Noise is a combination of all the things we can't quite account for.
Things like natural variation and the behaviours of genes
or proteins or molecular interactions, that haven't yet been described.
Synthetic biologists make confronting noise and scrutinizing it, thus
leading to a lot of new knowledge on cell biology.
That they should find them.
Quote, that to understand something you must first be
able to build it, is big in synthetic biology circles.
Well now that we understand cell biology when we can build a cell from scratch.
But then you still have the evolution elbowing its way in.
The DNA you put into your cells will mutate.
And these mutations will be selected for or against.
And if they are selected for, then they will
accumulate in your genetic circuits, and they'll change their function.
Evolution is a phenomenon which would drive any electrical engineer mad.
Well,
despite all that, the field is moving in a positive direction.
It's just that the road is far longer than some imagined.
And this isn't surprising.
Gartner, an information technology research and advisory firm, has coined
the term, hype cycle, to describe exactly this sort of phenomenon.
And the technology is introduced with enthusiasm, only to follow, be followed
by an emotional low when it fails immediately to live up to
its promise.
But Gartner also discovered that the cycle doesn't typically
end in what the firm calls the trough of disillusionment.
Rising form the ashes is the slope of enlightenment.
Many, that when viewed from a longer termed perspective the majority
of these much hyped ground breaking
developments eventually break much new ground.
And this is what is now happening in a lot
of new genetic areas like personalized medicine and synthetic biology.
So, for example, because DNA design, synthesis,
and assembly are now so much easier.
Many are talking about moving away from tweaking
existing genetic designs to construction of whole new organisms.
Species birthed entirely from our imaginations and
capable of feats impossible in the natural world.