Download or read book Designer Biology written by Ronald L. Sandler and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2013-07-18 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Advances in our scientific understanding and technological power in recent decades have dramatically amplified our capacity to intentionally manipulate complex ecological and biological systems. An implication of this is that biological and ecological problems are increasingly understood and approached from an engineering perspective. In environmental contexts, this is exemplified in the pursuits of geoengineering, designer ecosystems, and conservation cloning. In human health contexts, it is exemplified in the development of synthetic biology, bionanotechnology, and human enhancement technologies. Designer Biology: The Ethics of Intensively Engineering Biological and Ecological Systems consists of thirteen chapters (twelve of them original to the collection) that address the ethical issues raised by technological intervention and design across a broad range of biological and ecological systems. Among the technologies addressed are geoengineering, human enhancement, sex selection, genetic modification, and synthetic biology. This collection advances and enriches our understanding of the ethical issues raised by these technologies and identifies general lessons about the ethics of engineering complex biological and ecological systems that can be applied as new technologies and practices emerge. The insights that emerge will be especially valuable to students and scholars of environmental ethics, bioethics, or technology ethics.
Download or read book Design in Nature written by Adrian Bejan and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2013-01-08 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this groundbreaking book, Adrian Bejan takes the recurring patterns in nature—trees, tributaries, air passages, neural networks, and lightning bolts—and reveals how a single principle of physics, the constructal law, accounts for the evolution of these and many other designs in our world. Everything—from biological life to inanimate systems—generates shape and structure and evolves in a sequence of ever-improving designs in order to facilitate flow. River basins, cardiovascular systems, and bolts of lightning are very efficient flow systems to move a current—of water, blood, or electricity. Likewise, the more complex architecture of animals evolve to cover greater distance per unit of useful energy, or increase their flow across the land. Such designs also appear in human organizations, like the hierarchical “flowcharts” or reporting structures in corporations and political bodies. All are governed by the same principle, known as the constructal law, and configure and reconfigure themselves over time to flow more efficiently. Written in an easy style that achieves clarity without sacrificing complexity, Design in Nature is a paradigm-shifting book that will fundamentally transform our understanding of the world around us.
Download or read book Living Construction written by Martyn Dade-Robertson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-10-28 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modern biotechnologies give us unprecedented control of the fundamental building blocks of life. For designers, across a range of disciplines, emerging fields such as synthetic biology offer the promise of new sustainable materials and structures which may be grown, are self-assembling, self-healing and adaptable to change. While there is a thriving speculative discourse on the future of design in the age of biotechnology, there are few realized design applications. This book, the first in the Bio Design series, acts as a bridge between design speculation and scientific reality and between contemporary design thinking, in areas such as architecture, product design and fashion design, and the traditional engineering approaches which currently dominate biotechnologies. Filled with real examples, Living Construction reveals how living cells construct and transform materials through methods of fabrication and assembly at multiple scales and how designers can utilize these processes.
Download or read book Experimental Design for Biologists written by David J. Glass and published by CSHL Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The effective design of scientific experiments is critical to success, yet graduate students receive very little formal training in how to do it. Based on a well-received course taught by the author, Experimental Design for Biologistsfills this gap. Experimental Design for Biologistsexplains how to establish the framework for an experimental project, how to set up a system, design experiments within that system, and how to determine and use the correct set of controls. Separate chapters are devoted to negative controls, positive controls, and other categories of controls that are perhaps less recognized, such as “assumption controls†and “experimentalist controls†. Furthermore, there are sections on establishing the experimental system, which include performing critical “system controls†. Should all experimental plans be hypothesis-driven? Is a question/answer approach more appropriate? What was the hypothesis behind the Human Genome Project? What color is the sky? How does one get to Carnegie Hall? The answers to these kinds of questions can be found in Experimental Design for Biologists. Written in an engaging manner, the book provides compelling lessons in framing an experimental question, establishing a validated system to answer the question, and deriving verifiable models from experimental data. Experimental Design for Biologistsis an essential source of theory and practical guidance in designing a research plan.
Download or read book LabStudio written by Jenny E. Sabin and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Preface -- Foreword: Reinventing Nature -- Acknowledgments -- Part I Design Research in Practice: Methodology and Approach with Historical Precedents and Case Studies -- 1 Bioconstructivisms -- Trans-Disciplinary Research Practice: Contemporary Case Studies -- 2 Design Research in Practice: A New Model -- Part II Design Computation Tools for Architecture and Science: New Tools and Forms -- Introduction to Design Computation Tools for Architecture and Science: New Tools and Forms -- 3 Networking: Elasticity and Branching Morphogenesis -- Comments on the Role of the Matrix -- New Architectural Concerns -- 4 Motility: Adaptive Architecture and Personalized Medicine -- Topologically Free Cells -- Avoiding Biomimicry -- Visualizing in Another Dimension -- Positioning Mechanism -- Newness -- 5 Surface Design: The Mammary Gland as a Model of Architectural Connectivity -- On Geometry and Cellular Mechanics -- Biological Data and Intuition -- Case Study: Understanding Behavioral Rule Sets through Cell Motility -- Case Study: Motility and the Observation of Change -- Case Study: Microfabrication: Spatializing Cell Signaling and Sensing Mechanisms -- 6 BioInspired Materials and Design -- Part III Architectural Prototyping: Human-Scale Material Systems and Big Datascapes -- 7 The New Science of Making -- 8 Matter Design Computation: Biosynthesis and New Paradigms of Making -- Project: Branching Morphogenesis, 2008 -- Project: Ground Substance, 2009 -- Workshop: Nonlinear Systems Biology and Design, 2010 -- Part IV Personalized Architecture and Medicine -- 9 eSkin: BioInspired Adaptive Materials -- 10 myThread Pavilion -- Interview: RE(IN)FORM(ULAT)ING Health Care via Medicine + Creativity -- Conclusion -- Notes on Contributors -- Image Credits -- Index
Download or read book Synthetic Aesthetics written by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2017-01-06 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As synthetic biology transforms living matter into a medium for making, what is the role of design and its associated values? Synthetic biology manipulates the stuff of life. For synthetic biologists, living matter is programmable material. In search of carbon-neutral fuels, sustainable manufacturing techniques, and innovative drugs, these researchers aim to redesign existing organisms and even construct completely novel biological entities. Some synthetic biologists see themselves as designers, inventing new products and applications. But if biology is viewed as a malleable, engineerable, designable medium, what is the role of design and how will its values apply? In this book, synthetic biologists, artists, designers, and social scientists investigate synthetic biology and design. After chapters that introduce the science and set the terms of the discussion, the book follows six boundary-crossing collaborations between artists and designers and synthetic biologists from around the world, helping us understand what it might mean to 'design nature.' These collaborations have resulted in biological computers that calculate form; speculative packaging that builds its own contents; algae that feeds on circuit boards; and a sampling of human cheeses. They raise intriguing questions about the scientific process, the delegation of creativity, our relationship to designed matter, and, the importance of critical engagement. Should these projects be considered art, design, synthetic biology, or something else altogether? Synthetic biology is driven by its potential; some of these projects are fictions, beyond the current capabilities of the technology. Yet even as fictions, they help illuminate, question, and even shape the future of the field.
Download or read book The Not So Intelligent Designer written by Abby Hafer and published by Lutterworth Press. This book was released on 2016-09-29 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do men's testicles hang outside the body? Why does our appendix sometimes explode and kill us? And who does the Designer like better, anyway - us, or squid? These and other questions are addressed in The Not-So-Intelligent Designer. Dr. Abby Hafer argues that the human body has many faulty design features that would never have been the choice of an intelligent creator. She also points out other animals that got better body parts, which makes the Designer look a bit strange; discusses the history and politics of Intelligent Design and creationism; reveals animals that shouldn't exist according to Intelligent Design; and disposes of the idea of irreducible complexity. Her points are illustrated with pictures (by Alexander Winkler), wit, and erudition.
Download or read book Bio Design written by William Myers and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bioluminescent algae, symbiotic aquariums, self-healing concrete, clavicle wind instruments and structures made from living trees - biology applied outside the lab has never been so intriguing, or so beautiful. Bio Design examines the thrilling advances in the field, showcasing some seventy projects (concepts, prototypes and completed designs) that cover a range of fields - from architecture and industrial design to fashion and medicine. The revised and expanded edition features twelve new projects (replacing ten existing projects): Hy-Fi (by David Benjamin); One Central Park, Sydney (Jean Nouvel); Guard from Above (Sjoerd Hoogendoorn); Cell-laden Hydrogels for Biocatalysis (Alshakim Nelson); Zoa (Modern Meadow); Amino Labs (Julie Legault); Algae and Mycelium Projects (Eric Klarenbeek); Interwoven and Harvest (Diane Scherer); Concrete Honey (John Becker); Bistro In Vitro (Koert van Mensvoort); Circumventive Organs (Agi Haines); Quantworm Mine (Liv Bargman and Nina Cutler). It also includes a new 'how-to' section at the end (Tips for Collaboration/FAQs/Further Resources), as well as a fully revised introduction.
Download or read book The Science and Applications of Synthetic and Systems Biology written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2011-12-30 with total page 570 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many potential applications of synthetic and systems biology are relevant to the challenges associated with the detection, surveillance, and responses to emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. On March 14 and 15, 2011, the Institute of Medicine's (IOM's) Forum on Microbial Threats convened a public workshop in Washington, DC, to explore the current state of the science of synthetic biology, including its dependency on systems biology; discussed the different approaches that scientists are taking to engineer, or reengineer, biological systems; and discussed how the tools and approaches of synthetic and systems biology were being applied to mitigate the risks associated with emerging infectious diseases. The Science and Applications of Synthetic and Systems Biology is organized into sections as a topic-by-topic distillation of the presentations and discussions that took place at the workshop. Its purpose is to present information from relevant experience, to delineate a range of pivotal issues and their respective challenges, and to offer differing perspectives on the topic as discussed and described by the workshop participants. This report also includes a collection of individually authored papers and commentary.
Download or read book Dysteleology written by Michael Berhow and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2019-06-25 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A common theological critique of intelligent design (ID) centers on the problem of dysteleology. This problem states that because there are clear examples of suboptimal design in biology, life is probably not the product of an engineer-like designer. If it were, then one could argue that the designer is less than fully competent. ID critic Francisco Ayala expresses this critique in the following question: "If functional design manifests an Intelligent Designer, why should not deficiencies indicate that the Designer is less than omniscient, or less than omnipotent?" This book provides a philosophical analysis of two approaches to answering this question, one offered by Ayala and the other offered by William Dembski, a leading ID theorist.
Download or read book Life as Its Own Designer written by Anton Markoš and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-07-09 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It has been nearly 150 years since Darwin published On the Origin of Species, and his theory of natural selection still ignites a forest of heated debate between scientific fundamentalists on the one hand and religious fundamentalists on the other. But both sides actually agree more than they disagree, and what has long been needed is a third way to view evolution, one that focuses more on the aspect of life and “being alive”, one that can guide us through, and perhaps out of, the fiery thicket. This book, a seminal work in the burgeoning field of Biosemiotics, provides that third way, by viewing living beings as genuine agents designing their communication pathways with, and in, the world. Already hailed as the best account of biological hermeneutics, Life As Its Own Designer: Darwin’s Origin and Western Thought is a wholly unique book divided into two parts. The first part is philosophical and explores the roots of rationality and the hermeneutics of the natural world with the overriding goal of discovering how narrative can help us to explain life. It analyzes why novelty is so hard to comprehend in the framework of Western thinking and confronts head-on the chasm between evolutionism and traditional rationalistic worldviews. The second part is scientific. It focuses on the life of living beings, treating them as co-creators of their world in the process of evolution. It draws on insights gleaned from the global activity of the Gaian biosphere, considers likeness as demonstrated on homology studies, and probes the problem of evo-devo science from the angle of life itself. This book is both timely and vital. Past attempts at a third way to view evolution have failed because they were written either by scientists who lacked a philosophical grounding or New Age thinkers who lacked biological credibility. Markoš and his coworkers form an original group of thinkers supremely capable in both fields, and they have fashioned a book that is ideal for researchers and scholars from both the humanities and sciences who are interested in the history and philosophy of biology, biosemiotics, and the evolution of life.
Download or read book Origin s of Design in Nature written by Liz Swan and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-08-27 with total page 820 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Origin(s) of Design in Nature is a collection of over 40 articles from prominent researchers in the life, physical, and social sciences, medicine, and the philosophy of science that all address the philosophical and scientific question of how design emerged in the natural world. The volume offers a large variety of perspectives on the design debate including progressive accounts from artificial life, embryology, complexity, cosmology, theology and the philosophy of biology. This book is volume 23 of the series, Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology. www.springer.com/series/5775
Download or read book BioBuilder written by Natalie Kuldell PhD. and published by "O'Reilly Media, Inc.". This book was released on 2015-06-22 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today’s synthetic biologists are in the early stages of engineering living cells to help treat diseases, sense toxic compounds in the environment, and produce valuable drugs. With this manual, you can be part of it. Based on the BioBuilder curriculum, this valuable book provides open-access, modular, hands-on lessons in synthetic biology for secondary and post-secondary classrooms and laboratories. It also serves as an introduction to the field for science and engineering enthusiasts. Developed at MIT in collaboration with award-winning high school teachers, BioBuilder teaches the foundational ideas of the emerging synthetic biology field, as well as key aspects of biological engineering that researchers are exploring in labs throughout the world. These lessons will empower teachers and students to explore and be part of solving persistent real-world challenges. Learn the fundamentals of biodesign and DNA engineering Explore important ethical issues raised by examples of synthetic biology Investigate the BioBuilder labs that probe the design-build-test cycle Test synthetic living systems designed and built by engineers Measure several variants of an enzyme-generating genetic circuit Model "bacterial photography" that changes a strain’s light sensitivity Build living systems to produce purple or green pigment Optimize baker’s yeast to produce ?-carotene
Download or read book LabStudio written by Jenny Sabin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-28 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: LabStudio: Design Research between Architecture and Biology introduces the concept of the research design laboratory in which funded research and trans-disciplinary participants achieve radical advances in science, design, and applied architectural practice. The book demonstrates to natural scientists and architects alike new approaches to more traditional design studio and hypothesis-led research that are complementary, iterative, experimental, and reciprocal. These originate from 3-D spatial biology and generative design in architecture, creating philosophies and practices that are high-risk, non-linear, and design-driven for often surprising results. Authors Jenny E. Sabin, an architectural designer, and Peter Lloyd Jones, a spatial biologist, present case studies, prototypes, and exercises from their practice, LabStudio, illustrating in hundreds of color images a new model for seemingly unrelated, open-ended, data-, systems- and technology-driven methods that you can adopt for incredible results.
Download or read book Design for the Unthinkable World written by Craig Bremner and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-02-13 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited book contests that if design’s raison d'être is to make things better, then the object of design has always been, remains and can only be a changed world and our relationship to it – the world-for-us. Each chapter was written by carefully selected researchers and practitioners who span geographical, disciplinary, and methodological boundaries in their work. Contributors skilfully examine the case that, while this once might have been seen to be a worthy objective (how else to effect a preferred state and/or pursue the project for the better world?), now the role of designing must cease to service design for change in the manner in which it has been doing. Chapters explore how designing itself might change to explore the possibilities that might exist for the design of what-might-not-become in an unthinkable-world; what Eugene Thacker calls a world-without-us. This world-without-us does not mean a world devoid of humans or an interstellar world, but a world we project that continues to revolve around the sun but no longer revolves around us. This book will be of interest to scholars working in design research, design ecology, product design, service design, experience design, architecture, and information design.
Download or read book Intelligent Design and Fundamentalist Opposition to Evolution written by Angus M. Gunn and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-01-28 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rise of political Christian fundamentalism has brought with it an increasingly well-organized attack on evolution. Recently, proponents of Intelligent Design (ID) have, with successes and failures, pushed the debate over evolution into a more public arena--ID is a contentious issue for local and state school boards, and the necessity of including ID in school science curricula is a key political issue in the United States and other predominantly Christian nations. This book analyzes fundamentalists' scientific and political attempts to advance creationism over evolution through the new medium of Intelligent Design. The first chapter discusses the development of evolution from Darwin's original work to its standing as a supported tenet of modern science. Subsequent chapters trace the history of fundamentalism, the twin threats fundamentalists perceive from evolution and criticism of the Bible, and the ways that fundamentalists historically argued the case for creationism. The final chapters examine conflicting biblical interpretations and the Bible's historical accuracy, and offer case studies that show evolution's benefits to human welfare. Appendices include tables of contents for all 12 volumes of The Fundamentals, a list of medical breakthroughs over the past 100 years, extracts from the December 2005 U.S. District Court ruling over ID in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and a glossary of terms.
Download or read book Arguing about Gods written by Graham Oppy and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2006-09-04 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Graham Oppy examines arguments for and against the existence of God. He shows that none of these arguments is powerful enough to change the minds of reasonable participants in debates on the question of the existence of God. His conclusion is supported by detailed analyses of the arguments as well as by the development of a theory about the purpose of arguments and the criteria that should be used in judging whether or not arguments are successful. Oppy discusses the work of a wide array of philosophers, including Anselm, Aquinas, Descartes, Locke, Leibniz, Kant, Hume and, more recently, Plantinga, Dembski, White, Dawkins, Bergman, Gale and Pruss.
