Posts from the ‘Weekly News’ Category
Welcome to the last days of summer, everybody! Let’s all put away our white pants, pour a whiskey, and get ready for fall. Here’s the news!
Hello world: Duquesne will open a community lab this fall
Pittsburgh’s first community lab is opening soon. The wet lab and other resources will be available to students of the school, as well as middle and high schoolers; local businesses will also be able to take advantage. Building begins right about now.
The school is partnering with Urban Innovation 21, a group that supports economic development in Pittsburgh, to build the lab.
Food hacking at German hacker party
Every year, the Chaos Computer Club in Hamburg, Germany, throws a four-day party between Christmas and New Years. This year, DIYBio-er Frantisek Apfelbeck is organizing a small bio lab to do food and drink experiments as part of the Food Hacking Base Group. If you’re interested, drop him a line here.
Deadline for submissions is Sept 14, so get in touch before then!
3D printing survey
The Peer to Peer Foundation is conducting a survey among communities that use 3D printing. The data will be open source (though your answers will be anonymous) so if you’re interested head right this way. Should take you about five minutes.
“Is BioGlow being realistic?”
Idealistic glowing plant start-up BioGlow has big plans, including replacing some types of lighting with bioluminescent plants. Some tech writers say that the numbers don’t add up to that being a feasible plan. The DIYBio listserv discussed the possibilities this week, and seem to have left off with a ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Have your own opinion? Send it to the list!
Vote for LA Biohackers to win a $100,000 giveaway!
LA Biohackers are in the running for a grant from the Goldhirsh Foundation. You can vote for them here; they’re looking to get a new space, new equipment, and expand their class offerings. You’ll have to sign up, but there’s no money involved on your end!
Here’s a quote from their grant application:
While kids of the past may have tinkered with Lego or Erector Set, kids of today tinker with electronics. As a result of the miniaturization and decreasing cost of manufacturing, electronics today are more accessible to people of all ages than ever before. Kids at the LA Makerspace (and makerspaces around the world) build robots, design and solder their own electronics, and program computers as a form of entertainment.
Biotech is currently undergoing the same revolution in price and accessibility. While practicing biotech as a hobby is not quite as affordable as electronics, progress is being made and lots of young people are getting involved. We envision a future where kids in LA are just as likely to pick up a pipette as they are a soldering iron. Playing with biology will be as common place as playing with electronics.
LA Biohackers will make this dream a reality before 2050 by getting young people access to laboratory space and advanced biotech equipment in addition to knowledge and guidance. We are currently making this happen but with help we can expand our breadth and scope to include more people of all ages.
Biohackers in the Economist
The Economist, always at the forefront of news and views, has written an article excitedly noting the existence of DIYBio. They’ve tapped some favorites – Ellen Jorgensen, Markus Schmidt, Rob Carlson, and our very own Jason Bobe all get a word in edgewise.
Hi everybody! Hope you’re enjoying the dog days of summer.
Photo via Panoramio
Croatian hacker sleep-away camp
Croatian hackerspace Zagreb Makerspace is throwing a sleepaway camp in Deringaj – take a look at the map here, there’s a castle (pictured right) and a river, it looks gorgeous! If you’re in Croatia between August 19 and 24, you should absolutely go and report back.
From Deborah Hustic, who you can email for details here:
If anyone is having currently a trip or holidays on the Croatian coast, pls, stop-by, you need a tent, sleeping bad, maybe a solar shower, but there is a river near, and some combination of clothing for hot days and slightly coldish nights. For food we organized a kiosk / mini bar with BIO food with prices around 5, 6 euros for full lunch and cheaper snacks.
White paper stirs up the list
Some biohackers at Camp Pixelache in Helinski had a long chat about creative commons as it applies to biology, and write a white paper about it. You can read the abstract here, and the rest is on GitHub.
Over the past few days there’s been a pretty intense discussion about it, so if you have anything to say, head on over and join the party.
Reminder about Ask a Biosafety Expert
Our inbox at ABSE is looking a little quiet, so here’s a reminder: any pressing questions you have about lab safety, please drop us a line!
That’s it everybody – I’m off to the mountains for the weekend, but I’ll see you in a few days!
Hi everybody – sorry to say, but we’re starting off on a sad note this week.
Stem cell researcher commits suicide
Japanese researcher Yoshiki Sasai hung himself on Tuesday, a few months after two papers he supervised were retracted from Nature. The two papers claimed that dipping cells in acid for half an hour would revert them to stem cells. Many labs, including biohacker labs, tried the method and failed to recreate the results. The journal took note and pulled the papers. Though Sasai was cleared of misconduct by his school, his suicide note indicated he felt responsible for the work he supervised.
Retraction Watch has a meditation on media coverage surrounding retractions, and what it means for scientists on a personal level, if you’re interested in reading more.
NIH runs a 3D printing exchange
The National Institutes for Health runs a database of 3D printing designs, including art, educational models, and lab gear. The site also boasts a section full of tutorials to help people learn about the technology, and a discussion forum, to encourage conversations with users (although not a lot of people have taken them up on that yet).
The other major database of 3D models, Thingverse, is much larger, but doesn’t have the same focus on biology.
DARPA is funding synbio research
The defense agency has an odd relationship with hackers, awarding grants to hackerspaces and other non-academic groups. DARPA has just announced it will be funding synthetic bio research as part of its Biological Robustness in Complex Settings program. However, it’s unclear if the program will apply to independent researchers or community labs.
DIYBio works pretty well with the government, including holding joint meetings with the FBI. So it might be nice for biohackers to get a little green from the Man. If you look into this further, let us know what you find out.
Get in touch via Twitter or email with anything you hope I’ll cover next week. See you soon!
DIYbio 