Ben Scott

Ben Scott

@benmiscott.bsky.social

Science, housing advocacy, transit, Lego. 🧬🤖🌱 Engineering Biology Platform Lead, Global Institute for Food Security https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=dHPm9s0AAAAJ&hl=en

133 followers306 following31 posts

The only part of this that made me momentarily hesitate was that I share photos with my family through Google. But then I just got angrier when I realized this shite company has a monopoly on the digital memories I share. Not anymore. I'll just mail the photos instead.

Incredibly useful resource that takes the pulse of climate biotech 🧬🌱🌍, a field that working to reshape humanity's future for the better.

Homeworld Collective@homeworld.bsky.social

We surveyed 130+ people in climate biotech and interviewed 63 of them. We are excited to share the results: an interactive dashboard where you can explore the data, discover what we found, and develop your own conclusions. View the Climate Biotech Community Survey Dashboard: survey.homeworld.bio

Very excited to attend and proud to have co-organized this with @uwaterloo.ca WCMR. See you at #SynBio8!

SynBio Canada@synbiocanada.bsky.social

SynBio 8.0 is June 15-17 in Waterloo! We've got a fantastic lineup of speakers, panelists, and 50 posters from brilliant trainees and professionals across Canada. See you soon! 🧬🍁 #SynBio8 www.synbiocanada.org/synbio8

Proud of this work with @osn-scott.bsky.social. We challenge the assumption that DNA should be expensive and hard to access. We provide clear steps to making biology more open for strengthening the bioeconomy. 🧬

Canadian Journal of Microbiology@canjmicrobio.bsky.social

Innovation in biotech is bottlenecked by expensive, restricted DNA parts. A new Open Bio Research Alliance could make DNA building accessible, affordable, and open—boosting Canada’s bioeconomy and biosecurity. #SyntheticBiology #OpenScience #Bioeconomy https://ow.ly/pNtW50XW8No

A particularly dark day in the world. Driven by human decisions, not inevitability. I reflect on this paragraph when I need inspiration for what our world could be. What we can make it to be.

Ben Scott reposted

The natural gas facility..will produce 1.4 gigawatts of energy each day, solely to power what could become the largest artificial intelligence (#AI) data centre in the county. That’s equivalent to the daily demand for the entire city of Edmonton.' thenarwhal.ca/olds-alberta...

thenarwhal.caCanada’s largest AI data centre proposed in rural Alberta | The NarwhalProponents of the $10-billion project plan to build an AI data centre that would consume as much power as the city of Edmonton

Ben Scott reposted

Registration now open for SynBio 8.0, June 15-17 at the University of Waterloo. www.synbiocanada.org/synbio8 Join us at Canada’s premier synthetic biology conference, bringing the community together to showcase advances from across the country and across the full breadth of the field! #synbio8 🍁🧬

Ben Scott reposted

Would you rather live in a world without modern medicine or a world without B2B SaaS? When someone claims "biotech shows a lack of progress relative to digital tech" let's keep in mind that there are other metrics of progress besides how fast you can start and 100x a company

Ben Scott reposted

you’re fired. wait you’re rehired. email us a list of things you’ve done today wait forget it you’re fired again. come back your job was important. you’re fired. or hired. come in to the office. wait the office has no computers go home. we are the department of government efficiency.

Ben Scott reposted

No they don’t. Canada and Mexico want none of this. They want the president of the United States to respect and abide by the trade treaty he negotiated with them - and not make up bogus pretexts for plunging us all into a gratuitous no win economic debacle.

Thinking of my family, friends, and colleagues in the US. It's obvious that this 🇺🇸🇨🇦 #tradewar is delusional. But the manufactured crisis may boil over into long lasting tension. Never forget who the real enemies are — the ones who gain power and popularity by sowing division.

Ben Scott reposted

Which DNA polymerase / PCR kit would you recommend to genotype from crude lysates? This is for heat-lysed cultured mammalian cells right after clone picking. We need robust on 2-3kb amplicons. KOD Xtream works amazing but $$$ and backordered - Thx!! 🧬

There are some weeks in the lab where absolutely nothing works. And then there are weeks where just one thing works, but it validates all hard work before it. This week was the latter...and I'm very excited about what happens next!

The difference between #techbio and #biotech is hubris. Where #techbio believes biological mystery can be overcome by more data and that the underlying mechanism is unimportant, #biotech (and it's children #synbio #engbio) believes that the mechanism itself will lead to new wonders

There is an undercurrent of voracity with #tecbio. Biology becomes an opportunity and something to be extracted. Not necessarily something to be understood and nurtured. Life's inherent qualities are reduced to "what will this give me?" instead of "how does this work and why?".

The difference between #techbio and #biotech is hubris. Where #techbio believes biological mystery can be overcome by more data and that the underlying mechanism is unimportant, #biotech (and it's children #synbio #engbio) believes that the mechanism itself will lead to new wonders

I don't think this is disparaging, but #techbio is a shortcut. Phenotypic screening for example, where the mechanism is less important than the result, and yet great amounts of valuable data can be generated. Maybe it accomplished a goal, but if no one understands it can it be improved upon?

Great read. A focused assessment of where engineering biology is. Plus some hints about where it needs to go. 🧬

Jake Wintermute@synbio1.bsky.social

When we started the Foundry Theory series about a year ago, I expected it to be mainly a technology story. But it turns out to be mainly a human story. foundrytheory.substack.com/p/three-less...

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