al-mofhariz

As I'm sure most of you have heard, the US Supreme Court issued its ruling on the Myriad Genetics case today. There were no real surprises to speak of in the decision, as the court ruled exactly along the lines the executive branch asked it to. In an amicus curiae brief, lawyers for the US Department of Justice argued that whereas DNA sequences ought to not be eligible for patent protection, modified or so-called "complimentary" DNA does not qualify as a product of nature and is therefore patentable. The Supreme Court's ruling, authored by Justice Thomas, towed exactly this line.

We've covered this case previously on this blog (here, here and here) so I won't go into all of the details now.  But there are a couple of things worth pointing out.

Myriad's argument that gene sequences are patent eligible because the act of isolating DNA turns a product of nature into an invention is a stretch, to say the least. Still, there was widespread concern that invalidat…

Humans have backbones, as do tens of thousands of other creatures. But why? To discover how vertebrates evolved, biologist John Long uses futuristictechnology to peer deep into the past. He creates bio-robots that simulate the behavior of animals, both living and extinct. His bio-robots search for resources, compete for mates, deal with threats—and adapt.
Author of the recently published book, Darwin's Devices: What Evolving Robots Can Teach Us About the History of Life and the Future of Technology, Dr. Long asks: --How do bio-robots evolve? Is robot sex just zeroes and ones? --What does it mean to be intelligent? Are big brainsreally necessary? --How can evolvabots re-create conditions known only from 500-million-year-old fossils?
--What can shark robots teach us about human evolution? How do robo-prey escape robo-predators?
John Long is chair of the biology department, professor of biology and cognitive science, and director of the Interdisciplinary Robotics Research Lab at VassarCol…