made possible by steam power and standardization, 182–184
fourth industrial revolution (electro-magnetic), 192–193
fifth industrial revolution (quantum), 205–206
unwelcome consequences of, 207
sixth industrial revolution (information-genomics), 209–210
unwelcome consequences of, 211
information entropy, 56
inkjet printers, 33–34
three-dimensional, 33
inorganic/organic, 19–20
hybrid systems, 35
input/output, 33
Iritani, Akira, 145
interchangeable parts, 184
International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), 9
isomer (stereoisomer), 19, 20, 27. See also chirality
Ivins, Bruce, 231
Jacobson, Joseph, 170–171, 255
Jankowski, Rich, 92
jatropha oil, 91–92
J. Craig Venter Institute, 46–48, 66, 74, 163, 177
Jenner, Edward, 85
Jeon, K. W., 51
Joule Unlimited, 104–106
Joyce, James, 177
Kagan, H. P., 28
Kaul, Samir, 171
Keasling, Jay, 102, 160, 163, 171, 255
Kelly, Kevin, 239–240, 257
Khorana, Har Gobind, 174
Kim, Sung-Hou, 65, 255
King, Thomas J., 134–135
Kinki University, 145
Knight, Tom, 163, 183–190, 237, 255
Knome, 215
Kosuri, Sri, 174, 255
Kurzweil, Ray, 242–250
Lamarckian evolution, 86–89
Langer, Robert, 163
Lavoisier, Antoine, 17
Law of Accelerating Returns, 242
Leeuwenhoek, Anton von, 39
Leibler, Stan, 187–188
Leningrad Institute of Cytology, 137
life (What is life?), 55–59
as continuous, scalable, and measurable, 56
life from nonlife, 18
rise of life on earth, 60
Lipman, David, 169
lipid molecules, 41
Livly lab, 234
Logan, Bruce, 4–5
Lonberg, Nils, 118–119
Lorch, I. J., 51
LS9, 99, 103–104
Luddites, 223, 241
lymphocyte, 112
Lysenko, Trofim, 86–87
Lysenkoism, 86–87
Machinery of Life, The (Goodsell), 44
macrophages, 112
Magalhaes, Pedro, 84–85
MAGE (multiplex automated genome engineering), 11, 76–79, 123, 147, 162
Malthus, Thomas, 221
mammalian immune system, 59, 110, 216, 233, 234, 245, 250
Marine Corps Times, 94
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 184
mazelike layout of, 193
Radiation Laboratory at, 192
“Mathematical Theory of Communication, A” (Shannon), 210
Matthaei, Heinrich, 65
Matthews, Hunter, 179, 199
maximal genome, 66
maximal genomic diversity, 59
Maxwell, James Clerk, 192
Maxwell’s equations, 192–193
Medarex, 118
medicine, 203
development of, 203–205
genome therapy, 217
traditional as operating by “one-size-fits-all” approach, 208
to be supplanted by personalized genomic medicine, 209–210
Meselson, Matthew, 130
Metabolix, 1–2
microbial fuel cell (MFC), 5
microbes
as machines, 181
mutant, 225
paranoia about, 226
Mikhelson, Viktor, 137
Miller, Webb, 148
minimal bacterium, 47
minimal cell, 50
minigenome, 66, 68
minimal genome, 51
Minsky, Marvin, 184
Mirel, 1–2
mirror amino acids, 63
mirror cells, 128
mirror humans, 25–26, 55
risks of creating, 26
mirror life, 25–29, 55, 236
disadvantages of, 25
superimmunity of, 25
mirror molecules, 20
mirror monomers, 62
chemical predictability of, 62–63
mirror proteins, 65
mirror world, 59, 61
Modrich, Paul, 171
molecular technologies and the life science industry, 158–160
Mollicutes, 184
monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), 117
Mohawk Industries, 3–4
monomer, 21
Moore’s Law, 209, 209n
Morgan, David, 91
Morowitz, Harold, 184
Mueller, Herman Joseph, 206–207
multicellularity, 78
advantages of, 78–79
disadvantage of, 81
multiplex automated genome engineering. See MAGE
multivirus resistance, 8–9, 119–121, 217
Mycoplasma genitalium, 47–48
gene reduction of, 47
genome synthesis of, 47–48
“My Genome, Myself” (Pinker), 213–214
Nagel, Thomas, 39
naked mole rat, 82–85
cancer resistance of, 83
longevity of, 83
nanobiotechnology, 12
nanopore sequencing, 168, 175, 271
nanotech assembler, 54
narcolepsy, 212–213, 248
Napoleon, 122
National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), 84, 168
Neanderthal man, 137–140, 151
genome of, 139
reverse-engineering of, 146–147
FOXP2 gene of, 139
MC1R gene of, 139
possible resurrection of, 10–11
reasons for resurrecting, 140
Neolithic era, 151, 217
Newcomen, Thomas, 183
Newton, Isaac, 229
NIH (National Institutes of Health), 165–169, 255, 269. See also NHGRI
Nirenberg, Marshall, 65
northern leopard frog, 134
nonstandard amino acids (NSAAs), 68
nuclear transfer cloning, 9–10, 134–135
interspecies, 11
oligonucleotides (“oligos”), 34, 80, 146–147, 158, 164, 174, 197, 232, 235, 270
“On a Uniform System of Screw Threads” (Sellers), 183
ontogeny, 12
organic compounds, 19
halo effect surrounding, 32
Ostell, Jim, 169
overpopulation, 86, 221–223
“Ozymandias” (Shelley), 178
Pääbo, Svante, 139, 146
Paleocene epoch, 110
panspermia, 252
Parable of the Locks, 121–122
passenger pigeon, 10, 133
Pasteur, Louis, 26–27
antivitalism of, 27
PCR (polymerase chain reaction), 74, 163, 174, 197, 270
Pennsylvania State University, 4, 148
Peoples, Oliver, 1–2
Perkowitz, Sidney, 7
Personal Genome Project (PGP), 205
Angrist, Misha, (PGP-4), 213, 214
Dyson, Esther (PGP-3), 213
as Facebook of DNA, 210
original goal of, 211
Pinker, Stephen (PGP-6), 213–214
privacy issues, 211–212
personalized genomic medicine, 209–210
reasons for developing, 209–210
petroleum, origin of, 95–97
abiogenic theory, 96–97
biogenic theory, 96–97
Petroleum Weekly, 94
pets, increasing the longevity of, 85
phenylalanine (F), 65
phiX virus, synthetic, 75
photosynthesis, 100–101
phylogeny, 12
&n
bsp; plasmids, 44
Pleistocene epoch, 136–137
Pleistocene Park, 148–150
polio virus, synthetic, 75
Polonator (DNA sequencing), 168
polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), 1–2
environmental advantages of, 2
polymers (biopolymers), 21, 29, 40
polyaminoacids, 40
polyesters, 40
polyketide polymer, 40, 69
polynucleotides, 40
polypeptides, 21, 40, 269
polypyrroles, 40
polysaccharides, 40
polyterpenes, 40
Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain), 194
population density, 249, 252
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, A (Joyce), 177–178, 257
Prey (Crichton), 226
Price, Jill, 228–229
Princeton University, 190
Prohibition, 239
“Promise and Perils of Synthetic Biology, The,” (Tucker and Zilinskas), 236
propanediol (PDO), 3
proteins, 29, 41
protozoa, 51
Pyrenean ibex, 9–10, 133–136
resurrection of, 9–10, 133–136
rabies, 110
racemic compounds, 27
recalcitrant dissolved organic matter (RDOM), 22
recombinant DNA 35, 44, 159, 163
recombination (homologous, targeted) 71, 89, 163, 175, 248
regeneration (“regenesis”), 135, 141–142, 145, 148, 245
Registry of Standard Biological Parts, 180, 186
replexity (replicated complexity), 56
answers objections to previous definitions of life, 56–59
engineered expansion of, 62
maximum limits to, 66
Repository for Germinal Choice, 119
resurrection of extinct species, 9–11
Rettberg, Randy, 187–189
ribozymes, 61
47-mer synthetic, 63
“Ripple Effect, The,” 99
RNA, 29
backbones, 68–69
highly conserved sequences of, 74
libraries, 32
mRNA, 60
replication of, 30
RNA replicase, 61
rRNA, 61, 122–124
translational code, 70
tRNA, 60
stability of, 30
RNA world, 60
Rocha, Claudia, 180
Rockefeller family, 100
R.U.R. (Capek), 180–181
safety (biosafety), 26, 68, 89, 117, 121, 139, 141, 159, 161, 175–176, 230–237, 253, 255, 269–270
Sakharov, Andrei, 87
Sapphire Energy, 100
SARS virus, synthetic, 75
Savery, Thomas, 183
Scarab Genomics, 7
Schleiden, Mathias, 40
Schloendorn, John, 233
Schneider, Tom, 29
S, C, H, P, O, N, 18, 252
Schmidt, Markus, 232
Schrödinger, Erwin, 55
Schuster, Stephen, 148
Schwann, Theodore, 40
Seeman, Ned, 80
Sellers, William, 183–184
Shannon, Claude, 210
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 177
Shereshevsky, Solomon, 229
sickle-cell anemia, 205
Simon, Julian, 222
Sims, Bill, 106
singularity, the, 250
Singularity University, 250
SmartStrand carpet, 3–4
Smith, Hamilton, 47, 75
Smolke, Christina, 171
Solazyme, 93, 100
Sorona, 3–4
Southern Illinois University, 103
Southern Ute Indian Reservation, 92
space travel, 129
hazards of, 129–131
species loss, 88
Stanford University, 44
State University of New York-Buffalo, 51
standard biological part, 188
standardization, 183–186
steam power, 182–3
Stone, Richard, 145
Stuyvesant High School, 5
sugars, 42
Sullivan, Patrick, 179, 199
superviruses, 9
“synthetic” bacterium, 48–50
synthetic biology, 2–4, 50, 175
definition of, 2, 163
difficulty of, 235
first use of term, 163
progress of, 157–158
prohibition of, 239–240
risks of, 231–232
“Synthetic Biohazard Nonproliferation Proposal, A” (Church), 235
synthetic genome, 48, 74–76
as refutation of vitalism, 49
synthetic genomics, 4
definition of, 4
as recapitulating evolution, 12–13
Synthetic Genomics: Options for Governance, 237
Taleb, Nassim Nicholas, 242
T cells (T lymphocytes), 112
helper T cells (CD4 T cells), 112
killer T cells (CD8 T cells), 112, 114
Teller, Edward, 96
thalidomide, 22
theophylline, 33
Thomas, Jim, 226
Thucydides, 111
Tian, Jingdong, 174
Traité élémentaire de chimie (Lavoisier), 17
transhumanism (H+), 227–230
arguments against, 227–230
travel speeds, 241
Tucker, Jonathan, 236
UAG (RNA stop codon), 70, 79, 123–135
Ultraclean Diesel, 103–104
Under the Microscope, 45
universal machines, 4
University of California-Berkeley, 103, 115, 192, 213
Critical Assessment of Genome Interpretation (CAGI), 213
University of California-San
Francisco, 44
University of Florida, 103
University of Liverpool, 84
University of Ljubljana (Slovenis), 198–199
University of Texas-Austin, 190–191
University of Uppsala, 53, 139
University of Wisconsin, 6
Up the Infinite Corridor (Hapgood), 193
U.S. Navy, 93
Vanderbilt University, 52
van Gogh, Vincent, 229
Venter, J. Craig, 46–50, 53, 102, 146, 166–167, 169–171, 176–177
and “synthetic” bacterium, 48–50
Vibrio natriegens, 6n, 72
Vinçotte, 2
Virchow, Rudolf, 40
Virgin Atlantic Airlines, 91, 94
viruses, 8–9
as genetic engineers, 45–46
replication of, 120
smallest viral genome, 126
vitalism, 20
challenges to, 20–21
fifth question for, 250–252
preference for organic produce as vestige of, 32–33
Volker, Nic, 89, 216–217
von Neumann, John, 210–211
Voyager spacecraft, 197
war on drugs, 239
Watson, James, 30, 213
Weiss, Ron, 171
“What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” (Nagel), 39
What Is Life? (Schrödinger), 55
Wilkins, Maurice, 55
Willoughby, Rodney E., 131
Wilmut, Ian, 135
Wöhler, Friedrich, 20
synthesis of urea, 20
Wolfram, Stephen, 242
Woman Who Can’t Forget, The (Price), 228–229
woolly mammoth, 137
Adams mammoth, 144
Dima, 137–138
Hook mammoth, 141
Jarkov mammoth, 141
possible resurrection of, 10–11, 145–146
“World’s Most Dangerous Ideas, The” 227
Wright brothers, 150
Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, 80, 163, 245, 255
yeast, 2, 27, 40, 76, 77, 147, 172
–173, 188, 190
engineered, to terraform Mars, 194
yellow fluorescent protein (YFP), 190
Zettl, Alex, 115
Zilinskas, Raymond, 236
Zimov, Sergey, 146, 148–150