MFDB

Storyline

After the dramatic advances in genomics, 21st century biology is also heading for a revolution : moving into the era of synthesis.
In the 1st episode we will look at evolution with a new eye and see how the scientist want to control and speed up the evolution process both forward and.. backwards? The second episode will explore how computers made this possible and how life-engineers are programming living cells and building new organisms. Last episode will be about how this new science intends to transform the world.

A new genesis is under way. After the dramatic advances in genomics, 21st century biology is also heading for a revolution: moving into the era of synthesis. Its ways and means: making evolution evolve, synthesizing genes, building genomes…decrypting, encrypting, and re-encrypting the very building blocks of life, DNA, and manipulating them like simple Lego bricks, programming them, like mechanical parts. That is the challenge that lies ahead. Its objectives: transforming cells into a computational system, conceiving and constructing living factories to produce chemical molecules, inventing new forms of life, to transform the world and to provide responses to health, energy, and data issues. The revolution concerning our knowledge of a living-being’s most intimate workings, the revolution in computer power, the revolution in working on a nanoscopic scale. All these converge towards this new revolution—that of synthetic biology.

3x52 minute series