their engineering of bacteria that smell like wintergreen and banana. For news coverage of this weekend's jamboree, see the Boston Globe and Technology Review."
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Oh, the humanity. (Score:1, Troll)
Smells like... (Score:2)
Ok, so how long until we can get this stuff to feed on various waste products? I know I'd much rather have my cat's farts smell like wintergreen than, well, cat poop.
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Thanks a bloody lot. I've just suddenly started thinking about that gum I swallowed yesterday.
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Biggest market = Mouthwash that lasts all day because it GROWS IN YOUR MOUTH!
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In all seriousness it wouldn't be hard to do. Take gut bacteria and insert the genes in the wintergreen (Methyl salicylate) pathway. I suspect though the natural flora of the large intestine would outcompete the introduced variety. The two types would be the same except one wastes energy on a useless, and harmful product. Methyl salicylate is similar to salicylic acid, neither of which should be injest
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In larger concentrations, indoles smell like feces. In fact, feces usually smell like
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http://syntheticbiology.org/BioBricks.html [syntheticbiology.org]
Now *this* is Intelligent Design (Score:2)
the blob! (Score:1)
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"What's that smell? OMG, RUN!"
Oh? Let me know. (Score:2)
First Robotics (Score:2)
Given that this competition has quite a bit more lead time, I think you'd get much better results then the 4 week/6 week build time. Any program that brings the bright and talented, as well as the dedicated and interested in to work together in a competitive environment is a plus- we'll need
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http://syntheticbiology.org/BioBricks.html [syntheticbiology.org]
http://openwetware.org/wiki/BioBricks_constructio
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And don't think that such a virus could arise spontaneously. It's astronomically more likely that a naturally arising virus would simply cause your bio-clothing to rot. And possible smell like bananas and wintergreen in the process.
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"bananas and wintergreen" - lol
Not good. (Score:1)
Cool stuff! (Score:1)
My ultimate point is that you shouldn't dismiss this stuff as useless or without practical application. Understand that the technology is just in its infancy, and
Hurrah Slovenia! (Score:1)
For those who dont know, Slovenia is the northernmost part of Ex-Yugoslavia, and Thomas Jefferson got inspiration from the rules of old Slovenia (Caranthania) when writing the Constitution.
Another Slovene team recently created a nanoparticles detector for Europes NanoSafe2 (French link [empyree.org]).
Back to topic: Slovenes are very hard-working but tend to depreciate themselves. Don't judge a book by the cover.