Academic

THAT?S ?FRAHNKENSTEEN:? In Attics and Closets, ?Biohackers? Discover Their Inner Frankenstein: I?

By Glenn Reynolds

THAT’S “FRAHNKENSTEEN:” In Attics and Closets, ‘Biohackers’ Discover Their Inner Frankenstein:

In Massachusetts, a young woman makes genetically modified E. coli in a closet she converted into a home lab. A part-time DJ in Berkeley, Calif., works in his attic to cultivate viruses extracted from sewage. In Seattle, a grad-school dropout wants to breed algae in a personal biology lab.

These hobbyists represent a growing strain of geekdom known as biohacking, in which do-it-yourselfers tinker with the building blocks of life in the comfort of their own homes. Some of them buy DNA online, then fiddle with it in hopes of curing diseases or finding new biofuels.

But are biohackers a threat to national security?

Read the whole thing.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on May 12, 2009 (boomark / email).