Amateurs are trying genetic engineering at home

Enlarge

Meredith L. Patterson, a computer programmer by day, conducts an experiment in the dining room of her San Francisco apartment on Thursday, Dec. 18, 2008. Patterson is among a new breed of techno rebels who want to put genetic engineering tools in the hands of anyone with a smart idea. Using homemade lab equipment and the wealth of scientific knowledge available online, these hobbyists are trying to create new life forms through genetic engineering - a field long dominated by Ph.D.s toiling in university and corporate laboratories. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

(AP) -- The Apple computer was invented in a garage. Same with the Google search engine. Now, tinkerers are working at home with the basic building blocks of life itself.

Similar stories from PHYSorg:

Google glitch disrupts search engine, e-mail

May 14, 2009 | 2.5 / 5 (2) | 2

Google unfazed by 3 US government inquiries

Jun 11, 2009 | 4 / 5 (3) | 0

Google to step up anti-porn efforts in China

Jun 19, 2009 | 2.5 / 5 (2) | 1

New Web tool WolframAlpha launches test run

May 16, 2009 | 3.9 / 5 (8) | 13

Search website offers a visual alternative

Jan 07, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (3) | 0

   

• rank
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

4.6/5 after 13 votes

• Szkeptik - Dec 26, 2008
  • Current rank
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Rank: 3.3 / 5 (3)
  • rate
  It has two sides.
  
  It really is a good thing that people are interested and want to try create new and useful stuff. But fooling around in molecular genetics can really be dangerous for a lay person without any formal education.
  
  For example in an electrophoresis chamber you have to use Ethidium-Bromide if you want to see the DNA, and that is a serious mutagene and carcinogene. Not to mention you also need a far-UV lamp to illuminate it and that's also dangerous without the protection.
  
  It's of course impossible to create a deadly plague by arbitrary accident, so it looks like they managed to find a treehugger luddite as a critic.
  • flag
• rfw - Dec 26, 2008
  • Current rank
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Rank: 4 / 5 (5)
  • rate
  Hey in the early '60's my friends & I built a 3mev linear accelerator in a 2-car garage. SLAC donated 40 tons of concrete radiation shielding so we could turn it on safely. We had sufficient beam current to separate Uranium isotopes but were never in any of the dangers imaginable by the "treehugger luddite" who wrote the above article. Our Amateur Research Center was very active, sponsoring many amateur scientists. These activities are to be celebrated and encouraged, not subjected to shallow treatment by irresponsible fear-mongering reporters.
  • flag
• Yes - Dec 26, 2008
  • Current rank
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Rank: 2.7 / 5 (3)
  • rate
  Like networks.
  I remember back in the 80's the first dedicated PhD, running around the university connecting the computers in a network.
  The PhD was eventually replaced by an engineer, who was then replaced by a very high paid technician. Now it is a low paid low schooled technician who does this job, and lately I saw a Shiakira add with a router on her back saying "Shall I install your network sir?"
  
  
  • flag
• hudres - Dec 26, 2008
  • Current rank
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Rank: 2 / 5 (4)
  • rate
  This is the height of lunacy. The risks of an accident are significant and once unleashed, could have disasterous consequences. This is no place for "oops"
  • flag
• light_echo123 - Dec 26, 2008
  • Current rank
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Rank: 3.5 / 5 (2)
  • rate
  There are certain things that can be called Singularity factors. The computer would be one. And this another. The computer was inevitable and it leads us down the path (or perhaps makes the path easier to follow) to this. These are steps in our evolution. We will move to a combination of genetic engineering and replacement or augmented body parts soon enough. The tell-tale signs are everywhere. It is inherent in us as a species to desire to live forever (however you define it) and we will succeed eventually. Here's another inevitability: we will overpopulate our planet and will have to move on. If we figure out something to prevent this, or we simply kill ourselves off, eventually our sun will die out and we'll have to move on anyways. Look what we have done in the last 100 years... to ponder the next 100 years is almost impossible. Orions Arm is a fun little look exorcise in this for those of you interested (actually not so little at all).
  • flag
• abadaba - Dec 27, 2008
  • Current rank
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Rank: 4.5 / 5 (4)
  • rate
  Terrible idea. If they were such "bio-innovators", they would have excelled in the field in college and would have the necessary tools at their disposal because they'd be working in a lab, the thing that was designed specifically for doing this kind of work safely in a contained, controlled environment. These people are loony and scare me. Anyone who knew enough to safely do things like this would know not to do things like this in their home. period.
  • flag
• Yes - Dec 27, 2008
  • Current rank
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Rank: 3 / 5 (1)
  • rate

  If they were such "bio-innovators", they would have excelled in the field in college and would have the necessary tools at their disposal because they'd be working in a lab.

  
  You are quite ignorant.
  The best horseman is always on his feet.
  I guess many good and bad stuff will keep coming out of the garage, as happened many times in history.
  • flag
• joneil - Dec 27, 2008
  • Current rank
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
  • rate
  The wright brother's weren't experts in airplanes, and look where they got us.
  • flag
• superhuman - Dec 28, 2008
  • Current rank
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
  • rate
  It's good they want to contribute something and it shouldn't be considered a threat as the risk they pose is minimal. The chances of them coming up with anything worthwhile without access to proper lab equipment are very slim. It's not electrical engineering where things work as expected, in molecular biology things almost never work as expected, of course failed attmepts are rarely if ever reported in publications so you can easily get the wrong impression that it's all so easy.
  
  The chances of amateurs producing a killer organism are practically zero, if at all such organism is much more likely to emerge from a proper lab where infectious agents are worked on.
  In the worst case they might poison themselves or their family, let a (harmless in 99.99% cases) GMO escape or dump toxic materials into the environment.
  
  The talk about creating a cure for cancer or vaccines is also completely unrealistic, to even start thinking about such work you need to have access to disease models which means either breeding live animals or cell lines, both options are inaccessible to amateurs. What they might succeed at is making various organisms glow, as that's relatively easy.
  
  People who are seriously interested in molecular biology should consider a formal education in this field, with access to proper lab equipment and training you are much more likely to come up with something worthwhile.
  
  

  freezer, scored for free off Craigslist, that drops to 80 degrees below zero, the temperature needed to keep many kinds of bacteria alive.

  
  
  Lol, all bacteria are much more alive above zero then below. Temperatures of -80C are used to store them frozen for long periods of time.
  • flag
• E_L_Earnhardt - Dec 28, 2008
  • Current rank
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Rank: not rated yet
  • rate
  Physicists seem not allowed to work on cancer, so I inflicted little fish with tumors in tanks on my back porch. Then I cured them in the same way by reversing the process. No chemicals! Research labs, (chemists), will not even answer my letters!
  • flag