I propose an RNA biosensor based on an Internal Ribosome Entry Site (IRES) — Biological computing has incredible potential to allow us to program cells to detect and respond in certain ways to their environment. However, very few good solutions exist to detect the production of proteins by the cell. One of these solutions an allosteric hammerhead ribozyme TRAP (TRAPzyme), a modified hammerhead ribozyme…

How the Wu Wei mindset can shift the odds in your favour — The other day, I was working on a particularly difficult physics problem. I was getting frustrated, so I took a breath and reminded myself, “flow, don’t push”. Variations of the phrase “Trees that don’t bend with the wind, won’t last the storm” have been used in cultures around the world…

It was surprisingly easy — I’ve always been interested in the idea of an evolving computer program. Sure, there are so many ways this could go wrong, but I feel like evolution would make our computers feel more alive. A couple of months ago, I decided to try making a C# program that evolves. The…

I was lazy, so I made an app — Obsidian is my favourite note-taking app of all time. Forget Notion, Obsidian is all you need! Being a student, I use Obsidian to take a lot of notes. …

In 39 lines of code! — If you live in Ontario right now, you’re probably thinking about easy ways to get COVID tests. I figured I’d design my own COVID test using a new feature in the GIL standard library for generating TRAPzymes. …

Abstract Synthetic biology allows humans to harness the immense potential of biology for use in our everyday lives. We can use engineered organisms to synthesize substances for use in our everyday lives, as biosensors to detect environmental toxins, or in medicine to treat disease from within the body. However, all these…

At least in theory… — My favorite projects are always those dumb projects that don’t have any practical use but end up being fun anyway. For example, the time I trained an AI chatbot on episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience. That bot had some interesting views about Antifa and Gordon Ramsay. This project is…

Why DNA IS NOT a programming language, and how to turn it into one — I can’t even count the number of times that someone’s compared DNA to a programming language. This is an okay analogy for someone who knows nothing about biology, but it’s a HUGE oversimplification. The truth is, nobody has the slightest clue how the genes inside of your cells translate into…

CadBerry’s solution to libraries, importing files, and namespaces — How terrible would it be if you had to write an entire Python app in a single file? Having written apps before, I can tell you that the experience would be 💩! Letting users spread code across multiple files is extremely important in any programming language. Not only does it…