Great Courses: Synthetic Biology by Milton Muldrow, Jr.

 Synthetic Biology is using splicing or other means to create altered or completely new DNA sequences.  In this lecture series Muldrow enthusiastically examines the potential of this emerging technology.  He starts out explaining the different methods of artificial gene alterations and the history of synthetic biology.  Then, in following lectures, he talks about the potential applications in fuel, food production, di-extinction, genetic disorders, space exploration, and eugenics. He is enthusiastic about his topic and spends much more time on the potential benefits and less time on ethical issues.  

I checked out this lecture series as a kind of related topic to the Epigenetics series I listened to a couple of months ago.  It was interesting, but quite technical.  I found myself tuning out a lot of the technical details and jargon, and just focusing on the ideas for applications.  Some of them I think have real possibilities, but others were pretty far out there in the "do-ability" scale. His discussions about how synthetic biology may be leveraged to make Mars colonization possible was especially futuristic, and not likely to take place in my or my grandchildren's life times. Still, the series made me wonder how synthetic biology will affect the world in the future.  Will it be the next big life changing innovation like the internet, cell phones, and AI? (2022, 9 hrs)