SabrinaB Posted September 12, 2013 Posted September 12, 2013 I recently read some articles about scientist conducting their own experiments in a garage or working together in a community to create a lab that is more open to people than government and university labs. See http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/34469/title/Biology-Hacklabs/ http://www.nature.com/embor/journal/v10/n7/full/embor2009145.html http://diybio.org/ As a government contractor who is getting sick of the bureaucracy stopping me from actual science that I enjoy, I find this article to be a smal ray of hope for the field I love. I think that this could really help the growth of science as a field and bring along new discoveries and inovation. I also could see it as an example of how science could function in a free society. Has anyone else heard anything about this? Thoughts?
Nathan H. Hoffner Posted September 12, 2013 Posted September 12, 2013 Hello! I've heard of biohacking... Dr. Jack Kruse has done some very interesting experiments on himself (and subsequently his patients) http://www.jackkruse.com/
Just Posted September 14, 2013 Posted September 14, 2013 Very cool topic. As an employee and graduate of life sciences - its something I hold near and dear. As you know, start-up costs in biology are immense, just overwhelmingly huge when you look at costs of even benchtop, small-scale equipment. Hurdles in a free society, IMO, will be analogous to what we have in front of us today. Money: If an investor puts their capital into anything with a moderate risk, they're going to want moderate returns. That noted, R&D funding will always be a tough sale for a scientist/engineer without a track-record. Apprenticeships are a neccessary start. Safety: The bureaucratic biosafety levels are pretty damn strict at even the lower echelons, e.g., negative pressure rooms, containment and waste-handling, etc. In a world with a legitimate sense of community, these will be self-evident - no one wants to expose friends to undue risk. My beacon of hope for at home science nerds is the rise of all the open-source software in biology. Anyone who has ever used PyMOL, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PyMOL - a 3d protein structure software, must have a huge respect for folks who dedicate their time to help others learn. The next step is just getting the hardware. How cool would it be to have community-based science groups who can pitch in for a PCR set-up to make point mutations to check for new activity in drugs/protein etc?
Christopherscience Posted August 3, 2014 Posted August 3, 2014 I've heard of a few labs that are pay-per-use or community projects (that you have to write a proposal to schedule some time). Some companies own a lab but contract out staffing. Personally, I find a lot of use in ebay and govdeals and other auction areas (occasionally craigslist, even) where one can buy cheap, used equipment. Fixing the equipment that you use can be an educational experience (be sure to know what you're doing beforehand, though; you don't want to but a flow cytometer with busted lasers and think; oh, I could replace the lasers, no problem... it may cost you more than the machine is worth, especially considering the advances in technology you'd get over an old model). DIY biochemistry is something to look forward to. Nobody said you can't build things yourself, especially build skills on your own or in a community. It's a valuable skill to be able to build a lab up (even piece-meal, although large grants are more... expedient - as you can see, the bureaucracy is proportionally slow, however). All technological advancement begins with an idea, and very often some tinkering in a garage somewhere. That science and technology are anything but DIY/community based is strange. There is a strong argument for getting rich in order to buy larger pieces of equipment, and building consortiums of technologists and industrialists. As technology improves and gets cheaper - you'll see a lot more home-brew labs. Imagine cheaper and cheaper genetic engineering... It's an unstoppable force - it is already getting quite cheap.
Tibor Posted August 17, 2014 Posted August 17, 2014 See sciencemadness.org for a wonderful DIY chemistry forum. It's got biochem and organic sections. I'm a home scientist, but my family's business includes a laboratory. I have an advantage. I'm also a chemist, not so much a biologist, so the costs are lower so long as you avoid most analytical instrumentation. What kinds of things are you looking to get your hands on? I have labware to sell EDIT - I just realized how zombified this thread was. Oh well.
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