Molecularist

Back in 2004 I was flying all over the place, promoting blogging. It was the year The Blogger entered the public eye, came out in magazines, built empires. One of the great debates was the clash between Main Stream Media (MSM) – the newspapers, publishing houses, and TV stations – versus the citizen journalist, the bedroom blogger, the unwashed masses of online writers.

MSM, of course, said that bloggers were not accurate, were not honest, were temporary, that only MSM was the font of Truth and quality information. Well, so much has happened since then. I feel there is still a place for professional journalism, but blogs have settled into their niches, providing a "long tail" (there I said it) of content of varying quality and scope. And, well, blogs today aren't the same as blogs 5 years ago, in the end, they are still just an online publication.

But watching the style and aspirations of the DIYbio crowd reminds me of those days. It seems that the friction between DIYbio types and Main Stream Scientists – the labs and institutes – hovers around the same issues as in the day of blogger vs. MSM.

And I think the change will be just as profound and the outcome just as mundane.

Image taken from Six Apart's post

iGEM for me was the first time I got to meet folks in the DIYbio "movement." The DIYbio folks from NYC and Boston had a meeting the first night to discuss where things were going. They all knew each other and had collaborated in some areas.

It was nice to see the easy flow of ideas and decisions. As with iGEM, this group is in a very early stage. But already some things are becoming clear as to what it's going to take to keep growing.

One more thing (and I might be inviting a flame war): there is clearly some friction between the iGEM folks and the DIYbio folks. Part of this resides in prejudices towards amateur biologists (unfounded), part in worries about safety (well founded), part in the small difference in culture.

DIY home base
One of the things that happened is that iGEM required teams to be affiliated with an institution. That was a way to ensure safety concerns (indeed, the FBI was a sponsor of the Jamboree, go figure). Independently, the DIYbio groups in Boston and NYC (and I) realized that, while it would be nice to actually do kitchen biology, groups need some sort of entity with which they can buy supplies, teach safety and techniques, and, of course, enter into iGEM.

I'm all for it. In the past months, reading and following and talking to DIYbio folks, my thoughts on hack-spaces has evolved to include more than just a bench, but also seminars, safety certification, mini-grants, and even a store (check out Pearl Biotech).

I was also glad to finally meet Mac, one of the leaders in DIYbio. He's recently purchased a lab trailer, full of equipment. He's now looking for space (too bad my ample backyard is so far from town). His goal is to build this out as a hack-space, also hoping to mix novice and experience biologists, to get some culture and skills transfer.

That's super. I look forward to getting more involved. Mac has a ton of projects in mind and could use some help. And I want to learn from the DIYbio NYC folks who recently formed a non-profit and are acquiring space so that they can get out of their living rooms and get a nice space to play around in.

This is going to be fun.

And here's a video of the folks at the meeting: