The Biohacking Hobbyist

December 5, 2008

The pushing of complex scientific information beyond the doors of hallowed institutions has been tagged with several modifiers: citizen, amateur, DIY, hobbyist. Call it what you will, but the “democratization of science” is flourishing. Nowhere is this trend arguably more evident than within synthetic biology, a field that applies engineering principles to the study and construction of biological systems. Through collaboration and an open-sourcing of genomic databases, Cowell and others hope that biohacking (with its etymological nod to the self-trained computer-programming movement) will provide nonscientists the opportunity to tinker with living machines. (Seed)