DNA Storage as another option for data storage. What struck me about this article was the duration—half life of 1000 years for the storage of DNA in hydrogels… very significant. Binary is obviously a series of 1s and 0s and as a result requires longer strings of machine code to store information. The draw of quantum computing is that it is no longer n^2 for processing speed, but that it can be n^amount of cubits (I think?). I can see this absolutely being the case in DNA. A chain of amino acids acting as a storage device, if proven plausible, could be a more effective form of storing machine information.
“We were able to achieve a high DNA data density of 7.0 × 109 gigabytes per gram using a hydrogel-based system.” It is clear that contemporary computer science has a lot to learn from the complexity of nature. Maybe we can use computers to help bridge us to a future using our own nature as emerging technology.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adg9933
Mapping the pangenome: where the human genome project mapped the genome of a single person, this pangenome project maps it in 47 people, which supports the quest to pin down genetic diversity and the impact certain genes have on phenotypes. This is a signal for something significant. Since mapping the genome is vital, and it is an area of medicine that’s innovative feats match moore’s law and less of Eroom’s law, combined with the fact that biotech is going from analog to digital, this data collection will be vital in scientists’ transition to a data driven biotechnology revolution. In order to do this, we need a high fidelity, database of phenotypes and genotypes. This is a signal of what we could see in the years to come of exponential improvement.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01576-y
Gene therapy for regeneration of hair that aids in hearing
https://hms.harvard.edu/news/scientists-regenerate-hair-cells-enable-hearing
Ants changed by a single genetic mutation: a “supergene”. What is a supergene? Is it more stable and heritable? How can we produce our own supergenes in vitro and deploy in vivo? Can we bracket out genes into supergenes and essentially keep them as a unit? supergenes in the ants determine the social organization of colonies. This may tie into the research of Michael Levin, Ph.D. on the connection of xenobots. How can you make the collective act in unison?
https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-mutation-turned-ants-into-parasites-in-one-generation-20230508/
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/world-has-its-way-eqrx
No, in case you were wondering, you cannot virtually screen a billion compounds overnight. Allow me to refer you to Pat Walters, who knows what he's talking about in this area. Virtual screening can be quite useful, but the larger and more useful it gets, the less trivial it becomes. A specific problem is the generation of false positives, which can eat you alive.
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/eqrx-s-challenge-and-my-challenge-them Bruce Booth Tweet on EQRx.
https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/new-study-harvard-has-gut-ing-results-why-immunotherapy-ineffective-some Gut microbiota seems to have at least some links to cancer