DIY Bio Los Angeles – Workshop, Fe... DIYBio brand petri dishes! We had our first DIYBio workshop in Broad Hall on the UCLA Campus over the weekend. The student community from both north and south campus were involved, which included art and science/math majors. Romie Littrell started things off with a short presentation on the concept and history of DIYBio. His talk kicked off discussion focusing on the safety and security of biotechnology that is open to the public. Romie (middle, blue) presents to DIYBio attendees. Big discussion on safety and terrorism issues of biotechnology The highlight of the workshop...

Free electron microscopy... ASPEX is a company that builds tabletop Scanning Electron Microscopes (tabletop SEMs). To promote their product, they are offering free scanning of samples to the world at large. Rendering of ASPEX's tabletop scanning electron microscope. You can see a gallery of some of the scans they have made on their website. My favorite sample is an old stir bar some folks from chemistry-blog.com sent in. The SEM can also use x-ray fluorescence (a byproduct of electron bombardment) from the samples for elemental composition analysis (called EDS or XFR) – in the case of the stir...

DIYBio is in Los Angeles... Los Angeles DIYbio Mission Statement Found a publically accessible biological laboratoratory to act as a physical and informational resource for the community on the techniques to safely experiment and play Conduct outreach to attract others outside our field: artists, kids, “the curious”

DNA Discovery in Middle School... Hi all, Thought I would share a DonorsChoose.org biology project that I donated to back in December — Our Ancestors’ DNA Roots “I teach middle school math science and history for beginning ESL students. My students originate from all parts of the globe including Sudan, Peru, Mexico, Korea, and Japan. 80% of my students receive free or reduced lunches. Students often see subjects such as history and science as unrelated. In the community where my students live they often do not see the practical application of scientific methods in the work force. Additionally,...

Outlaw Biology at UCLA Symposium... This cowboy hat is acid-proof and recommended diybio safety-wear. Chris Kelty just kicked out the Outlaw Biology Symposium here at the N(c)SI center at UCLA. “Outlaw is not the same thing as criminal,” he said. Marcus Wohlson and I live-blogged it here, with help from Charles Fracchia. There is a live stream. Some of us are taking living notes here: http://ietherpad.com/ZxNM3bq5zh Photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/macowell/sets/72157623185479749/. Panelists Each panelist gets 2 slides. Starting w/ Jason Bobe’s 2nd, I’ll try to take a...

Rob Carlson discusses DIYbio and Open So... Rob Carlson on synthetic biology: THE ECONOMIST Rob Carlson states: innovators are necessary to create solutions to pressing problems – and these innovators often work with or come from interest groups such as DIYbio. The Economist: “You can do a lot in your garage – A professor of biosynthesis on DIYbio / open-source biology, buying DNA online and the problem with patents” Rob Carlson on synthetic biology

Support the Public Library of Science (P... Many of us in the DIY realm rely on the open publications of the Public Library of Science at plos.org. You may feel surprised to know that PLoS has web icons which you can display on your own web page!  Check it out, make your science blog or web notebooks “PLoS inside” to raise awareness of their efforts.  Here’s how:

DNA explorers at NYC high school... Great work by 2 DNA explorers — it seems high school students are kicking ass all over the place, first in sushi, now this! Check out this big DNA species identification project, about 200 samples from around the neighborhood and lots of cool findings. Even one that suggests they found a new species of cockroach! From their website: “We identified 95 different animal species.” You probably wouldn’t believe me if I told you that all of the species displayed above were found in local supermarkets and homes in New York City. A feather from a duster yielded...

DIY Centrifuge using Dremel Tool... Cathal has designed a simple centrifuge using open source hardware technology, and you can order one yourself!  (For use as entertainment purposes only, of course; wouldn’t want anyone to save nearly a thousand dollars by not buying real centrifuge now would we?) Dremelfuge is a rotor designed to fit standard lab microcentrifuge tubes and miniprep/purification columns, to be spun by either a powerdrill or other chuck-loading machine or by a popular rotary tool. Dremelfuge features an easy click-in loading system which holds tubes parallel to the plane of rotation for...

Do-it-yourself biology on the rise ̵... Do-it-yourself biology on the rise - 20 Dec 2009 - SF Chronicle (pdf) SF Chronicle reporter Juliane Guthrie interviews Tito Jankowski, Phil Ross, Jason Bobe, and Raymond McCauley about the DIYbio projects they are working on. They also interviewed Drew Endy about safety and regulatory concerns.  The article is online at SFgate.com. One of the article’s main thrusts is concerned with safety and regulation, or the lack thereof. I know diybio-nyc has been thinking about it and is organizing a round-table in a month or so, and I’ve been throwing a couple of ideas...