Good find. I, too, was skeptical of the mushroom image. Thought it was funny, though.
Didn't know about the seagrass colony! Wow "The team suspects the clone arose 4500 years ago and has been spreading ever since. That would make it among the oldest organisms on Earth, although not quite as old as the oldest tree."
nice essay, well written, informative, uplifiting. But while I'll recommend it to my undergraduates interested in SynBio, I have to admit I miss the scientific depth of the previous newsletters resulting from all those cutting edge new papers; I feel you're addressing a different audience with the new format?
Thanks for the comment, Max. Indeed, that photo is no longer in the post and I issued a correction.
I appreciate the sentiment. There is not much content that delves deeply into synthetic biology. But the community is really small, and it's important that more people understand what's going on. Future essays go much deeper than this initial post (which is quite a broad survey of commercial-scale GE), and I hope you'll enjoy them.
Awesome Substack! An ode to biology :)
Great read, glad I found this!
Regarding the world's largest organism: it's now considered to be a seagrass colony near Australia: https://www.science.org/content/article/world-s-largest-organism-found-australia
Also I'm a bit skeptical of that mushroom photo, I don't think the fruiting body itself is giant, the mycelium just is growing over a huge area.
Despite these nitpicks I think the alchemy analogy is a very good one. Indeed, my username is a nod to Paracelsus.
Good find. I, too, was skeptical of the mushroom image. Thought it was funny, though.
Didn't know about the seagrass colony! Wow "The team suspects the clone arose 4500 years ago and has been spreading ever since. That would make it among the oldest organisms on Earth, although not quite as old as the oldest tree."
Loved this essay and found it very inspiring!
Hi Niko,
nice essay, well written, informative, uplifiting. But while I'll recommend it to my undergraduates interested in SynBio, I have to admit I miss the scientific depth of the previous newsletters resulting from all those cutting edge new papers; I feel you're addressing a different audience with the new format?
By the way, the photo of the mushroom is fake, not an ideal choice.. https://www.aap.com.au/factcheck/theres-nothing-magical-about-fake-monster-mushroom-pic/
Cheers
Thanks for the comment, Max. Indeed, that photo is no longer in the post and I issued a correction.
I appreciate the sentiment. There is not much content that delves deeply into synthetic biology. But the community is really small, and it's important that more people understand what's going on. Future essays go much deeper than this initial post (which is quite a broad survey of commercial-scale GE), and I hope you'll enjoy them.