Imagine being able to create a new drought-resistant plant as easily as you write a Facebook app.
The scenario is not as far-fetched as it might seem. The techniques of computer science and engineering are moving into biology, and their business/production models are coming with them. As we wrote about the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition, in which college kids built new GM E. coli, “[MIT researchers] want to make biological systems easy to build by applying the tools of computer science and engineering: using standard parts and modular design to simplify complex systems.”
Link: Wired
