David Guston in Bassetti Foundation

Six years on from his previous visit to Milan, the Bassetti Foundation is honoured to host Professor David Guston, Founder of the Centre for Nanotechnology in Society, and the Virtual Institute for Responsible Innovation (of which we are members alongside collaborating with him on the Journal of Responsible Innovation) and also the School for the ... David Guston in Bassetti Foundation

Redazione FGB

The Fungus of Design

A young Italian designer whose works is extremely innovative, on the border between art and biology. Single objects that are individual in their field, forged from materials gained through the manipulation of living materials. His name is Maurizio Montalti, founder of the “Officina Corpuscoli” in Amsterdam (2010), whos goal is not only to produce beautiful ... The Fungus of Design

Margherita Fronte

A Conversation with Hilary Sutcliffe of Matter

Hilary Sutcliffe is the Director of Matter, described on the homepage as ” a new ‘action tank’ whose aim is “Bringing Responsible Innovation to life”. As a follow up to his review of their “Report On Responsible Research and Innovation” Jonathan Hankins posed a series of questions regarding the future of Responsible Innovation to the ... A Conversation with Hilary Sutcliffe of Matter

Jonathan Hankins

Synthetic Modeling of Life and Cognition

Many questions in the workshop Synthetic Modeling of Life and Cognition: Open Questions: “In what sense and under which conditions can artificial systems be considered models of natural living and cognitive processes? What are the prospects for advancing biological, behavioral, cognitive and social sciences through these methods? How can we ensure a successful transmission of ... Synthetic Modeling of Life and Cognition

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Il dilemma del virus letale creato in laboratorio

Un gruppo di virologi olandesi diretto da Ron Fouchier, dell’Erasmus Medical Centre di Rotterdam, ha ottenuto in laboratorio una variante del virus dell’influenza aviaria (H5N1), in grado di trasmettersi efficacemente da uomo a uomo. Il mutante potrebbe causare una pandemia ad elevato tasso di letalità, dato che il virus naturale, che è diffuso fra i ... Il dilemma del virus letale creato in laboratorio

Margherita Fronte

iGEM Synthetic Biology World Championships

Last weekend saw MIT in Cambridge Massachusetts Host the 2011 iGEM World Championship Jamboree. The Jamboree took place over 3 days, from 5th to 7th of November, and for the eighth consecutive year prizes were given for synthetic biology projects. iGem is the International Genetically Engineered Machine Foundation, a foundation that is interested in synthetic ... iGEM Synthetic Biology World Championships

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Science: September’s special edition on synthetic biology

On September 2 the US based journal science published a special edition on synthetic biology, a topic that has been debated through several article on this website. The journal was not entirely devoted to this single argument, although it contained several articles and reviews addressing the problem in a special edition section. The following is ... Science: September’s special edition on synthetic biology

Jonathan Hankins

Bergamo Science Festival

From the 1st to the 17th of October the Italian town of Bergamo hosts the 8th annual BergamoScienza Festival. The organizers state in their introduction to the program that their goal is to take science onto the street and make it accessible to maximum number of people possible, and the festival hosts an impressive number ... Bergamo Science Festival

Redazione FGB

An Ethics For Emerging Technologies

As a follow on from my previous introduction to synthetic biology posting I would like to take a look at the recent report entitled Ethical Issues in Synthetic Biology; a review of the debates. The report published in June 2009 is co-authored by Erik Parens, Josephine Johnston and Jacob Moses, all of The Hastings Center ... An Ethics For Emerging Technologies

Jonathan Hankins

An Introduction to Synthetic Biology

The first question must be what is synthetic biology? Variously touted as pertaining to the discipline of engineering, biology, genetics, nanotechnology or computing, the most common description is that of applying the concept of engineering to biological organisms. But what does that actually mean? In order to understand more about the techniques I would like ... An Introduction to Synthetic Biology

Jonathan Hankins