BCIG Bookclub: “Genesis Machines: The New Science
of Biocomputing”
by Martyn
Amos
Clinical Center (Building 10) Medical
Board Room (Room 2C116)
- view the seminar archive
will be reviewed by this
colorful
and stunning team of BCIG volunteers:
Prologue
Jim DeLeo 1 minute
Introduction
Ellen Bicknell 3 minutes
1. The Logic of
Life Minjung Kwak 5 minutes
2. Birth of the
Machine Aaron Baughman 5 minutes
3. There’s Plenty
of Room at the Bottom
Jerry Chandler 5 minutes
4. The TT-100
Bill Moore 5 minutes
5. The Gold Rush
Jerry McLaughlin 5 minutes
6. Flying Fish
and Feynman Colin Gross 5 minutes
7. Scrap-heap
Challenge Melanie Swan 5 minutes
Epilogue
Jim DeLeo 1 minute
Total 40 minutes
*** Presenters: Please see “Presenters’ Guidelines”
below. ***
A group dialogue about the book will follow the
presentations.
Presenters’
Guidelines: (1) have
really good Power Point slides – clear and not too busy, (2) use your first
slide to introduce yourself: name, affiliation, interests, relation to book’s
material, etc., (3) observe your time limit,
(4) answer pressing questions quickly, save longer discussion for the dialogue
session that follows.
Note to presenters:
If you would like another chapter, please contact me ASAP – Jim DeLeo
Suitability, Directions, and Webcasting Information
(This event will
be webcast.)
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This event is sponsored by the NIH Biomedical Computing Interest Group (BCIG). |
5:30 pm- 7:00 pm September 25, 2008
What’s This Book About:
The next generation of computers is coming. Scientists are turning away from
silicon chips and are instead using living systems to build machines. The new
computer scientists are speaking in the language of cells and DNA, and they are
asking if it is possible to harness the immense power of biology for the purpose
of computation and if we should even try? In this highly readable book, author
Martyn Amos journeys through the history of computation and beyond, to reveal
just how today science fiction is becoming tomorrow’s reality. This new
technology will change the way we think about computers and about the nature of
life itself.
More: Author Amos was awarded the first ever PhD in “DNA computing.”
He starts his book by taking us on a clear, exhilarating journey through
computer history. Alan Turing described a universal computing device now known
as a Turing Machine: a box that reads inputs off a long skein of tape, performs
algorithms on the data, and outputs an answer. It turns out that biology
functions in an amazingly similar way: a molecule “head” reads the “tape” of one
strand of a DNA double helix and “writes” the complementary base on to a new
strand. A decade ago, people began trying to build computers on this basis.
Set up your problem, and trillions of molecules will nearly instantaneously find
a huge range of possible answers. Of course the approach needs structure. The
book shows how hard it is to get away from the constant application of
engineering metaphors, such as Amos’s claim that genes are “computing
components”, and anthropomorphic language, as when it is said that ribosome
works by “interpreting mRNA messages”. This is manna to creationists, who insist
that where there is a computer, there must be someone who designed it. Amos
skips lightly over such philosophical problems, but it is a serious question
whether appeals to “self-organization” or “information” are themselves in some
sense metaphysical, even if one rejects the epistemological nihilism of
“Intelligent Design.”. Amos is more of the pragmatic scientist’s persuasion:
sure, there’s a mystery here – so let’s tinker around and try to solve it. His
lucid and punchy prose conveys a genuine excitement of the frontier.
More information about this book
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