Limit`s of DIYBio?

[Arnold]

I want to begin by saying, I'm loving the whole Idea of DIYbio. I found out about it, maybe 2 years ago

but didn't really start looking at it seriously until about maybe 2 weeks ago(most likely because

I didn't start pcr  and splicing until recently). However, since then Ive spent many sleepless night`s 

burning the midnight oil, reading any and every article I could possibly find dedicated to it. And here

I am 2 weeks later, here to say, I think I read everything having to do with DIYbio available online. 

I can share my bookmark list to anyone interested in my claim. Is there some news source 

available that`s more extensive than this google group? 

[Josiah Zayner]

How to become a Hacker Scientist

Go to school. If you have any amount of time and energy take college courses in Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Math. Sitting in college classes and doing the work and taking the tests forces you to learn. I have never found a better way to learn. Online courses can help. But don't stop at just classes. You should be devouring every scientific book you can find. Old copies of Molecular Biology of the Cell by Alberts or Biochemistry by Lehninger or Physical Chemistry by Atkins. If you are in a school that has research find a Professor to work for to learn basic molecular biology skills or find a Biohackerspace like Biocurious.
Hopefully in the process of taking classes you are teaching yourself programming. Start with C and Python these will help when you want to build your own equipment and do microcontroller programming. Start collecting equipment off of ebay or at government auctions. Buy a PCR machine and a microcentrifuge and things needed for a basic molecular biology lab setup. Start learning bioinformatics and how to use NCBI databases. You should understand how to visualize 3D protein structures from the Protein Databank and how to perform basic molecular dynamics. If you don't know all 20 amino acids and their chemical structures you SHOULD!
Hopefully you have gained access to scientific papers through a local university or library and are up to date on current research in a area of interest to you. Work on something simple but beneficial to start out with such as random or directed mutagenesis of an enzyme to function at a different temperature or have a higher rate of catalysis. Use molecular dynamics and ancestry determined from BLAST to engineer something better.
If you aren't in grad school by now learn to write a scientific paper or work with a Professor at your University and submit the paper to an Open Access journal such as PLoS One and ask them to waive the publication fee. Contact a Professor and tell him about your publication and see if he would be willing to collaborate. You still have a long ways to go but you should be fairly developed and on your way to becoming a true citizen scientist by this point. Don't kid yourself though, this won't happen in weeks or even months. This takes years and years. Studying every day and every night. Skipping parties and ignoring friends. The fun you will have and the things you will learn however will be priceless.

[Arnold]

"Go to school. If you have any amount of time and energy take college courses in Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Math. "

My Google plus name is Arnold B.S Bio. I'm not sure if when I post on here, whether or not that is transparent,

but I named myself , with my credentials only so that I can start posting and replying with the collective

understanding of my level of knowledge in the field.

" You still have a long ways to go but you should be fairly developed and on your way to becoming a true citizen scientist by this point. Don't kid yourself though, this won't happen in weeks or even months. This takes years and years. Studying every day and every night."

Quite the contrary, if you want to be technical. DIYBio is a relatively new field, approx. 3 years old since it`s  

first appearances in the public eye. This field is still in it`s infancy and no one, can be said 

to have spent any longer in this particular field. Imagine this example: A "Noob" asking a "Vet", how long have you been a citizen scientist, and the "Vet" responding 2 years; the "Vet" asking the same question to the "Noob" and he/she responding, 6 months. If you clearly look at the situation, the Vet only has a full year on the Noob, and 

truthfully that year was spent in the confines of forums still in it`s infancy (being that the field is only 3 years old.)

Hardly, a laudable claim. "Would you let a 2 year old babysit a 1 year old?"

A better measure of "seniority" or "true" status would be,  "gravity" -  the impact of the works or devices published, in 

this particular situation.  

I thank you for reading this post, which means that I did a good job titling my subject - in terms of raising curiosity.

However, the reply was more condescending than insightftul.

 

In my original post, in a very crass way i'm looking for people to agree (In a constructive and insightful way) that this particular field - not molecular biology, not biotechnology, not physical or organic chemistry, not genetics - needs to proliferate in terms of it`s OWN knowledge base. Because even though this field's foundations are based

in the latter, the highlight of DIYbio is that it is done by CITIZENS and WITHIN A NON TRADITIONAL LAB SETTING -

Which definitively places it in it`s own stratosphere.

 Anybody have any thought`s about the limit`s of DIYbio specific information and does anyone here know if there are  

any current public effort`s to extend DIYbio's information base beyond this google group? (this group seems to be the only place left where I seem to be able to find information that is current)

I also would like to thank you for even responding, I read your response and I know for a fact you could potentially

be a great person to team up with on a project. 

[Nathan McCorkle]

On Mon, Jan 7, 2013 at 4:21 PM, Arnold <arnold...@gmail.com> wrote:
> "Go to school. If you have any amount of time and energy take college
> courses in Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Math. "
>
> My Google plus name is Arnold B.S Bio. I'm not sure if when I post on here,
> whether or not that is transparent,
> but I named myself , with my credentials only so that I can start posting
> and replying with the collective
> understanding of my level of knowledge in the field.

You show up as Arnold or arnold...@gmail.com

You said in your first post you didn't start doing PCR or splicing til
recently... are you in your first year of bio B.S.? Sorry to ask but
it isn't apparent as my first bio B.S. course we did PCR and
sequencing.

>
> " You still have a long ways to go but you should be fairly developed and on
> your way to becoming a true citizen scientist by this point. Don't kid
> yourself though, this won't happen in weeks or even months. This takes years
> and years. Studying every day and every night."
>
> Quite the contrary, if you want to be technical. DIYBio is a relatively new
> field, approx. 3 years old since it`s
> first appearances in the public eye.

Actually ~10 years according to this
http://diyhpl.us/wiki/diybio/faq/news/

--
-Nathan

[Bryan Bishop]

On Mon, Jan 7, 2013 at 6:21 PM, Arnold <arnold...@gmail.com> wrote:
> any current public effort`s to extend DIYbio's information base beyond this
> google group? (this group seems to be the only place left where I seem to be
> able to find information that is current)

I wonder if my emails are being filtered at this point.

you're looking for http://diyhpl.us/wiki/diybio/faq and
http://diyhpl.us/wiki/diybio/groups

- Bryan
http://heybryan.org/
1 512 203 0507

[Arnold]

>You show up as Arnold or arnold...@gmail.com 

>You said in your first post you didn't start doing PCR or splicing til 
>recently... are you in your first year of bio B.S.? Sorry to ask but 
>it isn't apparent as my first bio B.S. course we did PCR and 
>sequencing.

 
Im currently an upper level senior, I started sequencing about 3 semesters ago in my lower level junior semester , in Molecular Biology. In my school, General Biology 1 and 2, Genetics, General Chem 1 and 2, Calculus 1

and Organic Chem 1 are all pre-requisites before Molecular Biology. And in none of those courses are there

any labs about sequencing, Which is why I didn't start sequencing until recently.

Also, thankyou for the link, That`s exactly what I was looking for.  :) 

[Nathan McCorkle]

Have you checked out genspace yet? I just moved out of NYC... :/

> --
> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> DIYbio group. To post to this group, send email to diy...@googlegroups.com.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> diybio+un...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at
> https://groups.google.com/d/forum/diybio?hl=en
> Learn more at www.diybio.org
> ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "DIYbio" group.
> To post to this group, send email to diy...@googlegroups.com.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> diybio+un...@googlegroups.com.
> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/diybio?hl=en.
> To view this discussion on the web visit
> https://groups.google.com/d/msg/diybio/-/04TVedx-qs0J.
>
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
>
>



--
-Nathan

[Dakota Hamill]

Well I think the only limits that can be set in any endeavor in life are the ones that you yourself set.  In science, very many things have been achieved with very little equipment.  So many great men and woman have done so much with so little.  The question is....how bad do you want it?  How hard are you willing to work for it?  

Some days I feel like I could conquer the scientific world , and other days I get depressed because I don't have an LCMS at my disposal.  Some things may not be feasible but, there is still a lot of good science you can do with very little.

I'd say focus on what is achievable with what is at hand, because you could spend a lifetime lamenting what you don't have.