Biotechnology

Biotechnology includes all kinds of technology based on biological processes, the design of new organisms, interfacing life and technology and management of ecology and environment. From a transhuman perspective it appears likely that in time the line between machines and living beings will blur and eventually vanish, making us part of a bionic ecology.

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Other Sites
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See Also

General

Biology 2001: Understanding culture, technology, and politics in "The Biological Century"

Biodegradable Technology by R.S. Pearson. A vision of electronics and manufacturing based on biology. See also the Anti-Unabomber Manifesto, which discusses this proposal.

ELBA Information Network. A research program in bioelectronics (the use of biological materials and biological architectures for information processing systems and new devices)

Map the Genome, Hack the Genome by Michael Gruber (Wired). About the people behind the biotechnology revolution. Contains some interesting observations on the forces that will influence how it will be applied.

Ecology and Biotechnology in Yahoo

Applications

Artificial spider silk by Richard Lipkin (Science News).

Transgenic Animals by A. R. Shuldiner (NEJM, March 1996). About how transgenic animals are created, and some applications.

Genetic Enhancements. How (and why) we human will change ourselves.

Pork Liver, Anyone? by Steven Alan Edwards (Technology Review, July 96). About xenografs, and why they might be the next step in transplantations.

Wild at heart? by Jay Fishman (Chemistry and Industry 97 04). About the problems that have to be overcome before xenografts become a reality.

Ecosystem Design

Biospherics. The design of ecologies is so far a very young area, but will probably expand and become both art and science (for example in designing orbital colonies or restoring the environment).

Biosphere II. The most famous artificial biosphere, located in the southern Arizona desert. Instead of going for a small and simple system, the goal was to create a large and complex system with hopefully many levels of resilience.

Nauvik Project Outline (ISECCo). A smaller biosphere design.

Leben in Biosphäre II, interview of Bernd Zabel by Florian Rötzer (Telepolis, in German).

Agriculture

Food Biotechnology

Plants Flourish in Underground Canadian Mine by Stephanie Yanchinski, Genetic Engineering News March 15 1995. A demonstration that plants can be grown almost anywhere given sufficient energy, and that the yields become very high when the environment is right.

Hydroponics Aquaculture Aquaponics - growing plants without soil and farming fish. Probably one of the best ways to feed mankind, and a good idea for space colonization.

The Hydroponic Society of America.

Other Sites

Books

Walter Truett Anderson, Evolution Isn't What It Used to Be: The Augmented Animal and the Whole Wired World, W H Freeman & Co.; ISBN: 0716729989 1996