Re: [DIYbio] Goals of DIY Bio

[Christopher Pendlebury]

I'd say the goal is that molecular biology should be for everyone, not just a walled garden for academic researchers in big institutions. 

Sent from my iPhone

On 03/02/2013, at 7:48 AM, "Taylor R." <l.tayl...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi all,

I was wondering what opinions people have on the goals of DIY Bio and how they differ throughout the world. I know that from one perspective, there is a certain freedom in not having any goal other than to create and learn from experiments. At the same time, the DIY Bio community strives to move the world forward through sharing information, discoveries, equipment, tools, and much more. A lot of groups also pride themselves in making a conscious effort to reach out to the uninformed public and spark in interest in DIY Bio, especially with kids. I think this is perhaps the most admirable aspect of the whole movement -- thoughts? There aren't really two sides to this conversation, but goals certainly differ from person to person and from location to location. Any comments?

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[Mega]

I'd say people have always wanted to learn new things about nature. Think of the old greek natural philosophers. Aristotle wandering through the fields and wondering what that plant may be the cure for. Or how stuff works. Or how it is formed. Curioity.


Another goal is that we finally are able to do something great, that lasts for a long time. Take creating glowing plants :)

Or smelly bacteria (smelly in the positive sense, such as the banana-odour bacteria from IGEM).

Or insert artemisin genes into a easy-to-cultivate plant to be able to cure malaria cheaply (you potentially could help the less developed contriies with it. That's kind of compassion, just on a higher level than just giving them clean water)


There surely are many good reasons for doing diy bio!

[John Griessen]

On 02/02/2013 02:48 PM, Taylor R. wrote:
> reach out to the uninformed public and spark in interest in DIY Bio, especially with kids. I think this is perhaps the most
> admirable aspect of the whole movement -- thoughts?

I'm more interested in advancing knowledge than teaching young ones what is already known.
Bio knowledge has the greatest potential for improving life -- more than machinery, even
though machinery is what I do...

So, why non-academic bio? That's just where I can do the most -- I like working on small
scale low cost machines for lab work rather than being a team member working on a $60K
system marketed by a sales force... And it will be great fun one day when a collection of little
networked lab machines can snap together to do the equal of one of those $60K systems
in analysis or automated production.

[Taylor R.]

Makes sense. I think that advancing knowledge and teaching/sparking interest in the next generation are equally important. On one hand, advancing knowledge benefits everyone, and ultimately leads to improving life. On the other hand, without the interest and participation of the next generation, who is there to carry on plans, projects, and big, untested ideas? That being said, I think there will always be people who are passionate about DIY Bio, so I guess we shouldn't be too worried about whether or not future generations will pick up where we leave off. That's the beauty of DIY Bio -- the world is changing and advancing moreso now than ever before, and biology/technology/engineering will only become increasingly important in the future.

[Nathan McCorkle]

On Sun, Feb 3, 2013 at 7:36 AM, John Griessen <jo...@industromatic.com> wrote:
> I'm more interested in advancing knowledge than teaching young ones what is
> already known.

I agree this is probably where DIYbio can make the biggest impact. I'm
currently teaching an after-school science class to 2nd and 3rd grade
students, but I'm not sure what they could handle other than a
strawberry DNA extraction, at least as far as hands-on lab activities
go. Maybe if there were only 4 or 5 students vs the 12 I have!


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-Nathan