Paul Rothemund: Casting spells with DNA

[acidbath32]

the implications for dna programming seem scary nonetheless. people can already hack matter without computers, thier genetics are just transferred to whatever holds it (any kind of matter/condensed vibration) butterfly effect

[PlanetBongoSan]

this is nice but the talk on DNA Folding he gave is truly jaw-dropping. go find it!

[TheRonMorales]

This has metaphysical implications: if Paul Rothemund took his knowledge and the time and effort to make a simple nano-smiley face with DNA, then what about the much more complex protein structures of the natural world. In our experience, transforming matter through a complex information process is a relic of intelligence. Information implies an Informant.

[Aidsus]

Holy shit! That is cool, and quite scary.

Someone needs to appoint this guy as leader of the world or something. Super intelligent.

[rozekei]

Fuckin' GENIUS

[AENIMA42069]

wow this has absolutly no potential for abuse. as if controling peoples brain activity with televisions wasnt enough they will soon be able to program your DNA. atleast with TV's you can make the choice not to watch them and avoid the trance/alzhiemers bullet, this however can be administered to the worlds middle and lower class populations against their will and without their knowledge effortlessly. great....

[JoshuaAmaro]

Hacking matter!! wow this is some amazing stuff!! Just imagine the possibilities... the analogy to spells is correct because if this takes off -like I think it will- then you people who don't understand this are going to be left thinking "it is magic!" and the technology gap is going to be HUGE.. if some of you are scare and confuse now wait another 10 years... amazing..

[ajlexander]

its so disgusting to see orthodox scientists pretending not to follow whats being presented just because the "spell" word was mentioned. i'm starting to believe the idea that science is a religious order.

[acidbath32]

@ajlexander that would imply that quantum physics is a mindsnare!!

[Stickstacks12]

einstein said "highly developed spirits have always encountered great resistance from mediocre minds". This guy is one of those spirits...you people calling him scary/nerd/weird are mediocre and will continue to be so until you sack up, let go of those fragile little egos, and realize that calling people names is for second graders. Paul...you and your work are amazing, thank you. Don't ever get sidetracked by insignificant jeerers with nothing better to do with themselves.

[zassounotsukushi]

You're perfectly right, the TED talks are about like a beauty contest. Their objective is more shock value than anything else, that immediate attention grabber seems to take precedence over everything else. Even on youtube, much better more in depth talks are out there.

But they do something that common researchers often outright ignore. Explaining stuff simply and connecting to people.

[nicholai369]

the end of man cometh!!!

[Unityspirit50]

the end of man cometh here comes woman hear her roar.

[melindajlaidlaw]

I noticed Tony Robbins in the audience..

[futureneurologist]

this guy is weird he trys so hard to sound smart and intelligent but he sounds like an idiot, I dont know if his main subject is computers, DNA, or spells and wizards. It just sounds like a whole lot of disorganized thinking. I hope that he's not a real professor because his students will learn nothing. Then he has audacity to tell the audience that because they didn't understand him they had insecure thinking. I wonder if the guy who posted this knows what the hell he's talking about exactly.

[melindajlaidlaw]

just nervous...

[ArchCapa]

if you dont know what hes talking about ur the idiot. "insecure thinking" not even close lol

[lysergicaddict]

here come the drones! awesome

[OMGLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL]

Ive stolen from a virus??!??!

[joemarklawson]

Yeah, probably M13 or M1 bacteriophage. They are easy to grow on bacterial cultures (petri dishes or test tubes) and they are short and simple. M13 is kind of the lab rat of the viral world. We use it a lot for DNA sequences... kind a legacy from the early days. I think it might have been the first virus to be sequenced.

[akakilla1]

wtf adds

[teejers01]

What the hell did he just say?  Sheesh..

[MaZe741]

hes talking about the transformation of information into matter, like a wizard casting a spell (speaking information), to create an effect (matter is affected, produced, ect)

but thats probably too phylosophically for the ordinary youtube community to fully understand.

ergo: Future will be insane

[jasonguyperson]

philosophic

[Arxces]

Damn! Forget going into pharmaceuticals! When I finish my biotech degree THIS is what I'm gonna do...

[joebot1]

that was brilliant!!!

[KurNorock]

The point of what this guy is doing is that for now, he can create microscopic shapes and patterns, but in the future he can create micro-microprocessors.

Imagine the computing power of a computer chip that can build itself and is 3 dimensional instead of the 2D layered chips we have now.

That is what he was talking about with the programing and compiling of protein molecules.

[Piers79]

to fast, to short and he completly fails to explain what he wants...

[KurNorock]

he says right at the end "What we really want to do in the end is learn how to program self assembly so that we can build anything."

A lot of TED talks refer to exactly the same thing.  He is only talking fast because he obviously was on a very tight time constraint.

[stillfilm]

Well yes, perhaps I was being to fast and to short here... Anybody with a little knowledge about DNA selfassembly (so probably quite a good portion of the TED audience) understands the goal, but i think the intresting question is how ...

[Piers79]

ups that was my flatmates account...

[frodocrockett]

Hmm. Not a very good talk. It's a very interesting idea, but he's talking far to quickly and too far above his audience's level of understanding.

Also, I think he took the title from the old programming tutorial "Casting SPELs in LISP."

[KurNorock]

He is giving a talk at the TED conference. If that audience can't understand him then nobody can.

[frodocrockett]

Well, when he asked for raised hands to see who understood, the response was not so good. =)

[aleceth]

I understood it fine and i'm not exactly a geneticist. I think you just didn't like him because he mentioned attacking hobbits.

[frodocrockett]

I'm a computer scientist with an interest in biology, so I had no problem with it. I like the idea, I just think it deserves a more detailed and better-paced exposition.

I'd also like to know what he thinks the eventual "kill application" for the technology will be. Maybe reduced costs for synthesizing substances?

[nytonks]

I don't get this at all - what does he mean by building 'technological artifacts' and 'biological artifacts'?

What is the point of having artifacts you can only see in the microscope?

[polyex]

This is not an "exchange". Certainly not very scientific (are they handing out research papers with testable data?). I have to wonder who is the audience for this stuff? It may be good to show it to kids to develop an interest in Science/Technology which is sorely needed, but otherwise it seems like prostitution of Science to folks who cant possibly understand the subject on any useful level to exchange anything except for money.

[stargazerfreak]

the audience are business people looking to see what the nerds are studying and how they can make money of them by giving them funds($)oin their projects

[muchachaverdeygris]

if it took a year to make a star, then it's going to take a while to make a human, but ehy would you want to make a human? couldn't you use it to repair body parts?

[stillfilm]

Well yes, I believe that would be one of the goals, perhaps even organs that have your exact DNA and would never be rejekted by your body, but perhaps some micro machinery two like a kind of snow plow, that can clear blodvessels from blockages, or ... well really the amount of useful things we could make by fully understanding this is incomprehensibly large...

[spiritualmonkey]

Every inventor should ask themselves, "What could an absolute dictator with an army, a secret police, and entire economy at his disposal do with my invention?"

I'm just sayin...

[CpILL]

yeah, but then we would still be living naked in caves. Instead what everyone should be asking themselves is "How can I make a positive change to whats around me" and get off their lazy asses. Sticking your head in the sand isn't a plan for the future. dude.

[spiritualmonkey]

Robert Oppenheimer, "father of the atomic bomb", was not a lazy cave dweller.

And yet after seeing two Japanese cities worth of people burned to a crisp with the weapon he ushered in to existence, he quoted the Bhagavad Gita: "If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one. Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

So what can an absolute dictator with an army do with his invention?

[CpILL]

Yeah, what have they done? Nothing. But Robert should of seen it coming, after all it was a "bomb". Infact more people have died from light arms in the hands children than by bombs, period. Apparently box cutters were used to crash 2 plaines into the twin towers. Did you guy who made the box cutter stop to think about "evil" dictators.

[CpILL]

What stops dictators is not trying and halt all technological progress to remove all the potential weapons in the world, as this is (a) impossible (b) technology generally helps more than harms (see radiology as an example). What stops dictators is educated people. Education can has and will change the world for the better. Trying to remain ignorant has always lead to war (see Nazi Germany for examples).

[BeautifulBeau]

I wish we could do things like that in biology class... I would totally pay attention!

[drahyden]

Wow that is cool, that why i love biology!!!!

[MasterMark123]

the power to make anything from nothing would make new masters in the world. Only the filthy rich would have the machine to replicate. The whole world would go into chaos .. what would people do for work ? who would control the powerful ? George Orwell here we come

[celshader]

Very short. I think he was very nervous and rushed through it. I get what he was talking about though. The ultimate in 3d printing and replication.

[Lionsroar89]

I love the theme! anyone have any idea what it is?

[alfwiz]

The intro was longer than the presentation.

[sacapiloa]

too short!!!!

[w0rldpeace]

jesus god that intro theme.

[masxav16]

sweet i wanna make a ninja pirate!! lol

[JohnDeBunkTest]

er ... a caution ... what happens if the DNA sequence you make is also a dangerous virus?

[SIP100]

badass this has the potential to in the future build absolutely anything, wow the implications are profound.

[reivilo]

one more thing... i thing a good place to start with this is filters... just a thought.

[frodocrockett]

That's a great idea. What'd be even better would be being able to design a filter that makes use of the same kind of passive/active transport structures used by cells. Of course, some of them would need to be powered by ATP, which might be a bit of a drag.

[reivilo]

one step closer to a cleaner , susstainable world.... imagine cemement trucks full of this stuff!