pol may be worried about the danger of scientist “ flirt god ” with genetic experimentation , but we want biology to be brazen . We ’re rooting for mad scientist with home brew closet labs , grassroots geneticist , and garage genome hackers — because they ’re the researchers most likely to change the human beings . And so , almost three months ago , io9 announcedthe humanity ’s first “ mad science ” competition , name after the kind of hoagie who prevent pursuing scientific origination against all betting odds . Our dissident were asked to work up a real lifeform using MIT ’s registry of standard biological parts sleep with as “ biobricks , ” or by using other scientifically plausible materials . And now , without further ado , we bring you the winner . The winner in our biobricks lifeform category is Vijaykumar Meli , who invented a class of rhizobial bacteria that forms a symbiosis with the root system of Elmer Rice industrial plant to help them process nitrogen more efficiently . This is an actual , practicable lifeform that can be create in the lab using current familial engineering techniques . As the winner , he ’ll get an all - expenses paid trip to Hong Kong to attend the fourth yearly Synthetic Biology conference with leading researchers in the field . Read Meli ’s advance entry . The winner in the “ oecumenical synthetic lifeform ” category is Elliott Gresswell , whose lifeform , a carnivorous , piss - going tree call “ Blue Forest , ” was drawn by renowned amusing book creative person Kevin O’Neill ( “ League of Extraordinary Gentlemen ” and “ Nemesis the Warlock ” ) . you may see that drawing above . Though Gresswell ’s edible , ambulatory forest ca n’t be created with current technology , our judges think it could exalt new invention in the future . Read Gresswell ’s winning entry . We had so many terrific ledger entry that we wanted to share a few of our runners - up with you too . Biobricks Lifeform Runner Up # 1Catherine Aull developed a biological return that can count in binary . She also impress our Book of Judges tremendously with her lab , which is located in a tiny closet in her apartment . Her entry was partially synthesise in that cupboard science lab ( you could see motion picture of the lab in her paper).Biobricks Lifeform Runner Up # 2Jonathan Cline , a software engineer , get a biological breathalyzer arrangement made of bacteria . Instead of measuring alcohol levels , however , his scheme measures the metabolic state of “ ketosis ” in a person ’s body – this is the land where the trunk take off burn fat and turning it into energy . Ketosis is induced by the Atkins diet as well as caloric restriction . General Synthetic Lifeform Runner Up # 1Rizgar Mella , a physics student , produce a software - controlled lifeform . General Synthetic Lifeform Runner Up # 2Naor Livne designed a parasite our Book of Judges dubbed “ Spliterphage ” and it has one of the weirdest intimate reproductive memory cycle you ’ve ever read about . Our Book of Judges came from field as divers as synthetic biology and videogame intent : Stanford synthetic biologistDrew Endy , who helped create biobricks ; UC Berkeley biology researcherTerry Johnson(who writes io9 ’s “ ask a biogeek ” column ) ; Spore game developerJason Shankel ; and UC Berkeley geneticistMichael B. Eisen , atomic number 27 - founder of the Public Library of Science . Of the competition , Eisen said :
masses have been dream about what fresh life forms might see like and do for ever . What I loved about this contest – and the Blue Forest in especial – was that it inspired the great unwashed to apply the same originative spirit to imagine how we might actually create them .
Said Endy :
It was incredibly fun to explore the contemplation and creative thinking of the enrol designs . There ’s a plenty of oeuvre still to do in club to make biology easy to engineer , and to make tangible the constructive hope , both former and new , of biotechnology . Sharing , competing , and work together via well - intentioned competition aid more the great unwashed to reckon , participate , and steer the unconscious process .
Shankel add :
Artificial life history is the new frontier of technology . If Leonardo da Vinci were alive today , this is what he would be working on . And who knows ? One or two breakthrough and he may be animated again sooner than we think .
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