The next software revolution: programming biological cells | Sara-Jane Dunn

The cells in your body are like computer software: they're "programmed" to carry out specific functions at specific times. If we can better understand this process, we could unlock the ability to reprogram cells ourselves, says computational biologist Sara-Jane Dunn. In a talk from the cutting-edge of science, she explains how her team is studying embryonic stem cells to gain a new understanding of the biological programs that power life -- and develop "living software" that could transform medicine, agriculture and energy.

[irvantriarts]

If Google was the one researched it, there would be ads at the corner of my vision.

[varun]

"Please pay $999 to upgrade your immune system"

[darrendwyer]

love the term 'wetware'...… I am a software developer, I loved this ted talk.

[haipengli]

Some take-aways : 1 Math is the language to uncover and understand patterns; 2. Everything can ultimately be reduced to physics; 3 System dynamics is far more useful than its typical application in engineering.

[digitalmohsin]

And then somebody hacks your immune system. LoL.

[MadScientistGuild]

I thought of this 15 years ago and my teacher at the time said I was crazy lol

[wolfth]

Thought about something like this after learning about the basics of cell signalling from a friend. Knew about the idea of biological computers from and article 4yrs ago. Computer programmer.

[MM-ygzj]

I once said in my presentation that bacteria will be the next sustainable USBs and everybody laughed. Look who's laughing now xD

[f]

I can't wait to run my Microsoft-designed kids in for patch Tuesdays

[TikTok-tdgv]

Imagine how the cognitive capitalism of tech giants will shape our future. And with the growing threat of mass surveillance and cyberwarfare, who is left to defend our human rights?

[sitisyazwani]

i'm currently a first year student majoring in Bioinformatics and for some reason, this course makes me think twice whether should i continue on pursuing in this course or not because it's kinda hard for me tbh. but after watching this i feel like i got a whole new overview and perspective about my course. definitely going to study hard so that i can be one of these great minded people in the future 😃

[considerthis]

Thank god this research is being done by Microsoft -- what could possibly go wrong?

[joecode]

Dare I say, what a beautiful (extraordinary) explanation, and presentation.
It's been long since having the pleasure of experiencing such intellect, and expert articulation. And that, in parallel. Inspiring. Thank you for sharing Sarah-Jane.

[alexi]

This is an extremely interesting and deep topic. We're creating computers while our bodys are working similarly. I regret not studying IT harder

[_Matrx]

Hello youtube community. My Name is Ed im 25 years old from Illinois. I lost my Job about 2 months ago, Ive applied to over 100 jobs and had so far 2 interviews no calls or emails. I get anxiety sometimes...I pray and I hope that ill get a job offer, but here I am 2 months later and still no job. Even with all of the effort I put in I feel like its still not enough. I just have to keep my head up, tomorrow is a new day.
If you read this I hope you have a blessed day.

[triton]

This is what I'll research after uni

[BlaZay]

Jeez, why is everybody down here flipping out ? Am I the only one actually looking forward to what they'll be able to do ? Just because it's Microsoft doesn't make it automatically bad, just as an university research lab doing the same isn't automatically good.

[ismaelsaldanha]

Very interesting work.
What has been discovered about nerve repair?
Has anybody used living neurons to interface severed human nerves?

[paulfrischknecht]

7:58 theory shows that automatically checking whether an arbitrary program satisfies a specification is in general as difficult as just executing it, so no, there is no general technology for checking whether a program meets a specification... now, of course, for the simple types of programs we typically write by hand it would be doable to write down or even automatically generate proofs of correctness, but besides maybe NASA and authors of complex distributed protocols (such as for your triply redundant cloud storage), no one does these "formal specification checks" (aka. model checking).

[WilliamLWeaver]

Great talk, but why the incorrect information about biomass solar efficiency? Plants collect sunlight at 2 - 6% efficiency. The current record for human-made solar cells is 46%. Lot's of great applications but learning from high-efficiency plant photosynthesis is not among them... =\