artificial cells

The origin of life remains one of the great mysteries that science still faces. One of the approaches to address it is to try building living cells from scratch, an endeavour that has recently seen a boost due to new ways of creating small cell-like membrane bubbles, or vesicles. Additional benefits from this kind of research may materialise in medical applications like drug delivery and imaging.

Read all about it in my feature:

Artificial cells
Chemistry & Industry Volume 79, Issue 9, pages 22–25, Sept. 2015 DOI: 10.1002/cind.799_6.x

abstract and first page (Wiley)

access for SCI members

In the same issue, on page 49, there's also my review of the book: Junk DNA: a journey through the dark matter of the genome, by Nessa Carey.

digging deep

The Deep Carbon Observatory is an international interdisciplinary project studying the hidden carbon fluxes deep within the earth, along with implications for life in the subsurface and on planet formation and development.

I've written a feature about this work which is out in Chemistry & Industry:

Carbon deep

Chemistry & Industry March 2013, pp 32-35

The full text is freely accessible here.

The article is also featured on the cover of the issue:

In the same issue, I also have a review of the book "Synthetic biology: a primer", which appears on page 50.

synthesising life

I've always been puzzled by the field of synthetic biology. Every now and again, I write a piece about it in a bid to understand what it really is about. My latest attempt at understanding is out today in Current Biology:

What exactly is synthetic biology?
Current Biology, Volume 21, Issue 16, R611-R614, 23 August 2011
doi:10.1016/j.cub.2011.08.002
abstract and FREE access to pdf file

As always, I have used examples of recent research to try and define the field, but surely, I will need a few more articles to sort this out.

Image source: wikimedia commons