Category Archives: From DNA to Beer

Explore some of the processes, problems, and potential inherent in technologies that use life.

Insulin now part of the plasmid is returned to the bacteria. December 09

Partners in Illuminating Science

Circulating Now welcomes guest blogger Aline Lin,  co-founder and principal of Link Studio, an interactive design and medical illustration company.  Aline worked with the Exhibition Program to bring our recent exhibition, From DNA to Beer: Harnessing Nature in Medicine and Industry, to the web. Collaboration with the Exhibition Program at the National Library of Medicine […]

A tray of labeled plastic tubes with snap on caps. May 08

Bacterial Sex: A building block for biotech

Circulating Now welcomes guest bloggers Diane Wendt and Mallory Warner from the Division of Medicine and Science at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History back for a final post in this series. As curators of our recent exhibition, From DNA to Beer: Harnessing Nature in Medicine and Industry, Diane and Mallory spent months researching […]

A human figure is dwarfed by a fanciful mushroom, mold, and bacterial jungle. March 31

The Magic in Mold and Dirt

Circulating Now welcomes guest bloggers Diane Wendt and Mallory Warner from the Division of Medicine and Science at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. As curators of our most recent exhibition, From DNA to Beer: Harnessing Nature in Medicine and Industry, Diane and Mallory spent months researching four different microbes and the influence they’ve […]

A small closed glass jar with a metal cap and it's cardboard box. February 25

Béla Schick and Serum Sickness

Circulating Now welcomes guest bloggers Diane Wendt and Mallory Warner from the Division of Medicine and Science at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. As curators of our most recent exhibition, From DNA to Beer: Harnessing Nature in Medicine and Industry, Diane and Mallory spent months researching four different microbes and the influence they’ve […]

Wooden board reading Magic Yeast January 24

Beer, Yeast, and Louis Pasteur

Circulating Now welcomes guest bloggers Diane Wendt and Mallory Warner from the Division of Medicine and Science at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. As curators of our most recent exhibition, From DNA to Beer: Harnessing Nature in Medicine and Industry, Diane and Mallory spent months researching four different microbes and the influence they’ve […]

A divided wooden box containing syringes, ampules and a metal canister of vaccine. November 19

Vessels, Tubes and Tanks

Diane Wendt spoke today at the National Library of Medicine on “Vessels, Tubes and Tanks: Historic Biotechnologies at the Smithsonian.” Ms. Wendt is cocurator of From DNA to Beer: Harnessing Nature in Medicine and Industry a collaborative exhibition project between the Library and the National Museum of American History now on view at NLM in […]

6951 Penicillin Lab History of Pharmacy featured image November 19

From DNA to Beer: Harnessing Nature in Medicine and Industry

By Erika Mills For some, the word “biotechnology” conjures images like super crops and cloned sheep—things created in a laboratory by manipulating DNA. While many equate biotechnology with genetic engineering and contemporary advancements in science, the practice of using organisms and biological processes as tools to make products like foods and medicines—biotechnology at its core—is […]