I clicked over halfway through Horizon: Playing God on BBC2. There was less of the playing God, and more of the streetwise science/kitchen science/bucket science, whatever you want to call it.
A few minutes after being introduced to Synthetic Biology we’re into pop-up labs and biohackers. Man! What I wouldn’t have given for that when I was in school! When I started on the science-path; it was all degrees and PhDs; something I’ve lurked around the edges of and finally shied away from. I’m finishing my degree purely to punch through that pain barrier and prove to myself that even this dumbass can handle it.
The whole show takes me back to the days I only read of when scienctists turn author and tell their anecdotes of the nights in the school lab, building kit-cars and having a garage filled with bits and pieces that they hack together, turning childhood curiousity into scientific discovery and invention.
I wish I’d been born fifty years earlier or twenty years late. Although it seems, from what I read, that biohacking isn’t really all that new…
You can read more here:
http://biocurious.org/
Bedroom Biotech
Genome at Home
Dawn of the BioHackers
Whilst exciting there are risks and concerns that we’re moving too fast. However, the microchip revolution moved quickly, there are always conerns, naysayers and worrywarts and yet, its rarely allowed to significantly delay the next bit revolution. So is synthetic biology playing the role of a god? Or is it simply another tool that humanity can use for any purpose it sets its mind to?
