Unveiling the Future: Synthetic Genomes and Cosmic Discoveries

A spectacular new 10-year telescopic survey of the universe gets underway in Chile. Also, a project to create human chromosomes completely synthetically.

Almost three decades ago Tony Tyson (now of UC Davis) and colleagues were standing in the control room of the world’s biggest (at the time) digital astronomical camera. It was 3am when he suggested astronomers could do better.

This week, the Vera C Rubin Observatory unveiled first images from the telescope he envisioned. Unprecedented in so many ways, expect many discoveries to come from this unique machine.

Another ambitious project known as SynHG kicks off this week, on the 25th anniversary of the publication of the first draft of the human genome, with a plan to develop the technology to potentially create a whole synthetic version. Jason Chin of MRC Laboratory of Molecular Laboratory in Cambridge and colleagues will be extending their previous work in synthetic biology to human DNA, whilst Joy Zheng of the University of Kent will be running a parallel project examining the ethical side of the objectives, and possibilities.

Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Alex Mansfield Production co-ordinator: Jazz George

Photo Credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory