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ما البيولوجيا إلا تكنولوجيا
Technology is a process and a body of knowledge as much as a collection of artifacts. Biology is no different--and we are just beginning to comprehend the challenges inherent in the next stage of biology as a human technology. It is this critical moment, with its wide-ranging implications, that Robert Carlson considers in "Biology Is Technology." He offers a uniquely informed perspective on the endeavors that contribute to current progress in this area--the science of biological systems and the technology used to manipulate them.
In a number of case studies, Carlson demonstrates that the development of new mathematical, computational, and laboratory tools will facilitate the engineering of biological artifacts--up to and including organisms and ecosystems. Exploring how this will happen, with reference to past technological advances, he explains how objects are constructed virtually, tested using sophisticated mathematical models, and finally constructed in the real world.
Such rapid increases in the power, availability, and application of biotechnology raise obvious questions about who gets to use it, and to what end. Carlson's thoughtful analysis offers rare insight into our choices about how to develop biological technologies and how these choices will determine the pace and effectiveness of innovation as a public good.
In a number of case studies, Carlson demonstrates that the development of new mathematical, computational, and laboratory tools will facilitate the engineering of biological artifacts--up to and including organisms and ecosystems. Exploring how this will happen, with reference to past technological advances, he explains how objects are constructed virtually, tested using sophisticated mathematical models, and finally constructed in the real world.
Such rapid increases in the power, availability, and application of biotechnology raise obvious questions about who gets to use it, and to what end. Carlson's thoughtful analysis offers rare insight into our choices about how to develop biological technologies and how these choices will determine the pace and effectiveness of innovation as a public good.
413 pages, Paperback
First published February 15, 2010
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300 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 12, 2017
solid introduction to synthetic biology
May 22, 2021
Very good for intro in Synthetic Biology. But the last few chapters were about policy and I found it a bit boring
February 6, 2015
Carlson's book is at once an assessment of current policy regarding biotech governance, a futurist assessment of the likely direction of development for biotechnology, and an evangelical call for enabling certain forms of that development. These three modalities in the text fluctuate and in some ways are in tension, since it is not always entirely clear when Carlson is being positive or normative in his assessments, particularly when he speaks of the future. With that said, his assessment of the likely future risks associated with the 'democratization' of biotechnology (that is, the proliferation of the tools and skills for manipulating biological matter) are absolutely worth a read, and stand up well more than a half decade after their publication. In a nutshell, he believes that attempts to put the genie back in the bottle through regulatory and criminal sanctions is not only doomed to failure, but is likely to make the proliferation risks worse by eliminating upsides and eliminating sources of sunlight into what he almost certainly is right is the greatest short-to-medium-term risk -- namely not bio-malice, but bio-incompetence, that is, accidents resulting from poor biotech hygiene, as opposed to the production of garage bioweapons. In the long run, however, Carlson's sanguinity about the forces of light prevailing over the forces of darkness in the realm of biotechnology seems more a matter of faith than analysis: it is not at all clear that even if we embrace openness, allowing for distributed production of biosensors and biomonitoring, so that detection of biothreats can come much faster than at present, that this will necessarily allow us to mitigate the risks associated with new pathogens. It seems that in this the evangelists of open source biology fall into the same trap that Freudian therapists used to make about the value of casting light onto neuroses: namely the (patently false) idea that if we can know and see the thing we fear, then that in itself will allow us to overcome it. In fact, in Carlson's brave new world, there may be thousands of homemade biosensors that see the sudden new engineered pathogen as it emerges, but that won't make mitigating its effects an easier, either biomedically or politically.
May 26, 2016
I bought this book after reading Marcus Wohlsen's Biopunk: Solving Biotech's Biggest Problems in Kitchens and Garages. I was hoping that Biology is Technology would be a deeper look at some of the same topics of biological circuits and new cancer treatments. Instead, BiT cascaded off into economics, international relations, and questions of biological morality. In 240 dense pages Carlson covers automobiles, aviation, computers, threats of biotechnology, biotech as applied to fuels, healthcare, and even a critique of the patent system.
In its exhaustive coverage, Carlson managed to convince me that biotechnology can be as mundane and routine as any other new technology. Breaking through the hype and writing a serious book on the topic is great, but it would have been nice if a book on such an awesome topic had just a dash of verve.
In its exhaustive coverage, Carlson managed to convince me that biotechnology can be as mundane and routine as any other new technology. Breaking through the hype and writing a serious book on the topic is great, but it would have been nice if a book on such an awesome topic had just a dash of verve.
November 19, 2011
This is a good introduction to rational design of biological systems, but its target audience appears to be investors in biotech, with scientists working in the field only of secondary interest.
Carlson is an engineer with a background in aeronautical engineering. He is currently the CSO of biodesic, a company working on bacterial production of biodiesel suitable for fuel. His belief in the power of engineering principles as applied to biological systems is infectious, one would hardly expect less, but he goes overboard in his insistence that rational design of complex biological systems is possible NOW, if only biologists were replaced by engineers.
*Must go to work, but will finish review later*
Carlson is an engineer with a background in aeronautical engineering. He is currently the CSO of biodesic, a company working on bacterial production of biodiesel suitable for fuel. His belief in the power of engineering principles as applied to biological systems is infectious, one would hardly expect less, but he goes overboard in his insistence that rational design of complex biological systems is possible NOW, if only biologists were replaced by engineers.
*Must go to work, but will finish review later*
April 7, 2013
A detailed overview of the development and future of the burgeoning biotech industry, this book is quite informative, yet very VERY dry. I found my thoughts settling on the ever present need for more engaging science writing as much as any of the topics actually discussed. Robert is a bioengineer at Biodesic and writes like an engineer through and through. While not wowed by his prose, I do commend Robert for his insightful parallel of the biotech with more mature industries.
June 29, 2011
Through, comprehensive, and informative. It is worthwhile reading again.
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July 12, 2011We just got this book in at work, both sets of our library ordered it. It must have something good in it!
Want to read
May 2, 2012Recommended by Oliver Morton.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews