biotechnology

"Examines the history and future of the revolutionary and awe-inspiring technology of genetic engineering and how it has both thrilled and terrified scientists who have demonstrated the power to change life itself"--Provided by publisher.

Over the course of billions of years nature has undergone a vast process of experimentation and trial and error. A tiny bit at a time, and in numerous clever ways, it has made various animal and plant species increasingly efficient. Biomimicry is a human attempt to take full advantage of that efficiency. Biomimicry allows people to learn from and apply nature's handiwork to fulfill human needs.

"A stark and urgent warning on the unprecedented risks that a wave of fast-developing technologies poses to global order, and how we might contain them while we have the chance-from a cofounder of the pioneering AI company DeepMind. Imagine a world in which anyone with a $20,000 desktop DNA synthesizer could develop and unleash a deadly virus. Imagine an undetectable deepfake video of a U.S. president making a racial slur racing across the internet on the eve of an election. Imagine terrorists or paramilitaries stockpiling autonomous weapons designed to make their own decisions about when to engage. As cofounder of DeepMind, the pioneering AI company now owned by Google, Mustafa Suleyman has witnessed firsthand just how rapidly our technology is advancing-and how flawed our approaches to grappling with these changes are. The coming decades, he argues, will be defined by a burst of innovation, an inevitable wave of powerful, fast-proliferating new technologies across fields like synthetic biology, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing. Driven forward by immense strategic and financial incentives, these breakthroughs will solve huge challenges and create vast wealth-but upheaval, too, on a once unimaginable scale. Will humankind make it through the narrow corridor between dystopia and catastrophe? In The Coming Wave, Suleyman shows how this new technological super-wave fits a historical pattern of innovation and proliferation, while departing from it in key ways: namely, the speed of change, the breadth of risks, and the wave's potential to democratize access to dangerous, world-altering power. The cumulative risks threaten the very nation state, humanity's centuries' old "grand bargain" of living under centralized authority in exchange for security. As our fragile governments sleepwalk into catastrophe, humanity is left in an existential bind, with techno-authoritarianism on one side and even more catastrophic outcomes, like societal collapse, on the other. We are about to cross a critical threshold in the history of our species. In this groundbreaking book from the ultimate AI insider, Suleyman firmly establishes "the containment problem"-or the challenge of maintaining human control over dangerous technologies-as the essential dilemma of our age, showing that radical steps must be taken if we are to live alongside technology of once unimaginable power"--.

"The humans are Rachel and Wick - a scavenger and a drug dealer - both with too many secrets and fears, ready with traps to be set and sprung. The creatures are Mord and Borne - animal, perhaps plant, maybe company discard, biotech, cruel experiment, dinner, deity, or source of spare parts"--Provided by publisher.

". . . introduces us to the creatures who know how to build, and looks at how their techniques have been copied in human construction"--Provided by publisher.

Recounts the race of pharmaceutical companies and entrepreneurs to develop a Covid-19 vaccine during 2020. Discusses the scientists involved in finding out what the virus was, those who hedged their bets to develop a vaccine, the old and new methods of developing vaccines, the testing process, and how the process was hampered by the political environment.

"Humans think they invent everything, but the fact is, us animals have invented ways of solving problems, making unbelievable materials, ways of getting around and working out how to survive on our own for millions of years. In this book you will meet the animal inventors who have shared their super inventing powers to make amazing things for humans."--Back cover.

"This title takes a look at some of the ... medicine and technology being created (like a COVID-19 vaccine and antibody therapy) and being utilized (like drones and ventilators) to help in the fight against COVID-19. This book shows ... things that scientist and engineers can accomplish when faced with a problem as big as a pandemic"--Amazon.

This book details some of the many ways to put 3D printers to great use and it explains the field's best practices.

"Explores how and why gene editing was developed, how the technology works today, and how the technology will be advanced in the future"--Provided by publisher.