Technology Vision 2023 | When Atoms meet Bits #TechVision only increasing, bringing new innovation possibilities Knight realized the ways in which, conversely, biology —and new opportunity—to everyone. could bene昀椀t from engineering principles, like using modularization and abstraction to build biological 243 It’s a wide-ranging imperative, but already there are systems. And indeed this approach has expedited Advances in a few key domains where the science-technology the growth of synthetic biology—a 昀椀eld now poised rocket and satellite feedback loop is having great impact and where to disrupt materials and manufacturing as we know businesses can start to focus their innovation efforts. them today. technologies are also rede‹ning the space One such area is synthetic biology, and its origin is Besides the emergent 昀椀eld of synthetic biology, other economy, enabling a prime example of just how powerful the science- notable domains are also seeing major advances more science from the science-technology feedback loop. For technology feedback loop can be. Tom Knight is considered the godfather of synthetic biology, but instance, next-generation computing methods, experiments in space 242 he began as a computer scientist. While designing enabled by the combination of increased computing labs, as well as the one of the 昀椀rst silicon retinas for his PhD, he began power and new capabilities inspired by science, are study of deep space investigating Moore’s Law, or the observation that starting to unlock new scienti昀椀c possibilities in areas and Earth itself. the number of transistors on an integrated circuit like computational chemistry for new materials and doubles every two years, making compute power energy solutions. Advances in rocket and satellite grow exponentially. He saw that eventually Moore’s technologies are also rede昀椀ning the space economy, Law would come to an end—because transistors enabling more science experiments in space labs, as would be so small that placing a dozen or so well as the study of deep space and Earth itself. atoms correctly would be impossible in the silicon manufacturing process. This was what led Knight to biochemistry, because he recognized that if proteins naturally and accurately self-assemble, perhaps the right bio-molecules could too. At the same time,