This is another geeky post. I’ve come across a couple of links discussing “do-it-yourself research”. As yesterdays post just discussed, modern medical research is extremely expensive, so how on earth could you do it yourself? Some people are trying to make science cheaper and more accessible so anyone can do it.
What’s all this about? Well, in computing there is a movement called “open source”, this means anyone can write the software and anyone can use it. There are lots of examples of successful open source software. This website is created using something called “wordpress“. If you don’t want to pay for Microsoft Word/Excel/PowerPoint then you could use something called “open office” which has its own word processor, spreadsheet and presentation programs that do a similar (and sometimes better) job than the Microsoft products, plus it’s free! Another open source software that I like is “scribus” which you can use to create print ready pdfs without paying for Quark or Adobe InDesign.
How does this apply to biology? Some people are trying to make “open source” biology equipment that is relatively cheap and open to all. I have some reservations about this, mostly to do with safety and control. To genetically modify things in the lab you need to make sure this is done safely, other people need to check your work and you need to dispose of your waste properly and safely. Open source biology would have none of these checks.
An online magazine called “Make” interviewed some scientists and engineers on what fascinates them, you can see the videos at “Elements of Humanity“. One of the people featured, Mac Cowell has a 4 minute video discussing his website “DIYbio” which encourages people to do experiments in their free time. I’m all for encouraging science, but I did wince when he started handling tubes of E.coli without gloves. The video was a bit juddery and took a while to download so if you don’t have broadband, steer clear but if you want to learn more about open source biology it’s a great place to start.
The DIYbio website led me to Pearl Biotech who make an “affordable” electrophoresis tank for $199. This allows you to study DNA at home (assuming you have a power pack). It is a neat idea as it has a built in illuminator so you can see the DNA move. It uses a chemical to stain DNA called “SYBRsafe”, as the chemicals you would use in the lab (ethidium bromide) are nasty and could cause cancer, not something you want to be using in your kitchen. It reminded me of similar kits available to schools in the UK from the National Centre for Biotechnology Education -e.g. Electrophoresis Base Kit and Nature’s Dice Kit (both of which I’ve used before and are very good).
Of course amateur science is nothing new and has been on the go for hundreds of years, here are some of my favourite amateur biology links, these are mostly for microscopy, see my post “Microscopes in Aberdeenshire” if you are wondering why.
- http://www.amateurmicrography.net/
- Some stunning images of what you can do at home with a microscope and a digital camera.
- http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/index.html
- There is loads of good amateur microscopy stuff here, even if you do have to dig around a bit to find it.
- http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/postalmicsoc/whatpms.html
- The postal microscopy club has been going since 1873, if you are a member they will send you some microscope slides to have a look at, roughly every month.
- http://www.funsci.com/texts/wsites_en.ht
- This is a list of links to other websites, loads to explore here, just to prove that it’s not all about microscopes. I try not to look at it or I don’t get anything else done…
What do you think about open source biology? Is it a good idea? Is it dangerous? Do you want to study DNA in your free time?
If you are more impressed with the images than the text “
