Dezeen Magazine

Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg book competition

Competition: five Synthetic Aesthetics books to be won

Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg book competition

Competition: Dezeen has teamed up with publishers MIT Press to offer readers the chance to win one of five copies of a new book about developments in synthetic biology, by researchers including Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg.

Congratulations to the winners! Insiya Husain in UAE, Nathan Sanders in the UK, Renate Gerets in Belgium, Paul Geoghegan in the Republic of Ireland and Bruno Peris Vila in The Netherlands.

Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg book competition
Human Cheese Making 2: Bottles. Photograph by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, 2010

Synthetic Aesthetics explains the emerging discipline of synthetic biology, which looks at adapting natural organisms and processes to create new products, materials and even lifeforms.

Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg book competition
Oscillatoria sp. Photograph by Hideo Iwasaki, 2012

The first few chapters introduce the science, followed by examples of collaborative projects between artists, designers and biologists - a mix of speculative ideas and realised creations.

Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg book competition
The Synthetic Kingdom: Carbon Monoxide Detecting Lung Tumour by Daisy, 2009. Photograph by Carole Suety

These include a proposal by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg to develop bacteria to excrete brightly coloured pigments that colour your poo when they detect disease inside your body, and samples of human cheese created by Christina Agapakis and Sissel Tolaas.

Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg book competition
Microbial Diversity. Photograph by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, 2010

Synthetic Aesthetics is written by experts in the field: Ginsberg, Jane Calvert, Pablo Schyfter, Alistair Elfick and Drew Endy.

Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg book competition
E.chromi: The Scatalog by Daisy and James King with University of Cambridge iGEM Team, 2009. Photograph by Asa Johannesson

Published by MIT Press, the book will launch on 25 April to coincide with an evening programme of talks, installations and workshops at London's V&A museum, from 6:30-10pm - more details here.

This competition is now closed. Five winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Winners' names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeen Mail newsletter and at the top of this page. Dezeen competitions are international and entries are accepted from readers in any country.