I can't be bothered to watch an 18 minute youtube video, sorry. Can you summarize for us?
Fair enough. i didn't consider that when posting the link. The good stuff starts about 2 or 3 minutes in.
TL; DR This is how everything will be made in the future. I don't understand how. Please help!
The thing is, I don't really understand it well enough to summarize. I know that they are creating ("writing") DNA on silicon chips according to their customer's code/specifications. And then somehow that company can then take the code and create . . . . damn near anything? (this is where it gets hazy for me- how do they create? like 3D printing? ) with that DNA code.
Examples provided in the video: synthetic DNA-grown rhino horn that . . . is basically real rhino horn in every way. Just grown in the lab, not on the upper lip of a rhino. Right now rhino horn goes for $30,000 per pound in Asia. The only thing more expensive per pound in the world is heroin. A company (their client?) wants to flood the market with lab grown rhino horn
that is exactly the same in every way as wild grown rhino horn and therefore save the rhino from extinction.
Another example similar to above but with shark fins, IIRC.
Another example of growing (?) industrial quantity silk that, again, has the same quality as spider grown silk, but with DNA.
Yeast products (fermentation) to replace anti-malaria drug creation, as well as vanillin (?). Shortened production cycles and vastly lower costs. How does DNA on a silicon chip interact with yeast?
One thing I do (kinda) grasp is how they use DNA to fight cancer. Just cut and paste with CRISPR-cas9 gene editing tool and voila! you now have a smart-bomb that only hunts cancer cells.
And another tidbit that blew my mind; all the information found on the internet, all across the world, cloud, server farms, etc. if stored on DNA on silicon chips, would fit in a single shoe box.
My background isn't in computers, software or biology, so I'm just trying to wrap my head around this. I always thought that DNA was the 'building blocks of life' and that therefore, I guess, it was made up of organic material. So how can organic material be put on a silicon chip?
How can DNA (an organic material?) be stored (forever and with no degradation or loss, apparently, also in the video), on a silicon chip? Or is DNA referring to an alternative to the binary (1's and 0's) computer code that we've had until now. If this is the case, how does that work (ok; not an easy question to answer, I know.)
The video also explained how writing DNA can serve as a replacement for oil; maybe not replace the internal combustion engine, but everything else petroleum is used for; (think: fertilizer, plastics, tires, shores, etc). Major reduction in greenhouse gases, etc. (again, IIRC and if I understood correctly). How can you create a yeast-based bio-factory (her term) with DNA on a silicon chip?
Someone told me that this is like the discovery of oil . .. in the 1920's. I guess I'm like the simpleton from 100 years ago who didn't understand how oil could replace the tried and true work horse, the only thing he'd known up till then.
