DIY going mainstream! Biopunk book review
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Randy
Apr 25, 2011, 9:21:30 AM4/25/11
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I haven't read this book yet, but I certainly will. It's called "Biopunk - DIY Scientists Hack the Software of Life", by Marcus Wohlsen. Here's a link to the review.
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/37444/page1/
"And yet, writes Wohlsen, the biohackers have yet to produce any truly novel results, and he isn't convinced that they will. "They are not about to cure cancer when an eleven-thousand-employee, $80 billion company like Genentech has so far failed. They are not going to unleash the world's first artificial amoeba tomorrow or graft wings onto house cats," he writes. "The real significance of DIY biotechnologists might lie not in any particular technological achievement but in the provocative questions they raise.""
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/37444/page1/
"And yet, writes Wohlsen, the biohackers have yet to produce any truly novel results, and he isn't convinced that they will. "They are not about to cure cancer when an eleven-thousand-employee, $80 billion company like Genentech has so far failed. They are not going to unleash the world's first artificial amoeba tomorrow or graft wings onto house cats," he writes. "The real significance of DIY biotechnologists might lie not in any particular technological achievement but in the provocative questions they raise.""
Randy
Apr 30, 2011, 8:14:10 PM4/30/11
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I just finished reading "Biopunk" on my Kindle, and it left me with
mixed feelings. The book is a documentary of sorts, spanning most of
the areas and characters associated with DIYbio, with a few notable
exceptions. As I was reading I kept waiting to hear about Rob Carlson,
or at least find a reference to his book, "Biology is Technology", but
no such luck. Computational biology was almost totally ignored. Aside
from the omissions I think the book does a good job of capturing the
spectrum of DIYbio, from synthetic biology and IGEM, to bio-art.
If you subscribe to the DIYbio mailing list then you'll be familiar with the cast of characters, and it's really the stories behind the people and their projects that are the heart of the book, rather than the science itself. Some of the stories are quite inspirational, in that they make the idea of starting something in the garage seem a little less crazy. Some of the stories have just enough information to pique one's interest, but not enough information to satisfy it. For instance, I would have liked to have heard more about Bryan Bishop, whose prolific posts on the DIYbio message boards lead me to believe he is the epitome of a biopunk.
In summary, I think a few years will have to pass, and the DIYbio movement will have to produce some dramatic achievements before there will be wide interest in reading this book. In the meantime, if you haven't already read "Biology is Technology" by Rob Carlson, I would recommend reading that book first.
If you subscribe to the DIYbio mailing list then you'll be familiar with the cast of characters, and it's really the stories behind the people and their projects that are the heart of the book, rather than the science itself. Some of the stories are quite inspirational, in that they make the idea of starting something in the garage seem a little less crazy. Some of the stories have just enough information to pique one's interest, but not enough information to satisfy it. For instance, I would have liked to have heard more about Bryan Bishop, whose prolific posts on the DIYbio message boards lead me to believe he is the epitome of a biopunk.
In summary, I think a few years will have to pass, and the DIYbio movement will have to produce some dramatic achievements before there will be wide interest in reading this book. In the meantime, if you haven't already read "Biology is Technology" by Rob Carlson, I would recommend reading that book first.
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