From today’s NYT:
Pursuing Synthetic Life ..
“Drew Endy, an assistant professor in the biological engineering department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his colleagues are putting together a registry of standardized biological parts, which they call BioBrick parts.”
All iGEM teams are scored partially (and to a good amount) on their contributions to the BioBrick registry. That’s the funny thing about iGEM – the competition (iGEM coordinators, at MIT) doesn’t provide cash prizes, nor do they provide any real form of financial aid (in contrast, we have to pay to register and compete). We give them parts, we pay them, they hold the competition once a year. Sounds like a too-good deal: is it sustainable? Why are teams continuing to sign up? [Are you arguing "prestige"? ... I don't really think so. Who, outside of iGEMers, knows who won this year? Last year? Two years ago?]
That said, I do love the iGEM competition. … from an economist’s perspective, the costs and benefits don’t seem to align. I’m not sure how sustainable it is, essentially …
Pursuing synthetic life
From today’s NYT:
Pursuing Synthetic Life ..
“Drew Endy, an assistant professor in the biological engineering department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his colleagues are putting together a registry of standardized biological parts, which they call BioBrick parts.”
All iGEM teams are scored partially (and to a good amount) on their contributions to the BioBrick registry. That’s the funny thing about iGEM – the competition (iGEM coordinators, at MIT) doesn’t provide cash prizes, nor do they provide any real form of financial aid (in contrast, we have to pay to register and compete). We give them parts, we pay them, they hold the competition once a year. Sounds like a too-good deal: is it sustainable? Why are teams continuing to sign up? [Are you arguing "prestige"? ... I don't really think so. Who, outside of iGEMers, knows who won this year? Last year? Two years ago?]
That said, I do love the iGEM competition. … from an economist’s perspective, the costs and benefits don’t seem to align. I’m not sure how sustainable it is, essentially …