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Biopunk
- Solving Biotech’s Biggest Problems in Kitchens and Garages
- Narrated by: Paul Michael Garcia
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
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Publisher's summary
Champions of synthetic biology believe that turning genetic code into Lego-like blocks to build never-before-seen organisms could solve the thorniest challenges in medicine, energy, and environmental protection. But as the hackers who cracked open the potential of the personal computer and the Internet proved, the most revolutionary discoveries often emerge from out-of-the-way places, forged by brilliant outsiders with few resources besides boundless energy and great ideas.
In Biopunk, Marcus Wohlsen chronicles a growing community of DIY scientists working outside the walls of corporations and universities who are committed to democratizing DNA the way the Internet did information. The "biohacking" movement, now in its early, heady days, aims to unleash an outbreak of genetically modified innovation by making the tools and techniques of biotechnology accessible to everyone. Borrowing their idealism from the worlds of open-source software, artisinal food, Internet startups, and the Peace Corps, biopunks are devoted advocates for open-sourcing the basic code of life. They believe in the power of individuals with access to DNA to solve the world's biggest problems.
You'll meet a new breed of hackers who aren't afraid to get their hands wet, from entrepreneurs who aim to bring DNA-based medical tools to the poorest of the poor to a curious tinkerer who believes a tub of yogurt and a jellyfish gene could protect the world's food supply. These biohackers include:
- A duo who started a cancer drug company in their kitchen
- A team who built an open-source DNA copy machine
- A woman who developed a genetic test in her apartment for a deadly disease that had stricken her family
Along with the potential of citizen science to bring about disruptive change, Wohlsen explores the risks of DIY bioterrorism, the possibility of genetic engineering experiments gone awry, and whether the ability to design life from scratch on a laptop might come sooner than we think.
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Story
Coal, iron ore, and oil were the key productive assets that fueled the Industrial Revolution. Today data is the vital raw material of the information economy. The explosive abundance of this digital asset, more than doubling every two years, is creating a new world of opportunity and challenge. Data-ism is about this next phase, in which vast, Internet-scale data sets are used for discovery and prediction in virtually every field. It is a journey across this emerging world with people, illuminating narrative examples, and insights.
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More business case than serious analysis
- By Godfried Gubbels on 06-03-15
By: Steve Lohr
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Thinking Machines
- The Quest for Artificial Intelligence - and Where It's Taking Us Next
- By: Luke Dormehl
- Narrated by: Gus Brown
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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When most of us think about artificial intelligence, our minds go straight to cyborgs, robots, and sci-fi thrillers where machines take over the world. But the truth is that artificial intelligence is already among us. It exists in our smartphones, fitness trackers, and refrigerators that tell us when the milk will expire. In some ways the future people dreamed of at the World's Fair in the 1960s is already here. We're teaching our machines how to think like humans, and they're learning at an incredible rate.
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Mostly platitudes with no depth
- By Gary on 03-24-17
By: Luke Dormehl
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p53: The Gene That Cracked the Cancer Code
- By: Sue Armstrong
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Jasicki
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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p53: The Gene That Cracked the Cancer Code reveals the tale of the search for this gene, as well as the excitement of the hunt for new cures - the hype, the lost opportunities, the blind alleys, and the thrilling breakthroughs. As the long-anticipated revolution in cancer treatment tailored to each individual patient's symptoms starts to take off at last, p53 is still at the forefront of the game. This is a timely tale of scientific discovery and advances in our understanding of a disease that still affects more than one in three of us at some point in our lives.
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Excellent story! Unfortunate narration at start
- By Adriana on 12-25-14
By: Sue Armstrong
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A Shot to Save the World
- The Inside Story of the Life-or-Death Race for a COVID-19 Vaccine
- By: Gregory Zuckerman
- Narrated by: Jack Armstrong
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Few were ready when a mysterious respiratory illness emerged in Wuhan, China, in January 2020. Politicians, government officials, business leaders, and public-health professionals were unprepared for the most devastating pandemic in a century. Many of the world’s biggest drug and vaccine makers were slow to react or couldn’t muster an effective response. It was up to a small group of unlikely and untested scientists and executives to save civilization.
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Wow! Do not miss this one.
- By Jacob on 11-18-21
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Soonish
- Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything
- By: Kelly Weinersmith, Zach Weinersmith
- Narrated by: Kelly Weinersmith, Zach Weinersmith
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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In this smart and funny book, celebrated cartoonist Zach Weinersmith and noted researcher Dr. Kelly Weinersmith give us a snapshot of what's coming next - from robot swarms to nuclear fusion powered-toasters. By weaving their own research and interviews with the scientists who are making these advances happen, the Weinersmiths investigate why these technologies are needed, how they would work, and what is standing in their way.
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Really Good-ish!
- By See Reverse on 04-16-18
By: Kelly Weinersmith, and others
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Creation
- How Science Is Reinventing Life Itself
- By: Adam Rutherford
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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What is life? Humans have been asking this question for thousands of years. But as technology has advanced and our understanding of biology has deepened, the answer has evolved. For decades, scientists have been exploring the limits of nature by modifying and manipulating DNA, cells, and whole organisms to create new ones that could never have previously existed on their own.
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The Goldilocks book on what is life
- By Gary on 07-11-13
By: Adam Rutherford
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The Antidote
- Inside the World of New Pharma
- By: Barry Werth
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 16 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1989, the charismatic Joshua Boger left Merck, then America's most admired business, to found a drug company that would challenge industry giants and transform health care. Barry Werth described the company's tumultuous early days during the AIDS crisis in The Billion-Dollar Molecule, a celebrated classic of science and business journalism. Now he returns to tell a riveting story of Vertex's bold endurance and eventual success.
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For me this was not interesting
- By Yan on 06-26-17
By: Barry Werth
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Adapt
- Why Success Always Starts with Failure
- By: Tim Harford
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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In this groundbreaking work, Tim Harford shows us a new and inspiring approach to solving the most pressing problems in our lives. Harford argues that today’s challenges simply cannot be tackled with ready-made solutions and expert opinions; the world has become far too unpredictable and profoundly complex. Instead, we must adapt. Deftly weaving together psychology, evolutionary biology, anthropology, physics, and economics, along with compelling stories of hard-won lessons learned in the field, Harford makes a passionate case for the importance of adaptive trial-and-error....
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Hidden Agenda
- By Lawrence on 05-20-13
By: Tim Harford
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The Secret History of the War on Cancer
- By: Devra Davis Ph.D.
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 19 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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The War on Cancer was run by leaders of industries that made cancer-causing products and sometimes also profited from drugs and technologies for finding and treating the disease. Filled with compelling personalities and never-before-revealed information, The Secret History of the War on Cancer shows how we began fighting the wrong war, with the wrong weapons, against the wrong enemies, a legacy that persists to this day.
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Silly Book
- By Adam Smith on 12-24-14
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Headstrong
- 52 Women Who Changed Science-and the World
- By: Rachel Swaby
- Narrated by: Lauren Fortgang
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In 2013, the New York Times published an obituary for Yvonne Brill. It began: “She made a mean beef stroganoff, followed her husband from job to job, and took eight years off from work to raise three children.” It wasn’t until the second paragraph that readers discovered why the Times had devoted several hundred words to her life: Brill was a brilliant rocket scientist who invented a propulsion system to keep communications satellites in orbit, and had recently been awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.
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Role models for young women
- By mtsuda90 on 06-25-16
By: Rachel Swaby
What listeners say about Biopunk
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jacob Dear
- 12-14-22
I love Cruelty squad
this says a lot about our society and yet we live in one
Aldo this felt like a multi hour sustained panic attack
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- William
- 01-31-23
Fascinating
Fascinating information presented in an easily digestible format. Would highly recommend to anyone interesting in learning more about the evolution of scientific advances and the renegade pioneers who are leading the charge.
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- Sergio M
- 10-09-20
Good for Beginners
I had never being curious about Bioengineering or related fields. This book has changed the way I see biology. As an engineer myself, l understand some of the annoyance of not being able to create and experiment on our own without costly hardware. In my case this has changed a lot due to microprocessors being so cheap, I hope that for all of you biohackers it gets to the same point in the future.
I will keep my eyes open to see news about this branch because it is very interesting indeed. Thanks for this fun approach to the mysticism involving biohacking.
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2 people found this helpful
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- H. Metz
- 08-31-23
Not sure…
…what to do with this one… was it an interesting listen? Yes.
Do I agree a lot of Bioengineering/medicine/health is staid, stolid, corrupted by big corps blocking any advance if it costs them a dime? Yes.
But, does that mean I like a reporter who for stretches of whole pages / minutes clearly gets carried away by lionizing and adoring folks you really may not want as your direct neighbor (for hazmat and maybe in the near future for communicable custom diseases reasons)? No.
And do I think these adorable biotinkerers know what they’re doing and will inherently have a positive impact? Not convinced, at least.
This is written in the modern style of journalism, no opinion and pretending to be neutral, but really just leaving all doors open to have excuses at the ready, if things go south.
Plus, would have liked to know how many of the ppl in the book checked out their brains during the pandemic and joined the clown car if anti-vaxxers, bleach and horse medicine pushers?
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- Nibs
- 02-24-22
Subject Matter is Irritating
Downloaded this book because it was free to me. I am a life scientist and I specifically work with bacterial and viral pathogens including SARS-CoV-2. I find it disturbing that people are facilitating “hobbyists” setting up wet labs in their own homes with no oversight or formal training. The book is clearly outdated, written during a time where the most relevant epidemic in the USA was swine flu. Part of the “democratize bioengineering” thesis was that laypeople could help solve epidemiological problems. During the COVID-19 pandemic however, these people were worthless. It was academics who sequenced samples and uploaded them to places like GISAID and GNUVID. It was corporate scientists that developed effective vaccines and biologic/small molecule therapeutics. It was hospital-based MLS personnel that ran routine testing. These so-called “bio hackers” didn’t contribute anything useful. To me, it’s a farce to justify loosening necessary regulations around performing bioengineering and genetic techniques. They compare biohacking in your basement to Mark Zuckerberg inventing Facebook in his dorm room, a comparison that is equally absurd and inapplicable. Imagine the depth of ignorance required to make such a statement. The performance of the book is also mediocre, to top it all off. No wonder it was free.
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2 people found this helpful