Hacking DNA

We talk quite blithely about computer viruses and hackers. Here’s an absolutely fascinating presentation given by a biologist (Drew Endy) at the recent Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin. Here’s a biologist talking to an audience of computer folks (geeks, scientists and hackers) about hacking DNA. The analogy of moving from machine code to higher level abstractions such as programming languages, parts and devices is mind-blowing. It’s also quite scary. As one of the comments says, the idea of script kiddies being able to construct their own ebola virus may not be so very far away…