INNOVATION IN BIOTECHNOLOGY
RETHINKING INNOVATION IN BIOTECHNOLOGY (Source: https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/innovation-in-biotechnology - A Salute to DARPA!) Cort Wrotnowski BioSpark Associates, LLC Greenwich, CT Nov. 19, 2018 Andreas Wagner wrote a book a few years ago titled "Arrival of the Fittest". Generally well received, this well-done and well-thought out work explored the question "Does Nature Innovate?" The short answer is yes. The other question is "How?" He focused on the how of bacterial adaptations to new substrates as well as the "redundancy" of what he called metabolic networks for breaking down glucose. The ability of bacteria to break down the same substrate in a bewildering array of different biochemistries says much about the nature of evolution. By building in multiple biochemical pathways which can apparently shift in relation to each other, bacteria possess a remarkable resiliency that explains how they can thrive in innumberable type...